The Chinese government has offered its help to build a 300MW coal fired power plant, which has been affected by a series of shutdowns in Sri Lanka.

The Norochcholai power plant complex in the country is a design build transfer (DBT) project by China Mechanical and Engineering executed for state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).

The plant was shut down several times during defect notification period which raised questions on the standard of the facility.

Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage was quoted by lanka business online as saying, "They offered to cancel the loan and sell power to the CEB.But the engineers did not want that."

The first 300MW stage of the plant was built with a $455m loan from China and the second 600MW stage is being built with an $800m.

As a DBT plant, the CEB is responsible for repaying the loan and bearing the running costs.