Army-Built Elephant Pass New Railway Station Opened to the Public

Elephant Pass along the A 9 Jaffna - Kandy main road came in further handy on Friday (28) when the tiny town got the new Elephant Pass Railway Station, thanks to the monetary contributions, donated by the entire community of school students and teachers of the country.

Following an initiative of the Ministry of Education, the project for renovation of the new railway station received Army patronage by way of manpower for construction on the directions of the Commander of the Army, Lieutenant General Crishanthe De Silva.

Minister of Education, Hon. Akila Viraj Kariyawasam (MP) made the request for assistance directly to the Commander of the Army, designing the project as a gesture of reconciliation under the theme, ‘Senehasaka Thotupolak’.

Engineers in the Army within a few weeks completed the construction work and formally handed it over to the authorities in the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Education.

Friday’s (28) opening ceremony of the new railway station was joined by more than 800 school students who were brought there by trains from Jaffna and Colombo as efforts to further strengthen bonds of goodwill and co-existence. Similarly, both communities of students exchanged views with one another on the occasion and shared sweet-meats that were brought from the North and the South during the opening ceremony.

Minister of Education, Hon. Akila Viraj Kariyawasam (MP) unveiled a plaque and opened the new railway station, in the company of several Deputy Ministers and senior officials.

Hon. Reginold Cooray, Governor for Northern Province, Hon. Ashok Abeysinghe, Deputy Minister of Transport, Ms Vijayakala Maheswaran, State Minister of Child Affairs, together with the General Manager, Railways Department, Major General Amal Karunasekara, Commander, Security Forces - Kilinochchi, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Kilinochchi, Assistant District Secretary, Kilinochchi and a large number of government officials attended the occasion.