Iran contractor says mega project in Sri Lanka ready for opening

The CEO of a major Iranian contractor company involved in the construction of a hydropower project in Sri Lanka says works on the massive project has completely finished as he recounts how engineers from around the world were outsmarted by their Iranian rivals every step on the way.

Nasser Tarkeshdouz, who heads the Mahab Qods, the company that offered consultancy services in Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project, said on Tuesday that Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena will inaugurate a mega project a day later that would be seen as a representation of the potentials of a new generation of Iranian engineers.

“Iran had won this project in competition with powerful American, European and Asian companies,” said Tarkeshdouz of the project which will provide irrigation and drinking water to Badulla, Moneragala and Hambantota districts in southern Sri Lanka.

Construction for Uma Oya began in 2008 when top government officials from Sri Lanka and Iran gave the green light for start of the $530-million project.

Iranian company Farab has executed the highly-complicated project which includes two dams with 35 and 50 meters of heights, a 15.5-kilometer-long irrigation tunnel and a 630-meter shaft which transfers water to a power plant that has a capacity of producing 120 megawatts of electricity.

Tarkeshdouz told the Iranian Tasnim news agency that the shaft, fully designed and constructed by the Iranian engineers, should be viewed as a unique structure of its type in the world.

He said the Mahab Qods and Farab took over in Uma Oya after major international firms, including a famous Swiss engineering company, pulled out of the project due to various geographical and technical challenges.

“Sri Lanka needs water transfer for its very economic being but its ground and soil condition is one that causes subsidence and leak of water,” said Tarkeshdouz, adding, “Excavation operation in this country is not a job for everyone.”

He said drilling the main tunnel in the project was a heavy task that Iranian engineers managed to perform despite various problems that emerged.

“All problems in the project were solved through the strong and innovative hand of the Iranian engineers and now we witness ... the farms in this region are being saturated with water,” said Tarkeshdouz.

Iranian companies offering technical and engineering services have already found their way into major regional and international markets mainly thanks to government efforts to diversify the economy from oil and use exports of such services as a major source of foreign currency income at the time of increased American sanctions.

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Tarkeshdouz said his company Mahab Qods had either finished or was working on projects in 18 different countries, from Oman in the Persian Gulf to Germany in Western Europe.

Other Iranian construction companies like MAPNA and Kayson are also involved in similar overseas projects despite the fact that US sanctions have restricted their ability to use funds provided by international banks and institutions.

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