The Newspaper of The Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka Vol. 53, No 03, June / July 2017Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper No. QD/121/News/2017

President’s CornerDear Members,

I had the pleasure recently ofvisiting the New South Wales(Australia) Chapter, the very first

overseas chapter of the IESL, andgracing the 7th Annual EngineeringConvention of the Chapter. The eventcomprised of the Engineers' Nite

Techno Sri Lanka 2017Exhibition Launched

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Eng. Jayavilal MeegodaPresident, Institution ofEngineers, Sri LankaPresident, Federation ofEngineering Institutions ofCentral and South Asia

Techno Sri Lanka2017, the nationalengineering and

technology exhibition andflagship event of the IESLwas ceremonially launchedat Hotel Galadari on Mon-day, 9th June, 2017 from6.00 p.m. onwards in thepresence of a packed au-dience. Mr. KarunasenaHettiarachchi, DefenceSecretary, was the ChiefGuest for the occasionwhich was attended by alarge number of stakehold-ers including EngineeringProfessionals, Business

Heads of leading industriesand organizations related toengineering and technologyand media.

Welcoming the audience,President of IESL, Eng.Jayavilal Meegoda, briefedabout the developments thatexhibition has seen throughthe years since its inceptionin 1985 and its status todayas the national engineeringand Technology exhibition.

The President Elect of IESL& Chairperson of the Organiz-ing Committee for Techno Sri

Lanka 2017, Eng. (Prof.)Mrs. Niranjanie Ratnayakeexplaining this years’ exhi-bition theme; “EMPOWER-ING INNOVATION” with theTagline; SMART, INVEN-TIVE, DISRUPTIVE TECH-NOLOGIES FOR SUSTAIN-ABLE DEVELOPMENTstated that the world ischanging and engineers arein the forefront of thischange. She stated thatexpectations are very highin today’s society, however,the Planet’s resources are

and the Engineering Conference that preceded it. I am proudof the rapid progress the chapter has made since itsinception in 2009 and the networking they have achievedas evidenced by the number of Industry experts, academiaand many distinguished guests including President ofEngineers Australia, Sydney Division Ms. Julie Mikhail,President-elect for the World Federation of EngineeringOrganizations (WFEO), Dr. Marlene Kanga gracing theevent. The event also had the prestige of having EmeritusProfessor Rohan Lucas as the keynote speaker.

I should mention specially the offers of technical supportthat I received during my visit towards helping those affectedby the recent floods and landslides in Sri Lanka. Towardsfacilitating this I had discussions with Mr. LalWickramatunge - Consul General of Sri Lanka in Sydney,Australia and hope to create a pathway for such help toflow without problems.

In the meantime our student protégés continued theirwinning strides in the international arena when they wontwo Grand awards and a special award at the IntelInternational Science and Engineering Fair 2017 in LosAngeles, California, USA, the world’s largest high schoolscience & engineering research competition. Participatingby virtue of being a winner ofthe Junior Inventor of the Year2016 competition MasterWishwajith Gangodawilafrom NarammalaMayurapada Central Collegewon fourth award in theEngineering Mechanicscategory at the Grand AwardCeremony for his uniqueproject titled ‘SystematicWall Constructing Tool’. Thisis the 14th occasion JIYwinners have wonrecognition at aninternational level”. It was agreat privilege for me toaccompany the Sri Lankacontingent to the Intel ISEF2017.

Techno Sri Lanka 2017, thenational engineering andtechnology exhibition to beheld for the 32nd consecutivehad a very successful launchon Monday, 12th June, 2017at the Hotel Galadari.Business heads of severalleading industries andorganizations related to

IESL IS NOW A PROVISIONALSIGNATORY TO THESYDNEY ACCORD

At the closed session of the signatories of the Sydney Accord held on June 21,2017 in Alaska , USA as a part of the meetings of the International EngineeringAlliance , the IESL was admitted as a provisional signatory to the Accord marking

another milestone in the IESL’s quest for global recognition as the accrediting body forengineering and engineering technology degree programmes conducted in Sri Lanka. Thesignatories took this decision after carefully studying the application made by the IESLand convincing themselves that the accreditation system of IESL is conceptually similarto those of the signatories of the Accord. IESL’s application was strongly supported byEngineers Australia and Engineers Ireland , two of the founder signatories of the Accord.

Before making the applica-tion for the provisional sta-tus at the Sydney Accord,the IESL evaluated threeengineering technologyprogrammes offered by theUniversity of VocationalStudies with one academiceach nominated by Engi-neers Australia and Engi-neers Ireland serving as

members of the evaluationpanel. This enabled the rep-resentatives of EngineersAustralia and Engineers Ire-land to gather first hand infor-mation on the accreditationsystem and procedures fol-lowed by IESL and convincethemselves of the robustnessof the system .

Provisional status which isthe first step towards be-coming a signatory is gen-erally granted for a periodof four years.

The Sydney Accord signedin 2001 is an internationalmutual recognition agree-

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Established 1906

SRI LANKAENGINEERING NEWS

120/15, Wijerama MawathaColombo 7, Sri Lanka

Tel: 2685490,2698426, 2699210Fax: 2699202E.mail:ed@sltnet.lk/iesl@slt.lkWebsite:http://www.iesl..lk

in this issue• Sri Lankan students won the two Grand awards and special award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair . ................2

• IESL Charter Process Awareness for Sri Lanka Railways on 24th May 2017...................2

• The Editorial.......................4

• Letters to the Editor..............4

• IESL Day 2017 at University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka......5

• IESL NSW Chapter Engineers’ Nite 2017...........6

• Engineers' Night 2017.........6

• Dam Safety – Let us have uniform standards..............8

• “Duty and Responsibility of Civil Engineers following Natural Disasters" ...........9

• Building Code of Australia as a Prototype for Sri Lanka...............................10

• Features Unique to the Techno Sri Lanka 2017 Exhibition..........................12

The Institution of EngineersSri Lanka

Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 20172 IESL NEWS

"International ProfessionalEngineer" status

Dear Corporate Members,

The IESL has spread its wings by providing the opportunity to its members toobtain internationally recognized “International Professional Engineer”status.

International Professional Engineer (IntPE) is governed by the InternationalProfessional Engineering Agreement (IPEA), which consists of the nationalengineering organizations of Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong,India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, SouthAfrica, Sri Lanka, UK and USA.

