Adani Inexperienced withdraws from controversial renewable vitality mission in Sri Lanka

The Adani Group goes forward with the development of the West Container Terminal on the Colombo port, together with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and conglomerate John Keells Holdings. File
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters

Adani Inexperienced on Wednesday (February 12, 2025) withdrew from a controversial renewable vitality mission in northern Sri Lanka, amid persisting controversy and a authorized battle over its approval and potential environmental influence.

Additionally learn: Beneath the scanner: Adani’s mission in Sri Lanka | Defined

The transfer indicators a big retreat for the Adani Group from its funding outreach in India’s neighbourhood, within the wake of native scrutiny and criticism. The corporate’s withdrawal additionally quantities to a win for Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who vowed to cancel the “corrupt” mission earlier than being elected to the nation’s high workplace in September 2024, though his authorities later expressed willingness to renegotiate it.

In a letter dated February 12, 2025, Adani Inexperienced stated following the Authorities of Sri Lanka’s current appointment of a committee to renegotiate the mission, it determined to “respectfully withdraw from the stated mission”, whereas “totally respecting” the sovereign rights of Sri Lanka and its selections. Citing “protracted discussions” with the Ceylon Electrical energy Board for over two years, on the 484 MW renewable vitality wind farms within the northern cities of Mannar and Pooneryn in Sri Lanka, the corporate stated it the “build-own-operate” mission had envisaged a complete of funding of practically $ 1 billion.

In the meantime, the Adani Group goes forward with the development of the West Container Terminal on the Colombo port, together with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and conglomerate John Keells Holdings.

Adani Inexperienced’s wind farm mission in northern Sri Lanka has remained beneath the scanner from the time it was authorised by the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration in 2022, with out a aggressive tender course of. The Ranil Wickremesinghe administration, too, took the mission forward, regardless of severe issues raised by opposition — over the corporate’s “backdoor entry” into Sri Lanka’s vitality sector, in addition to Mannar residents and activists, who flagged potential injury to a key fowl hall, amongst different environmental dangers, and moved the Supreme Court docket.