Sri Lankan PM orders probe into nationwide power failure

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday said he has appointed a special five-member committee to probe a recent nationwide power failure.

In a statement, the prime minister said the committee had been instructed to submit a report in four weeks and had also been tasked to make recommendations on how to prevent such power failures in the future, Xinhua news agency reported.

The power outage brought the island nation to a virtual standstill on February 25, the second power failure to hit the country in less than five months.

Immediate investigations revealed that a main electricity line had been struck by lightning.

The electricity supply was restored in about four hours across the country.

However, parts of the country faced power cuts on February 6 and 7 as well, with the government urging the public to use electricity sparingly till the Norochcholai Power Station was fully functional.

In September 2015, just a month after the new government was sworn in, the country experienced an island-wide blackout due to a technical fault at the Ceylon Electricity Board.