We hereby kindly invite the corporate members of the IESL to apply for theInt PE membership status. In order to get qualified for this prestigious mem-bership status that will immensely benefit them members require to complywith the following.

• Gained a further three (3) years of practical experience since becom-ing a Chartered Engineer of which at least two years should havebeen in charge of significant engineering works.

• To maintain a Continuing Professional Development [CPD] at asatisfactory level, in keeping with international standards.

• To be evaluated through a competence based assessment.

Those who have obtained International Professional Engineer status can usethe abbreviated title PEng (Sri Lanka) after their names.

The Benefits

• The members who practice Engineering in any of the member coun-tries are able to gain employment without any further professionalqualifications.

• Members who are Sri Lankan residents, who aspire to get engineer-ing contracts in member countries, will have his /her qualificationrecognized.

• Members who wish to work with international contractors in SriLanka, will have an internationally recognized qualification.

• Members who wish to be entrepreneurs and who will export theirproducts will have a recognized qualification.

• Members who wish to work in lending banks such as WB or ADB,these Banks will recognize this qualification.

For further details pls. log into “My IESL” and click the submenu item “Regis-tration as an International Professional Engineer”Eng. Jayavilal MeegodaPRESIDENT, IESL

Very Important Notice to AllCorporate

Members – e votingThe IESL Council approved implementation of e-voting forthe forthcoming 2017/18 council elections aiming widerparticipation and convenience to the members.In order to ensure the accurate delivery of communicationsand material related to electronic voting, we need to en-sure your details in our membership management systemare correct and up to date.It’s essential that we have your current email address. Fur-ther we need the telephone number (preferably Mobile Num-ber). Ideally email ID should be your own and only accessedby yourself.You can update the details through following methods

1. Logging to My Iesl via http://www.iesl.lk/Sys/Login?ReturnUrl=%2fpage-1517694 and update therelevant details in your profile2. If you have any difficultly in updating profile asper step 1, you may send the details tosecretariat:nimesha@iesl.lk.Secretariat will update the details for you.3. You can post the details to Secretariat.Please note that members, who do not have their detailscorrectly updated, will not be able to use electronic votingfacility. They will only have paper based manual voting.

We appreciate your corporation in making e- voting a suc-cess.

Eng. Jayavilal MeegodaPresident IESL

AWAIT …IESL Induction andGraduation Ceremony2017 on25th August, 2017at the BMICHNational EngineeringConference 2017 on22nd September 2017at Hotel CinnamonGrand, Colombo

*

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Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 20173IESL NEWS

Sri Lankan students win two GrandAwards and Special Award at theIntel International Science and

Engineering Fair

The world’s largest highschool science &engineering research

competition, the IntelInternational Science andEngineering Fair, a program ofSociety for Science & thePublic, announced its topwinners in Los Angeles,California, USA.

As the winners of the JuniorInventor of the Year Competi-tion, Wishwajith Gangodawilaof Narammala MayurapadaCentral College & SanujaAbeywickrama ofAmbalangoda DharmashokaCentral College participatedintel International Science andEngineering Fair representingSri Lanka. WishwajithGangodawila from NarammalaMayurapada Central Collegewon fourth award in the Engi-neering Mechanics categoryat the Grand Award Ceremonyfor his unique project titled‘Systematic Wall Construct-ing Tool’. Also SankalpaPerera & Shehan Sankalpafrom S De S Jayasinghe Cen-tral College Dehiwala wonfourth award in the Environ-mental Engineering categoryat the Grand Award Ceremonyfor their research titled ‘Microand Nano engineering forwastewater: magnetizedbiochar and nanoparticle com-posite for toxic Cr(VI) removal’.

The opportunity to participatein the international competi-tion arose when he won theaward at the ‘Junior Inventorof the Year-2016’ (JIY-2016)competition, of the Institutionof Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL)and the Sri Lanka Scienceand Engineering Fair (SLSEF)2017 competition. The IntelISEF is the world’s largest

annual international pre-college science competi-tion which provides a forumfor over 1800 high schoolstudents from over 75 coun-tries, to showcase theirindependent research. It isthe premier science com-petition in the globe, exclu-sively for students ingrades 9 to 12.

Eng Jayavilal Meegoda,President, IESL said, “I amproud to say that JIY stu-dents are capable of com-peting and winning at anyworld stage. WhatWishwajith Gangodawilahas done is a testimony ofthe leadership and capabil-ity of the Sri Lankan edu-cation system.” This is the14th occasion JIY winnershave won recognition at aninternational level”.

Wishwajith Gangodawila,who was the runner up atthe Sri Lanka Science andEngineering Fair (SLSEF),was part of the Sri Lankancontingent at the Intel ISEFwhich included SanujaAbeywickrama fromA m b a l a n g o d aDharmashoka Central Col-lege and Sankalpa Perera& Shehan Sankalpa fromS De S Jayasinghe Cen-tral College Dehiwala.

Every year winners of theSri Lanka Science andEngineering Fair (SLSEF),a partnership betweenIntel, the Ministry of Edu-cation, the Institution ofEngineers, Sri Lanka andthe National Science Foun-dation are sent by Intel tothe Intel International Sci-ence and Engineering Fairwhich honors some of theworld’s most promising,rising student entrepre-neurs, innovators and sci-entists. Finalists are se-

lected annually from hundredsof affiliated fairs. Their projectsare then evaluated onsite bymore than 1,200 judges fromnearly every scientific disci-pline, each with a Ph.D or theequivalent of six years of re-lated professional experiencein one of the scientific disci-plines.

You can also participate inthe Intel ISEF competition andbring honour to mother SriLanka by becoming a JIY win-ner. JIY 2018 preliminary com-petitions will be held in themonths of June, July & Au-gust at the provincial level.Register today your inventionsby visiting the websitewww.iesl.lk.

For more details, please con-tact organizing committee ofJunior Inventor of the YearCompetition. (Eng Dayan –071 8735338, Mr Maduranga– 071 3535329).

by Maduranga KarunajeewaStudent Member of IESL

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web - www.iesl.lkEmail - jiy.iesl@ymail.com,ed@sltnet.lkTel - Maduranga - 071 3535329Dayan - 071 8735338Fax - 011 2699202

IESL Charter Process Awarenessfor Sri Lanka Railways held on

24th May 2017The target group of this session was newly recruited Engineers to Sri Lanka Railway. Thirtyone (31) Engineers from Mechanical, Electrical and Civil categories attended for sessionconducted at the IESL HO Membership Lounge. The session started sharp at 6.00 pm.

