Sri Lanka experienced an island-wide power outage on Friday, for over five hours, amid persisting fears of a fuel crisis and a shortage of LPG cylinders.
The outage was due to the failure of a key transmission line, a spokesman of the Ceylon Electricity Board told Reuters . However, the abrupt power cut across the country, also disrupted water supply in many areas. Several restaurants and retail stores remained shut throughout the day, owing to the power outage.
The development comes amid growing resistance within the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board to the Rajapaksa administration’s decision to award an energy deal to US-based LNG company New Fortress Energy, giving it a monopoly over supply. Earlier this week CEB engineers began a work to rule protest opposing the move. Amid wide criticism of the government on social media, senior officials blamed the engineers for Friday’s breakdown, suspecting an “act of sabotage,” local media reports said.
Meanwhile, the engineers’ union said they were temporarily calling off their protest on Friday.
