‘Minister has sought project proposal with an engineer’s estimate from CPSTL’ – Presidential Secretariat

Denies President ordered a halt to Rs. 15bn pipeline project

Referring to The Sunday Island news stories headlined “President orders immediate halt to Rs. 15bn cross-country oil pipeline (20.12.2020) and “Minister Gammanpila says he wants local engineers to build pipeline project” (27.12.2020), the President’s Media said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has not issued a presidential directive to halt the pipeline project, as stated in the article.

“The President has never discussed the project in question either with the Minister of Energy Mr. Udaya Gammanpila or any other official”, Director-General of President’s Media Division, Mohan Samaranayake said in a letter.

After the publication of the second article dated 27.12.2020, it was informed by the Ministry that the Minister of Energy Mr. Udaya Gammanpila has requested a project proposal with an engineer’s estimate from Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals (CPSTL) in order to explore the possibility of constructing the pipeline by the CPSTL, it said.

It has been further revealed that the previous government had called the bids even without an engineer’s estimate, it further said.

The letter suggested that to maintain factual accuracy, confirmation be sought from the Media Division of the Presidential Secretariat in future before making any reference to Presidential actions.