IESL Mechanical Engineering Sectional Committee Chairperson- Eng. Arjuna Manamperi -gave an introduction and Eng. (Dr.) Palitha Bandara gave a 45 min. presentation Profes-sional Review (PR) Rules Experience Report writing. He explained what is recognizedtraining, responsible experience, five core competence and the experience report format.

Eng Wininda Piyarathne gave guidance on Electrical Engineering Charter process.

Eng. Parakrama Jayasignhe gave an introduction to the IESL Fellowship process. Eng.Arjuna Manamperi summarized the Fellowship process while sharing his own recent expe-rience obtaining it.

The session and the discussion went almost two and half hours. After that there wasfellowship and a dinner sponsored by MESC which ended around 10:00 p.m.

Sri LankaEngineering News

Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 20174 IESL NEWS

Skills inDemand

Recently I met one of mybatch mates who is achartered civil Engineer

managing his own constructionfirm. We were discussing theindustry prospects andchallenges. One of his major grievance was the scarcity ofskilled and semi –skilled craftsmen like masons, carpenters,plumbers, electricians to do quality works. He pointed outthat significant number of male school leavers, who find itdifficult to get into higher education path get employed asThree Wheeler Drivers instead of selecting vocational path.Even people who are already employed as craftsmenabandon their jobs and work as three wheeler drivers as it isan “easy” job.

Is his observation correct? Though I have not done a detailedstudy, available statistics suggest that it is quite possible.The three wheeler population in the country has passed onemillion as at today. The numbers have doubled within lastfive years. Sri Lanka’s labor force is nearly eight million.Further, Entry barrier to own a three wheeler is quite low.With as much as Rs 50,000 capital and a leasingarrangement one can easily get a three wheeler and becomeself –employed!

What is the relevance of this message to us as Engineers?We need a strong layer of technicians and craftsmen in thecountry to carry out the engineering projects and operatesystems and services. The low level of competencies in theexecution layer, ultimately produce inferior products. Therecould be multiple socio economic factors including easy jobopportunities like three wheeler driving that persuades aperson not to select Technical and Vocational Educationand Training (TVET) and becoming a skilled technician or acraftsman.

There should be much awareness about the TVET traininginstitutions. Sri Lanka has several such government andprivate institutions. The school leavers, especially those whodo not qualify well for other higher education opportunitiesshould be properly guided as to how they should select theircareer path. The employment opportunities and benefits shallbe clearly shown, so that students’ families also encouragethem for technical education.

Much more attention shall be paid at professional circlesand wider discussion shall happen to establish strong middleand lower technical grades. Some people are positive forservice liberalization through free trade agreements due tothe deficiencies that we have locally with respect to mid andlower level trade personnel. Further studies shall be carriedout to establish the skills in demand for Sri Lankan economy.Excess manpower supply after fulfilling local demand shallbe targeted for foreign employment.Eng. Indika Walpitage,(indika.walpitage@gmail.com)

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Message From IESL President – Engineeringbased articles for publishing in ‘The SundayTimes’Dear Members,The IESL invites articles for publishing in “The Sunday Times’,the weekend English newspaper, which has reserved a specialcolumn dedicated to articles related to engineering issues tobe published on a regular basis .Members contributing articles have the chance of seeing theirworks published in this leading newspaper. Articles should meetthe required standard of English and not exceed 800 words.The articles must be able to create awareness among thegeneral public on possible engineering solutions to currentissues experienced in the country.Selected articles from those that get published in the “The SundayTimes” will be entitled to Rs 10,000/= worth of vouchers tofollow CPD courses conducted by IESL.Please send your articles addressed to; The Manager Publicity,Email Address;dir.pub@iesl.lk . For further clarifications pleasecontact Mr. Jiffry Farzandh on Mobile Phone No. 0711094393.

PRESIDENT 11 jeks msgqjg'''

Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 20175IESL NEWS

IESL Day 2017 at University of Moratuwa, Sri LankaOrganized by : IESL Young Members’ Section & Student Chapter, University of MoratuwaDate : 06th May 2017Venue : Civil Auditorium, Faculty of Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

The IESL Day event forthe year of 2017, was organized and success-

fully conducted on 6th May2017 from 8.30am to 4.30 pmat the Faculty of Engineering,University of Moratuwa, SriLanka. The President IESLEng. Jayavilal Meegodagraced the event with his pres-ence as the Chief Guest.Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof.Rahula Attalage, Presidentelect IESL Prof.Mrs. N.Rathnayaka, Dean Prof. K. K.C. K. Perera, Former CEBChairman Eng. AnuraWijeyapala, Eng.T. S.Godakubura (AGM of CDLPLC), Dr. Jagath Manathungaand Dr.Mahesh Jayaweera(Senior Lecturers of Civil En-gineering), Mr.ManjuGunawardena (Research Sci-entist SLINTEC) & ChairmanYMS Eng. Dayan Herath, tookpart in the session as guestsand resource personals. Alsothe Committee members fromother state Engineering facul-ties in Sri Lanka and Under-graduates from all depart-ments of the engineering fac-ulty participated in the event.Since the main objectives ofthe IESL day is to focus onaddressing importance of IESLfor the undergraduates, how todevelop professional careerafter graduation, current is-sues faced by industry relatedto engineering , improvementsof soft skills among under-graduate together with highlyintellectual personals from theindustry and well reputed en-trepreneurs. Valuable feed-backs were gathered duringthe technical Session.

The technical speeches weredelivered during the morningsession and served as excel-lent medium of knowledgetransfer between Senior Engi-

neers and the EngineeringUndergraduates. All the dis-tinguished guests madepresentations on importantand interesting topics.

The afternoon session wasbased on soft skill develop-ment activities. Such astallest building using cardpacks, Memory challengegame and finally we gave atask to determine currentsocial problem in Sri Lankaand come up with a propersolution for it with engineer-ing aspects. That task con-sists of poster presentationround and the best teamwas selected by panel con-sist of President IESL,Dean of Engineering fac-ulty, Chairman YMS andSenior Treasurer of IESLUOM chapter.

