Point
of View
Development of infrastructure, tourism
By Nayana Kanta Sangasinha
The recent decision taken by the two prime ministers of India and Sri Lanka
to construct a land bridge between Talaimannar and Rames-hwaram should
be welcomed. Such a bridge can accommodate both a motorway and a railway.
Once completed, this land route will undoubtedly be a big boost to both
international trade and tourist traffic between the two neighbours.
By extending the existing Ragama-Puttalam railway line through the Wilpattu
National Park via Karaitivu, Pomparippu and Silavaturai to connect the
existing Medawachchiya-Talaimannar railway line at a point between Murunkan
and Mantota, the distance between Talaimannar and Colombo will be shortened
by about 80 km compared with the traditional rail route via Medawachchiya,
Maho and Polgahawela. Since the existing Puttalam railway line stretches
up to Illuwankulam, a point 17 km north of Puttalam, the new railway will
have to be constructed along a stretch of about 80 km only from Illuwankulam
to a point near Murunkan on the Talaimannar line.
The construction of the Trans-Wilpattu railway line will not be that
difficult as this terrain consists of flat land in the arid zone. However,
four major bridges will have to be constructed over the Kala-Oya, Modaragam
Aru, Kal Aru and Aruvi Aru. Once completed, the trans-Wilpattu railway
will be the first of its kind in Sri Lanka to run through a vast national
park stretching over a distance of more than 50 km.
Safari railway station
A railway station could be constructed at an appropriate location within
the national park in order to cater to tourists who wish to go on safari
tours. It could consist of a loop line, two platforms, a two-storied building
with railway offices, travel offices, wildlife offices, restaurants, communication
centres, passenger waiting halls and lodging facilities for passengers.
These lodging facilities will not only bring extra revenue to the railway
but also will benefit railway commuters. The private sector should be permitted
to operate safari jeep services from the Wilpattu Railway Station. The
Railway can even operate special safari rail-buses on a schedule along
the rail track within the national park. Railway reservations should be
fully computerised in order to provide an efficient service to customers.
This new railway will also help the Madhu pilgrims from Colombo and the
Western coastal areas, enabling them to reach Madhu much faster than via
Kurunegala and Anuradhapura.
International train services
Special international passenger trains with economy, business, first class
and air-conditioned compartments could be operated between Colombo and
Chennai (Madras) on the Trans-Wilpattu Line. Trains consisting of only
sleeping cars and sleeperettes could be operated in the night. These international
trains should consist of a large number of wagons with modern facilities
such as restaurant cars, a fully-fledged business communication centre
equipped with e-mail and Internet, IDD telephone and fax lines, a reading
room, and a TV parlour. Once the coastal (Matara) railway line is extended
up to Kataragama as proposed, international trains coming from Chennai
could run up to Kataragama helping Hindu pilgrims from India to visit the
Hindu temples in Kataragama. This will undoubtedly attract a lot of Indian
tourist traffic.
Sky-train
A second rail track should be added to this line between Ragama and Negombo
in order to facilitate more frequent train movements to accommodate air
passengers travelling between Colombo and the Katunayake International
Airport. At present, hardly any air passengers travel by train on this
stretch. A fully-fledged modern railway station should be constructed close
to the international airport that will cater to not only air passengers
but also airport staff, IPZ employees, travel agents and freight forwarders.
This railway station should be linked to the airport passenger terminal
either by an escalator or by a sky-train to cover the distance of about
800 metres between the Puttalam railway line and the airport passenger
terminal. The sky-train, which should have departures at ten-minute intervals
from each end, should have stops en route at the following points:
1. Katunayake Airport railway station (to serve all train commuters).
2. Averiwatta - Cargo Village (to cater to all IPZ employees, freight
forwarders, cargo terminal employees and any others).
3. Passenger Departure Terminal.
4. Passenger Arrival Terminal.
Luxury train
A super airport express train service should be operated at regular intervals
(e.g. every one hour) between Mt. Lavinia and Negombo with stops at Dehiwala,
Bambalapitiya, Kollupitiya, Colombo Fort and Katunayake Airport. Both Mt.
Lavinia and Negombo being popular tourist resorts, there will be regular
tourist traffic to and from the airport. Moreover, this train service will
help to ease the traffic congestion in the city of Colombo as well as on
the airport highway. It will also benefit the local and foreign air passengers
as they will be able to travel cheaper and more comfortably than paying
high taxi fares to travel between the airport and Colombo.
Tourists are attracted more to countries with modern infrastructure
facilities coupled with other places of interest rather than to those with
only cultural monuments and ancient ruins.
"We are all in the same boat"
People Power International (Pvt) Ltd recently conducted a two-day residential
workshop for the senior management team of a prominent communication services
provider.
Ms. Sreeja Marcandan, company director said the rapidly increasing rate
of change required appropriate means of generating sustainable competitive
advantage – lateral thinking, high energy team building and innovation
are a few of them.
The objective of this workshop was to improve team-building skills and
to enhance the intra-personal and inter-personal understanding among its
members.
The workshop, was conducted in early February at the "Rafter's Retreat",
Kitulgala, and was appropriately named "We are all in the same boat".
"The site which is situated on the banks of the picturesque Kelani River,
provided an ideal scenario for using the techniques of "Whitewater Rafting"
as metaphors for developing interaction management skills, and for understanding
the vital importance of cross-functional inter-dependence between members
of a team," said workshop facilitator, Dr. Suresh Marcandan, who is also
a qualified life-saver and has served for many years as a Captain in the
Merchant Navy.
The Team Management Profile (TMP) – an Australian multi-rater instrument
was used to provide feedback on the team's performance by members of the
middle management teams. This instrument also provides a gap analysis and
is used for questioning the team's processes to establish agreement of
purpose, identifying training and development requirements and for benchmarking
a team's performance to develop plans for improvement and then to measure
that the improvement has been achieved.
The workshop was jointly conducted by Dr. Suresh Marcandan (CEO) People
Power International and Ms. Marcandan, a company statement said. |
