40,000 MT diesel from India reaches crisis-hit Lanka as it struggles to mitigate power outage

A consignment of 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel from India reached Sri Lanka on Saturday, the fourth such assistance from New Delhi, to mitigate the spike in power cuts in the island nation, which is facing an unprecedented economic and energy crisis caused due to shortage of foreign exchange.

Power cuts lasting over 13 hours were imposed on Thursday, the longest cut since 1996 when a strike by the state power entity employees caused a 72-hour black out.

Officials of the state fuel entity, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), said the Indian diesel supplies would ease the ongoing power cuts. The power cuts effective Saturday are over 8.5 hours.