Contd. on page 11.......

Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 20176 IESL NEWS

The Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, NSWChapter (IESL NSW

Chapter), Engineers’ Nite2017 was held on 3rd of June2017 at Hornsby RSL in grandstyle. President of the Institu-tion of Engineers Sri Lanka,Eng. Jayavilal Meegoda,President of Engineers Aus-tralia, Sydney Division Ms.Julie Mikhail, President-electfor the World Federation of En-gineering Organisations(WFEO), Dr. Marlene Kangaand IESL NSW Chapter Chair

Dayantha Jayarathnagraced the event. Keynotespeech delivered by Emeri-tus Professor Rohan Lucas.

The Engineering Confer-ence held on 2nd June2017 at the Engineers Aus-tralia Auditorium,Chatswood, for the sixthconsecutive year precededthe Engineers Nite 2017.The bestowing of Engineer-ing Excellence Awards dur-ing this event are to recog-nize engineers with Sri

Lankan background living inNew South Wales and Aus-tralian Capital Territory, fortheir contributions towardsecologically sustainable de-velopment and wellbeing ofthe community. This year fiveawards were presented at theGala Dinner.

This annual event was at-tended by Engineers, Indus-try experts, academia andmany distinguished inviteesrepresenting various collabo-rative organizations. GalaDinner 2017 was sponsoredby four Bronze Sponsors,SMEC, Sayura Beach Hotel,Unawatuna – Sri Lanka,Jadecross Lighting Solutions& University of TechnologySydney. This event is a greatopportunity for networkingamong fellow engineers andstrengthening mutually ben-eficial relationship’s with pro-fessionals and professionalorganisations.

source : http://ieslnsw.org/

engineering and technology and the media were among thepacked audience. Eng. Karunasena Hettiarachchi, DefenceSecretary graced the event as the chief guest.

The Techno Sri Lanka 2017 Exhibition theme would be“Empowering innovation” with the Tag line “Smart, Inventive,Disruptive Technologies for Sustainable development”.Collaboration with the universities and the private sector, willintroduce several competitions that will encourage andpromote smart, inventive, disruptive technologies among theyounger generation.

Features like Building Clinic, Short Seminars, Car Clinic,special areas for display of Junior Inventor of the Year andUndergraduate Inventor of the Year innovations will functionregularly with much appeal from specified target groups aswell as the general public visiting the exhibition.

A unique feature to this years’ exhibition would be the Ministryof Defence Pavilion where the 3 armed forces will exhibittheir R & D exhibits. This will be the first of its kind, at anexhibition in Sri Lanka. The visiting professionals as well asthe general public will recognize the engineering, researchand development strength of our own armed forces underthis pavilion.

I invite all our members, along with their families, to visit theexhibition and make it a big success.

IESL NSW Chapter Engineers' Nite 2017

Contd. from page 1...

President's Corner....

Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 20177IESL NEWS

Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 20178 IESL NEWS

Dam Safety – Let us have uniform standardsby Eng. (Ms.) Badra Kamaladasa

Former Director General of Irrigation

A dam is considered asthe most hazard proneman made structure,

amongst all the civil engineer-ing structures. Failure of asingle large dam can causeloss of thousands of lives, bil-lions worth of property andpriceless environment in-stantly. So it is the sole re-sponsibility of engineers toensure safety of these danger-ous structures, by preparingcontinuous safety plans,emergency preparednessplans and sharing the informa-tion with other stakeholders.

Many countries, including de-veloped countries, have facedthis horrendous experience.From the ancient times, SriLanka experienced many epi-sodes on dam failures of whichevidence can be found fromancient chronicles. Some his-torians believe that the end ofSri Lanka’s hydraulic civiliza-tion by 12th century would havebeen due to breach of manyreservoirs simultaneously dur-ing a heavy flood or any othernatural disaster. The unprec-edented floods in 1957 De-cember in dry zone speciallyin NCP, NP,NWP and SPcaused breaching of 35 largedams, 53 medium dams and1500 small dams within a 3-5days’ time period causing aheavy damage to the irrigationinfrastructure. Luckily SriLanka was financially andtechnically capable of handlingthis massive disaster at thatmoment and irrigation engi-neers could restore almost allthe dams by 1958 November.Sufficient time was there forissuing pre-warning and hencelives lost reported to be veryfew.

In contrast, a single dambreach, the Kantale dam fail-ure, in April 1986, made aheavy toll and it happenedwithout warning. During thatincident 130 lives lost, nearly600 private and governmentbuildings totally destroyed,another 630 buildings partlydamaged,agriculture,roadsand other infrastructurewashed away. Cost of reliefwork and rehabilitation of infra-structure was Rs. 525 millionduring that time, which wouldbe approximately nine thou-sand million rupees at presentvalue. Reliability placed by thesociety on those responsiblefor safety of dams was shat-tered, especially of the engi-neers after this incident, inspite of the fact that some ofthe critical decisions made byoutsiders were responsible forjeopardizing the safety ofKantale dam.

Can anyone ensure that simi-lar disaster in future will nothappen? Whose responsibilityis prevention or mitigation ofsuch disaster? Let us getsome idea about causes ofdam disasters and responsi-bilities of various sectors inminimizing the risks.A dam can fail with or withoutprior warning due to an inher-ited weakness, a gradually de-veloped weakness or as a re-sult of a natural phenomenonsuch as heavy storm, landslide or earthquake. Hence itis difficult to design a dam witha zero probability of failure.

How vulnerable those who areliving under the shadow ofdams is a question frequentlyasked specially during stormyseasons when the reservoirsare full. It is very common thatrumors get spread during badweather conditions over breachof dams specially located inhigher elevation of populatedcities such as Anuradhapuraor Polonnaruwa, which makepeople panic and looking forauthentic information. Onebasic issue is that people havenot been made aware about thedanger prone area in case ofa failure in advance.

Whether a dam is earthen,concrete or rockfill, it is sus-ceptible for aging, similar toany living being. It has a cer-tain life span, which can beextended with proper mainte-nance, upgrading and correctoperation of associated struc-tures. If not proper attentionis given, the life span will be-come less than the specified.Very much similar to humanbeings,dams too should gothrough proper examinations/surveillance by specialists,need to provide with periodichealthy treatments and con-tinuous testing to be done totrack illnesses.

