Sri Lanka's power grid goes down; holiday blamed

Colombo, Apr 15: Sri Lanka's national power grid crashed today, most likely due to overload on a holiday, a senior state electric company official said.

''Probably it's a transmission line problem. It must (have overloaded) all the system,'' Ceylon Electricity Board General Manager Ranjit Palleperuma said. Today is the second day of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, a time when people traditionally visit their families.

Most areas were restored by 11.30 a.m and the remainder would be back up soon, Palleperuma said.

The power outage was not related to the war between government soldiers and rebels fighting for an independent state for the ethnic minority Tamils, he said.

''It is not a sabotage,'' he said. ''But we are investigating.'' There are around 25 power plants in Sri Lanka, a country of 20 million people. But if one of the main power lines trips, the whole system shuts down.

Much of Sri Lanka's infrastructure, from roads to hospitals, has been neglected by successive governments focused on the two-decade civil war.

REUTERS

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