Sri Lankan Govt informs apex court It's opting out of sampur India-Sri Lanka coal-fired power project

The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it is opting out of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Venture to set up a coal-fired 500 MW power at Sampur in the Eastern Province.
The ill-fated JV between the Ceylon Electricity Board and the National Thermal Power Corporation of India (NTPC) has been on the drawing board since 2006 and has faced many challenges in the past ten years.  
The Sri Lankan government’s decision to abandon coal as the fuel is in line with the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government’s policy of protecting the country’s environment. The government wants investors to generate power using Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) or diesel.
However, the final decision on the Sampur power plant will have to be taken by the India-Sri Lanka governmental Joint Working Group (JWG). No unilateral decision can be taken by either country.
Sri Lankan President Maithipala Sirisena had informally sounded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about Si Lanka’s inability to continue with the coal fired plant at Sampur, but no official communication on this has yet been sent by Colombo.