Statistics shows that high-est no of dam breacheshad occurred globally dueto hydrological failures.Excess incoming waterhas to be released safelythrough the spill in properlycontrolled manner. Waterrelease from a breach ofsmall village reservoir willbe sufficient to trigger alarge dam failure. This isinevitable with the topo-graphical conditions in ourriver basins, in which thedams are located in closeproximity. Spillways inLarge dams were upgradedafter 1957 floods, by incor-porating radial gates afterfinding that large damswere overtopped due tosudden inflow to the reser-voirs from breached smallreservoirs in upstream.However vulnerability forfailure does not end withthe provision of the gatesas these gates need to bemaintained and even up-

graded to meet the changesin climate and ecology.With the changing hydro-logical conditions due toclimate change variations,it has been observed thatthe intensity of the rainfallis getting higher and withina short time water level inreservoirs too rises veryfast. The reduction in forestcover in catchments has es-calated this process.Hence the adequacy of thespillways have to be stud-ied by the authorities peri-odically to ensure safety ofdams during floods.

What is the first step theengineer should take tominimize the risk of disas-ter? It is to take care of it atthe very initial phase of plan-ning, designing and con-struction. Decisions on se-lection of the dam site,materials, dam type, con-struction technology, instru-mentation, and quality con-

trol during the constructionhave to be carefully made bythe engineers.

Next is a carefully planneddam safety program for exist-ing dams. The program shouldseparately address singledams, group of dams in asingle river basin and clusterof reservoirs and ancillarystructures in trans-basin sys-tems which are common in SriLanka. The safety plan shouldbe a collective effort of all theorganizations involved in man-aging the reservoirs and di-saster responsive teams inabove scenarios. Not only thedam managing organizations,but also the other organiza-tions making use of the res-ervoirs, (such as inland fish-ing, domestic water supply,tourism etc) too have a re-sponsibility for safety of thedams, realizing the vulnerabil-ity.

Breach of very small reservoir- can destroy the future of an innocent family

Contd. on page 9 ...

This small reservoir located in a hill top of Walpane failed in2004 due to faulty construction followed by faulty operation. Itwas a very small reservoir not even having a capacity of 10Acft. Sri Lankan dam safety standards should be in such alevel that a single life could not be lost due to dam disaster.

Closer view of the Kalawewa breach during restorationafter 1957 breach

Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 20179IESL NEWS

“DUTY AND RESPONSIBILITY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS FOLLOWING NATURAL

DISASTERS”by Eng. W.D. Darshana

A Natural Disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth; examples include floods,hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic processes. (Anon., n.d.)Disaster Management can be defined as the organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealingwith all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen theimpact of disasters. (cross, 2010-2011)

Figure -01 Disaster Management CycleIn the aftermath of natural di-sasters, often the initial reac-tion of the general public is tocast blame on the parties whofailed to build and design suf-ficient structures that wouldhave prevented the extensivedamage. The public oftenquestions the responsibility ofthe engineers and whether ornot the engineers fulfilled theirduties.

As the victims of natural di-sasters, blame and responsi-bility become a secondaryconcern. Obtaining the basicnecessities, such as food,clean water, and shelter, takesthe highest priority. Survivalbecomes the primary concern.Civil engineers must hold para-mount the safety, health, andwelfare of the public, as statedin the First fundamentalCanon of the ASCE Code ofEthics (Chang, March 1, 2014)

According to the statistics ofnatural disasters in Sri Lanka,the number of deaths, housedamages and families affectedare shown below. Year 1994,2000 and 2004 was the high-est number of houses dam-aged.

Consequently, civil engi-neers have three major re-sponsibilities following anatural disaster. Immedi-ately after a natural disas-ter, civil engineers are re-sponsible for providing thebasic necessities for survi-vors. Once these basicneeds of the survivors aremet, civil engineers thenhave the responsibility torestore the public’s confi-dence in the engineeringprofession. The final duty of

civil engineers is to preventthe catastrophic effects dueto natural disasters from re-peating in the future.

As figure 03, between theyear 1980 to 2010 the maindisaster faced in Sri Lankawas Flood and the numberreported as 45.Once civil engineers havemet the survivors’ basicneeds, civil engineers arethen responsible for restor-ing the public’s confidence inthe engineering profession.

After the civil engineers haverestored public confidence inthe industry, the final respon-sibility of the civil engineerafter a natural disaster is toprevent the catastrophic re-sults from repeating in natu-ral disasters in the future.

Civil engineers have threemain responsibilities follow-ing the events of natural di-sasters such as Tsunami inSri Lanka 2004, HurricaneKatrina in USA and the 2011

Figure 02 – Natural disaster damage statistics

Tohoku Earthquake. Imme-diately after the natural di-saster, the civil engineermust meet the basic needsof the victims by providingfood, clean water, and shel-ter.

Once the situation of survi-vors has stabilized, civil en-gineers are responsible forreestablishing public confi-dence in the civil engineer-

Figure 03 -Natural Disasters occurs in Sri Lanka from 1980 to 2010

ing profession. Lastly, civilengineers have the duty toprevent the catastrophic ef-fects of natural disastersfrom repeating in the future.Often as civil engineers, wefind ourselves behind a deskimmersed in calculations ofskyscrapers or water-treat-ment plants. We have thetendency of becoming lostin the technicality of engi-neering and removed fromthe people for whom we de-sign. Ultimately, the mostimportant duty and respon-sibility of civil engineers isnever forgetting the peoplewe serve.

REFERENCES

Anon., 2017. Disaster man-agement, s.l.: World con-federation for physicaltherapy.

Anon., n.d. Natural disas-ter. p. https://en.wik ipedia.org/wik i /Natural_disaster.

Chang, J., March 1, 2014.“Duty and Responsibility ofCivil Engineers FollowingNatural Disasters”,Carnegie Mellon: Depart-ment of Civil and Environ-mental Engineering.cross, i. f. o. r., 2010-2011.About disaster manage-ment.WHO, 2014. National Train-ing on Safe Hospitals - SriLanka. s.l., WHO, pp. Mod-ule 2 Session 1 -.

