Police on Thursday arrested seven suspects who tried to cut and remove steel plates from oil tanks in the China Bay oil storage facility to sell them for scrap metal.
The suspects were arrested on a complaint made by the Security Division of Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC).
These oil tanks were built by the British during World War II, but had been lying idle for many years. The suspects were arrested with a haul of steel plates removed from the oil tanks.
“The suspects had entered the premises from the section of the tank farm that is covered by shrub jungle. The suspects had allegedly caused Rs. 9 million in damages to two tanks,” according to LIOC sources.
The China Bay Police is investigating.
Several incidents of robbing steel parts of tanks had also been reported previously.
The steel plates used to construct the tanks have a thickness of two and half inches and are fixed by using bolt nuts.
The tank farm premises extends to about 685 acres and a part of it is covered by jungle.
The Trincomalee oil storage facility comprises a total of 99 tanks and 15 of them located in the lower tank farm are currently being used by the LIOC. The Government recently came up with a proposal to develop the idling oil tanks by way of a joint venture between the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and the LIOC.