Son of legendary SL singer sings a different tune
View(s):Sunil Santha’s son stamps class as eco-entrepreneur
By Quintus Perera
Lanka, Santha, son of legendary singer Sunil Santha who sang the popular ‘Lanka, Lanka Pembara Lanka’ among other legendary hits, is stamping his class in a field different to that of his late father; eco-entrepreneurship.
Mr. Santha, who lived in the US for 10 years and continues to live there, had secured patent rights for Soil Bioengineering Geo Natural products.
These coconut coir block systems are used for slope stabilisation, stream bank and shoreline restoration, especially for stream relocation.
Lanka, Santha, son of legendary singer Sunil Santha at his coir manufacturing plant in Hettipola
He now runs a large coir manufacturing plant in Hettipola and collects large quantities of coir from all the area to be feed to the plant. The manufactured products are shipped to the US in containers, numbering about 20 a month. His thirst for coir had led to the revival of some closed coir factories. A large number of villagers are employed, a fair price is ensured for the coir suppliers and thus he pumps millions of money into Sri Lanka.
Today his enterprise in the US has become a multi-million dollar one and the products are well established throughout the US. In addition to the US, he has secured patent rights in India and Sri Lanka. All these years Mr Santha had a great desire to try his products in Sri Lanka as river and waterways banks erosion is very high in Sri Lanka.
He is now able to serve his country, though in a small way, having been invited by Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development, to lay these coir blocks along a small portion of the Puttalam (Hamilton) Canal in Hendala Wattala Elakanda area.
This is a project funded by the Japanese Government with the Sri Lanka Land Reclamation Commission as the consultants. Mr Santha, who was in Sri Lanka to supervise the laying of coir blocks where required along the canal, told the Business Times that while the project would cover 5 km, they are presently working on 2 ˝ km in the US$400 million-worth development.
This is being carried out as a tourist development project and to enable visitors to use the Negombo Lagoon for bird-watching.
Mr Santha said the project came after some of his old engineer friends from Sri Lanka informed him about the project and then he has made inquiries. He came to Sri Lanka from the US where he resides and manages his business. He made a presentation as to how his products can be applied on preserving canal bank and the following day he was awarded the project.
He said that there is a great potential in Sri Lanka for his products and it would be cheaper than other methods that would be used to control erosion, etc as demonstrated in the Elakanda Canal Bank Project.
He said that in the US the coir block system has been very successful and has replaced other methods such as fabric wrapped soil blocks which have been failed.
He told the Business Times that dry coir rolls have more strength and durability than vegetated coir rolls. The high cost of transportation and difficulty in handling vegetated coir rolls make restoration with vegetated coir rolls more expensive and less practical, Mr Santha said. He said that they have to be vigilant about copycats into his area of products which are patented and noted that earlier one Indian company had tried to imitate his product. Once he informed them of the legal implications that company would have to face if they continued, they stopped production.
But he has discovered that some parties appear to be exporting similar products from Sri Lanka to other countries and some have also found their way to the US market.
In the US market, he said, the quality standards are very high and if the Sri Lankan exporters tend to export low quality cheap stuff then this would also affect his products too. He said that this type of activity discourages him.
He has been handling all his activities through their company ‘Rolanka International Inc. (“Famed Sunil Shantha’s son setting trends in the US in different sphere” in the then Financial Times of 28 December 2008 gives minute details of Lanka Santha’s activities).
As handling the entire US through this company is unwieldy, he has asked one of his sons to operate another company “Geo Virio” to assist distribution and his unit is based 3,000 miles apart from the Rolanka base.
He said that he would be visiting Sri Lanka often as he also is involved in supporting commemorative activities of his late father.
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