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Sri Lankan PM orders special probe on islandwide power failure

Xinhua, March 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday said that he has appointed a special five-member committee to probe a recent island-wide power failure.

In a statement, the prime minister said that the committee had been instructed to submit a report in four weeks and had also been tasked to make recommendations on how to prevent such power cuts in the future.

An islandwide power breakage brought the island nation into a virtual standstill on Feb. 25, the second power failure to hit the country in less than five months.

Immediate investigations revealed that a main electricity line had been struck by a lightning jolt.

The electricity supply had been restored within 3 to 4 hours in all parts of the country.

However parts of the country faced power cuts on Feb. 6 and 7 as well, with the government urging the public to use electricity sparingly till the Norochcholai Power Station was fully functional.

In September, just a month after the new government was sworn in, the country experienced an island-wide blackout due to a technical fault at the Ceylon Electricity Board. Endit