Normally this program shallconsist of

a) Dam Inspectionb) Dam Monitoringc) Reliable and

Planned Operationand Maintenance

d) Periodical SafetyReviews (in-houseand by independentpanel)

e) Timely ImplementedRemedial Works -

f) Capacity Develop-ment of Inspectors,Operator and Fieldstaff

g) Emergency Manage-ment Plan

Prior warning also to behandled by engineers operat-ing the dams and mecha-nisms have to be put in placeso that in case there are signsthe people in the vulnerableareas could be informed in theshortest possible time. It isalso necessary to identify theevacuation centers and pathsand people be made aware ofthose facilities.

The safety guidelines andpractices should have a uni-formity, irrespective of the own-ership of the dam/ reservoir. InSri Lanka there are manyorganisations responsible foroperation of the dams, stillhaving their isolated plans,starting from farmerorganisations to large damowners such as ID, MASL,CEB, PC etc. It is high timefor us to come under a shadeof one umbrella and adopt amutually benefitted dam safetyprogram to serve the societybetter. Prevention of disasterand mitigation of impacts canbe achieved only through sucha collective action.

Setting up a regulatory bodycould be the first step, draw-ing people from agencies hav-ing competence and exposurein dam safety. The organiza-tion should then put uniformstandards and guidelines inplace. The technical analysisof risks associated with a damcannot be the sole criterion onwhich such standards andguidelines should base upon.Decisions during emergenciesneed to be taken with the con-sideration of economic, envi-ronmental, social, and culturalimpacts. As such regulatorybody should also have disci-plines outside engineering.

Engineers should not compro-mise safety standards andpractices to any outside pres-sure as the cost of conse-quences especially the loss oflives cannot be compensatedin monetary terms. Hence theholistic approach in damsafety is the need of the hour.

Contd. from page 8...

Dam Safety .....

10Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 2017

IESL NEWS

Building Code of Australia as a Prototype for Sri LankaEng. Janaka Seneviratne

Keywords: B u i l d i n gCompliance, PerformanceBased Code, Building Code ofAustralia, National Construc-tion Series, Deemed to SatisfyProvisions, Alternative Solu-tions.

1. Importance ofProcesses and ProceduresA process and a procedure talkabout ‘what is done’ and ‘howit is done’, respectively. Whenprocesses and procedures arenot available, implementationof works becomes erratic andinconsistent. Consequently, thereceivers of the service out-comes are treated chaotically.This creates doubts in thereceiver’s mind overthe serviceprovider’s impartiality andeven about the competency lev-els. Sometimes, this situation isescalated into serious allega-tions like favouritism and nepo-tism. Hence, the service provid-ers have a duty to maintain pro-cess consistency and proce-dural fairness.

2. Best Practice Codesand Sri Lankan PerspectiveAmong many ways to performa certain task, there will alwaysbe ‘the Best’ method, under agiven set of operating condi-tions. Hence, it is imperative toidentify this‘the Best Method’and document it as ‘the BestPractice’. The best practice mustbe agreed upon by all stake-holders anddocumented, toensure its use is effective andefficient.Sri Lankan engineers need bestpractice guidelines for all engi-neering works and services. Ifattempted solely locally, ittakes a long time to producesuch documents. Alternatively,overseas Sri Lankan engineerscan introduce already avail-able international best practiceguidelines and codes of prac-tice to Sri Lankan counterpartswith minor procedural tweaksto appease local administrativeneeds.

Even this approach needs genu-ine interest from local publicsector engineers. Only with thatpositive attitude, engineers can

achieve this. However, publicsector engineers should becautious about the popular na-tionalistic sentiment that onlyhome-grown solutions are thebest. In a global environment,where products and servicesare delivered and receivedacross geographical bound-aries of countries, the rel-evance of home grown solu-tions has diminished. Hence,the aim is to develop globallyacceptable solutions for localproblems through adaptationof internationally acceptablecodes and best practices, ofcourse, with the understand-ing of home realities. It is es-sential that Sri Lankan PublicSector Engineers take the lead-ership role and seek interna-tional professional expert sup-port with the patronage of theIESL.

Sri Lankan public Sector engi-neers are, in general, positiveon applying best practiceguideline in an office environ-ment as they can defy politicalinterferences, citing the viola-tion of the guideline. However,in Sri Lanka, voluntary adop-tion of a Code of Practice bypublic is an extremely difficulttask as the public naturallyexpect lesser compliance bar-riers. In addition, majority ofthe public are not educatedenough on the undesirableimpacts of not following suchcodes. Hence, it is essential tomake the adoption of codes ofpractice a legal requirement,after conducting proper pub-lic awareness programs.

As the sole authority for Pro-fessional Engineering Practicein Sri Lanka,the IESL can es-tablish formal links with theSri Lankan Government to en-sure legal enactment and en-forceability of the developedCodes of Practice.

3.Socio-economicEngineersChartered engineers have therequired basic skills to expandtheir skills to become socio-economic engineers who dulyconsider social and economic

aspects. They make their fi-nal decisions for the ben-efit of all stakeholders andthe community, not merelyto satisfy technical needs.

Engineers should knowhow the society behaves,their needs & expectationsand how engineering deci-sions impact public lives.Engineers gain this knowl-edge through attentive ob-servations, reading on non-engineering subject areas,active listening and inves-tigation of social impacts.Engineers, as leaders musttry out novel solutionswithout having any fear ofmaking errors. Mistakeswill teach engineers toavoid repetition of samemistakes. The developmentof this kind of behaviouraltemperament will produceexcellent crop of socio-eco-nomic engineers for SriLanka.Applying socio-economicengineering skills is an art.Engineers can develop thisartistic skill by excelling inrisk, quality and projectmanagement disciplinesand also in public consul-tation processes.

4. Code Development Approach and Socio-economic Elements inCodes of PracticeThe responsibility of devel-oping a Code of Practice isnot generally assigned to agroup of technocrats whodo not have the aptitude toappreciate the importanceof socio-economic engineer-ing elements.This is be-cause any engineeringCode of Practice must havebuilt-in humane and socialaccountability elements, inaddition to the technicaldetails. The Code shouldwork equitably for both theCode users and the serviceoutcome receivers to pre-vent becoming an imprac-tical technical hurdle.

