The Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises in the Sri Lankan Parliament Professor Charitha Herath today (20) recommended to the management of Litro Company to distribute 60% of the gas cylinders distributed daily to the Colombo and Gampaha districts where the population is high.
Professor Herath gave these instructions when the COPE committee summoned Litro management in order to inquire the current situation of the LP gas distribution and related issues today. The committee instructed the people living in the densely populated Colombo and Gampaha districts to make such distributions within the next one week, taking into account the limitations of alternative energy sources.
At present there is a shortage of 3.5 million gas cylinders in the country and at present the two ships are distributing 80,000 gas cylinders per day through 42 leading agents and other sub-agents islandwide, said Litro Chairman Vijitha Herath.
The Chairman said that due to the inclement weather it was difficult to connect the buoy at Muthurajawela and the ship had to be brought to the Port of Colombo to unload gas and there was a delay due to that.
He said that out of the US $ 160 million allocated for the importation of gas under the Indian loan facility, US $ 120 million would be used to purchase gas and that the gas could be supplied for three months after the completion of the initial work he said. Accordingly, the COPE Chairman instructed that the necessary steps be taken to import gas under this Indian loan facility within the next two weeks as soon as possible and that immediate steps be taken to reduce this congestion.
Liro Chairman also said he would receive a $ 80 million loan from the World Bank and look forward to a new term tender.
