Commander Formally Hands Over Army-Restored 11th Irrigational Tank & Road Patch to HE the President

Heralding a new era of agricultural revival, the symbolic handover ceremony of the Army Engineers restored 11th irrigational tank at Ganthalawa, Kantale and a renovated road patch of 5.4 km, took place Friday (21) morning, headed by HE the President Maithripala Sirisena.

The day’s simple ceremony commenced with the unveiling of a plaque on the ‘Ganthalawa Unit 12 Tank’ bund by HE the President at the invitation of the Commander of the Army, Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake, flanked by several Ministers and the Chief Field Engineer of the Army, Major General Dananjith Karunaratne, whose troops actively contributed to the restoration and renovation projects.

Seconds later, HE the President Sirisena, together with the Commander of the Army and a representative group of school students, joined hands together to launch a symbolic ‘Kumbuk’ tree planting drive by the side of the restored Ganthalawa tank bund.

HE the President afterwards appreciative of the Army’s contribution to the country’s mammoth infrastructure development role, awarded a fleet of new vehicles to the Army Engineers at the same occasion. Delivery of keys symbolically to 23 tractors, 5 single cabs and 10 motorbikes by HE the President to the Commander of the Army followed thereupon as an incentive to the project.

Sri Lanka Army Engineers, well recognized as best service-providers to the nation, in what could be considered as another gigantic national project, have been assigned the task of restoring and reconstructing 473 island-wide tanks, anicuts, canals, dams, public grounds and construction of 100 new residential quarters for teachers under a five-year long infrastructure development programme of the government at a cost of Rs 5000 m.

Last September, on a directive of the Presidential Secretariat, Sri Lanka Army troops in cooperation with Civil Security Department (CSD) personnel under the ‘Wasa Visa Nethi Ratak’ (A country free of toxicity) and the ‘Sirisara Pivisuma’ projects undertook the restoration and repair of 165 dams, abandoned tanks, anicuts, canals, waterways, construction of 100 new teacher quarters and the erection of a 250 km long elephant fence across Trincomalee (5 year period) and the renovation of a 257 km long road network (5 year period) in rural areas within a period of one year as the first segment of the project.

Each year, a sum of Rs 1000 m out of the allocated Rs 5000 m is to be used for the project under this five-year long infrastructure development programme until 2021 as stipulated in the government gazette.

The ongoing project is being implemented by professional engineers of the 1, 7 and 8 Regiments of Sri Lanka Engineers with the funds allocated through the treasury.

The project, now in progress under the overall supervision of the Presidential Secretariat and in close liaison with respective village development societies, Grama Niladari officials, Samurdi officials, village chieftains and all other stakeholders at village level, is closely supervised by the Central Environment Authority, University of Moratuwa and Ministry of Agriculture.

Presidential Secretariat with the intention of uplifting economic standards of the rural-folk and improving the country’s infrastructure facilities for improvement of their livelihoods, expects the project to usher in a new era of prosperity and development in the rural sector when it is completed by the year 2021.

Major General Dananjith Karunaratne, Chief Field Engineer of the Army who has thrown his weight behind the implementation of the project on behalf of the Army has already deployed over 200 All Rankers in Trincomalee area under the first phase of the project with a fleet of 78 heavy machinery and vehicles.

Friday’s ceremony was attended by Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, Secretaries, Government Officials, senior Army Officers and a gathering of residents in Ganthalawa area.