The author insists on get-ting foreign Sri Lankan en-

gineers’ help for a reasonalthough there are manytechnically competent en-gineers in Sri Lanka. Theauthor is yet to be con-vinced that the Sri Lankanpublic sector engineershave adequate exposure tothe world class best prac-tice codes and processdocumentation. Just hav-ing engineering skills isnot good enough for a pro-fessional engineer. Whatmatters is the experience inapplying skills and talentsthey have to develop qual-ity service delivery plat-forms. Hence, this discus-sion is not about arguingwho is good, but stressingwhat is right for Sri Lankaand how to set-up profes-sionally conducive workenvironment for engineers.

Any individual includingthe author has own limi-tations of knowledge andskills. Professionalsshould know the extent ofskill and knowledge defi-ciencies and do somethingabout it. Hence, the authorpromotes the value of col-lective knowledge and ex-pects competent local andoverseas engineers meet atone discussion forum tocomplement each other’sgaps in skills and knowl-edge.Success of teamwork de-pends on its leadershipand the team’s adherenceto a set of operating norms.At least, having basicnorms such as positivethinking, open to debate onall suggestions irrespec-tive of the sources, meritbase analysis and appre-ciation of socio-centric el-ements in the proposed so-lutions, would be a goodstart.

5. A Sri LankanCode of Practice for BuildingsBuildings are made of ma-terials of varied quality &useful lives. Buildingspaces are designed formany usage purposes.

Hence, buildings are gener-ally complex assets. Build-ings must be adequatelysafe, structurally stable,comfortably habitable, equi-tably accessible, operation-ally functional and environ-mentally sustainable. Thisis where the design stan-dards, the constructionstandards and the user re-quirements are to be workedin unison. A Building Codeof Practice will serve as atool to achieve this har-mony.

The author is aware of theavailability of the FactoriesOrdinance, Fire SafetyRegulations developed byCIDA, the manual on ‘En-ergy Savings in Buildings’developed by Sri LankaSustainable Energy Author-ity and the ConstructionMaterial Specifications de-veloped by former Institutefor Construction and De-velopment.

However, there is no unifiedSri Lankan Standard Codeof Practice to enforce com-plete spectrum of Construc-tion and Compliance re-quirements such as firecompliance, accessibilityand user safety for Build-ings. The author believesthat UDA as the premieragency for issuing develop-ment approval, should takethe leadership to develop aUnified Building Code forSri Lanka.

6. Adverse impactsof not having a unifiedCodeIt is alarming to see howhaphazard the buildingsare being built in Sri Lanka.The author suggests thereaders to run Google®street view along a SriLankan road and compareit with that of a street in adeveloped Country to un-derstand how poor build-ing planning and construc-tion regulations are beingapplied in Sri Lanka.

Contd. on next issue...

Abstract:

In developed world, the public sector organisations are equipped with quality administrative and regulatory systems.Substantial number of Sri Lankan engineers work for these public sector organisations and gain an in-depth knowledge on application of the best practice guidelines and codes of practice. Sri Lankan counterparts can be benefitted by

tapping the skills and knowledge of migrant engineers. A dialogue between the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL)and the overseas Sri Lankan engineers, would be paramount to exchange information and share knowledge. The ultimateaim is to produce a series of best practice guidelines and Codes of Practice for engineering works.This paper outlines how ‘the Building Code of Australia’ was developed. The author proposes the Urban DevelopmentAuthority (UDA) or Construction Industry Development Authority (CIDA)to take the leadership to develop a ‘BuildingCode of Sri Lanka’ using the Building Code of Australia as a prototype.

11IESL NEWS IESL NEWSSri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 2017

Contd. from page 5...

Moreover the awarding of gifts to the winners of activities and presenting of Souvenirs to thedistinguished guests were also part of the event as to be the memorable glimpses.

The organizers would like to thank Eng. Jayavilal Meegoda (Prsident-IESL), Prof R. Attalage,Eng. Anura Wijeyapala, Eng. T. S. Godakumbura, Dr. Mahesh Jayaweera, Mr.ManjuGunawardena & Eng. Dayan Herath (Chairman-YMS) for the support rendered to make event asuccess. Further, we want to take this opportunity to thank the University administration fortheir support and extend our sincere gratitude to the Dean Prof.K.K.C.K.Perera andProf.Mrs.N.Rathnayaka, for their guidance. The hard work and commitment of the IESL StudentChapter and the student chapter chairman Mr. Ashoka Pradeep and his team is not to beforgotten at this moment.

R. H. A. PradeepR. L. KonthasingheC. M. M. R. S. SilvaM. A. S. NimalkaP. N. D. PremadasaH. B. G. MadushankaP. V. Rajithya

IESL Day 2017 at University of Moratuwa.....

YOUNG MEMBERS SECTIONTHE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, SRI LANKA

fast depleting and engineershave to be smart and inno-vative to achieve high goalswith very low resource con-sumption. She added “Tech-nology should reach themasses and make them dothings differently, as doing‘business as usual’ will notleave a healthy planet for ourchildren and grandchildren.We need ‘disruptive tech-nologies’ that will revolution-ize the day-to-day activities,such as mobile technology,nanotechnology, householdsolar PV technology and per-haps other inventions andbreakthroughs to satisfy thesociety’s expectations andstill not be blamed by our fu-ture generations for not leav-ing them a livable PlanetEarth.”

Chief Guest, Eng.Karunasena Hettiarachchi,Secretary to the Ministry of

Contd. from page 1.... Techno Sri Lanka....

ment for qualifications in thefield of engineering technol-ogy. It recognizes the sub-stantial equivalency ofprogrammes accredited byits signatories, and recom-mends that graduates ofaccredited programmes inany of the signatory coun-tries be recognized by theother signatory countries ashaving satisfied the aca-demic requirements to prac-tice as an engineering tech-nologist. Australia, Canada,Chinese Taipei, Hong KongChina, Ireland, Korea, NewZealand, South Africa,United Kingdom and UnitedStates represented by theirrespective accrediting bod-ies are the current signato-ries to the Sydney Accord.Accreditation involves theevaluation of engineeringeducation programmes of-fered by universities andother educational providersin the country to see thatthese programmes complywith a set of criteria laid

Contd. from page 1....

IESL IS NOW A PROVISIONAL....down in accordance withthe accreditation policy ofthe IESL.IESL is also a signatory tothe Washington Accord.

