News
Peraliya train tragedy memorial a distant memory
A proposed museum and cultural centre in Telwatte in Peraliya where the Samudradevi with its eight passenger cars and locomotive, was engulfed by a tsunami wave killing more than 1,200 passengers on December 26, 2004, is yet to see the light of day.
Abandoned: The proposed museum and cultural centre
Three of eight compartments of the train was to be displayed in a museum.
The Ministry of Cultural and Aesthetic Affairs has already spent some Rs 400 million on the project, yet there is only a pre-school.
A philanthropist from the Telwatte area, a retired public servant, Ariyaratne Maduwage, 85, has donated 530 perches. In August 2011 the foundation stone was laid by former cultural affairs minister T.B. Ekanayake.
The foundation for the museum was laid on December 24, 2005. The building work was to be supervised by the Moratuwa University engineering faculty. The foundation stone remained until 2011, when a ceremony was held again to restart building work.
According to Mr Ariyaratne, the original foundation had been demolished and buried when the project was revived.
Ariyaratne Maduwage
Parts of the twisted rail track were to have been displayed for the public, but have been plundered.
Councillor of the Ratgama Pradeshiya Sabha, Mr A.G.R.P. Kumara, said the greatest destruction was in Telwatte.
Some 1,270 Samudradevi passengers died. Some 249 villagers also perished at Peraliya and 395 houses were destroyed.
“We ask those responsible to complete this project, the museum and the cultural centre. Foreigners visit, but there is hardly anything for them to see.’’
The plan included residential accommodation so that people can do research on southern culture, to maintain a library of documents, to promote traditional arts, and a training institute for dance.