An accredited engineering/engineering technology de-gree programme will enablethe respective graduates topractice in the occupa-tional category appropriateto their qualifications andwill qualify them to be en-rolled in the appropriateclass of membership of theIESL. Graduates with anaccredited engineering de-gree can enroll as Associ-ate Members and thosewith an accredited engi-neering technology degreecan enroll as Affiliate Mem-bers.The IESL delegation at theInternational EngineeringAlliance Meetings was ledby Eng. J Meegoda, Presi-dent of the Institution.

Defence, in his speech laidstress on the importance ofInnovation in the country’sforward march. He addedthat the 3 armed forces hasdecided to display anddemonstrate their achieve-ments of the R & D effortsat the Techno Sri Lanka thisyear.

The’ Techno Talk’ this yearwas delivered by the GuestSpeaker Eng. (Prof.)Rohan Munasinghe and itwas on the interesting topicof ‘Local Technological De-velopment Efforts and Ex-periences’.

Speeches were also deliv-ered by representatives ofvarious sponsors of theevent.

The event concluded withthe Vote of Thanks deliveredby Vice President of IESL,Eng. Kamal Laksiri andCocktails that followed.

Organizing Committee

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Sri Lanka Engineering News - June / July 201712 IESL NEWS

FEATURES UNIQUE TO THE TECHNO SRI LANKAEXHIBITION

Printed by: Karunaratne & Sons (Pvt) Ltd, No 65 C, Thalgahawila Road, Midellamulahena, Horana.

In keeping with its theme; “Empowering Innovation” this year’s exhibition will introduce several competitions that will encourage and promote smart,inventive, disruptive technologies among the younger generation. The Young Members Sections of the IESL is coming out with a bang collaboratingwith the private sector and the universities to organize an array of competitions lined up along this line for the event;

IESL-UTE RASPBERRY PI CHALLENGE:

The objective of the competition is to promote innovation through smart solutions amonguniversity students & young Engineers. The popular and cost-efficient Raspberry Piplatform will be used as the core of each product in the competition.The competition is in two categories namely Undergraduate category & member cate-gory.

• Engineering undergraduates with IESL student mem-bership can compete under the Undergraduate category.

• Corporate & non-corporate members of IESL who arebelow 35 years of age can compete under the Membercategory.

This is a team competition. Each team shall comprisethree members. Initially, the competitors have to submita proposal of their job. The proposal shall be a solutionfor a problem within Sri Lanka. Selected 30 teams willbe given RaspberryPi 3 kits to continue their project.

IESL-INSEE CONCRETE CHALLENGE

Furthering its vision of building brighter futures for SriLanka, INSEE Cement formerly known as Holcim Ce-ment is partnering with IESL to see final year Civil Engi-neering Students of the state engineering universities ofuniversity of Moratuwa, Peradeniya, Ruhuna, Jaffna, SouthEastern & Open University of SL compete in an innova-tive concrete mix design Competition.

Awards for winners:

1st place - Thailand tour for 4 days (3 nights) (ed-ucational + entertainment)

2nd place - Staying in RIU, Ahungalla hotel (2nights) (educational + entertainment)

3rd place - Staying in Chaaya tranz ,Hikkaduwahotel(1 night)

(educational + entertainment)

HACKATHON – BY UOM

IESL-YMS Hackathon is a gathering of innovators which help them to im-prove communication, learn new technologies, and share knowledge and toget priceless experiences. This is an event for undergraduates to introduce

DRONEX – BY SEUThe Faculty of Engineering, South Eastern University ofSri Lanka in collaboration with the YMS of the IESL isorganising the first ever Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Chal-lenge for engineering undergraduates in Sri Lanka. DroneXChallenge will be held at IESL’s TECHNO Exhibition thisyear.

The competition is open for all engineering students inSri Lanka. A team may consist of up to five members.The drone shall complete a predefined circuit path con-sisting of ten GPS points in the shortest time. The cir-cuit length shall be 750 meters. The drone shall com-plete the task on its own – automated, including landingand take-off.

a solution to an existing prob-lem in the world with their knowl-edge in the software field. Anystate or private university stu-dent can register and take partin the competition.

TIC TAC TOE – BY UOJThe IESL StudentsChapter of the Fac-ulty of Engineering,University of Jaffnahas planned to con-duct a competitionamong engineeringfaculties all over thecountry under theYMS section of theIESL.

Tic-Tac-Toe challenges students in engineering programs todesign a robotic manipulator which can automatically play asimple modified version of Tic - Tac - Toe on a given boardspecified here in the proposal. The competition aims at co-operation of students from different engineering backgrounds.A wide knowledge in the electronic, computer and mechan-ical engineering fields will be required to successfully designand manufacture the required manipulator.

SPAGHETTI BRIDGE COMPETITION – BY UOPThis competition is open for all Civil Engineering students and first year students. Maxi-mum number of members of a group is six. Three teams from each university will beselected for the final competition. The bridges should be constructed only using the provid-ed spaghetti and hot melt glue. No other materials are to be used to build the strongestspaghetti bridge from optimum quantity of spaghetti and glue.

CAD EAGER – BY UORThe Young Members Section (YMS) of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) inAssociation with Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty ofEngineering, University of Ruhuna is organizing a Computer Aided 3D Design (CAD) com-petition named “CAD EAGER 2017”, to stimulate undergraduates to develop design, intel-lectual, team work and presentation skills. It was held for the first time as an event in theTECHNO 2013 exhibition. Then the event was held in 2014,2015 and in 2016 for the sec-ond, third and fourth times respectively with enthusiastic participation of Engineering Stu-dents and now it has been planned to organize this event annually as a simultaneousevent of the TECHNO Exhibition.

Other than the above, features like:• Building Clinic• Short Seminars• Car Clinic• Junior Inventors Area• Under Graduate Inventors AreaWill function regularly with much appeal from specified target groups as well as the generalpublic visiting the exhibition.

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE PAVILION (3 ARMED FORCES)This unique feature will be the first ever, at an exhibition in Sri Lanka. The3 armed forces under the Ministry of Defence, will exhibit their R & Dexhibits at this pavilion. The visiting professionals as well as the generalpublic will recognize the engineering, research and development strengthof our own armed forces under this pavilion.The Techno Sri Lanka 2017 would endeavor to strengthen the links be-tween the suppliers of engineering products and services and the relevantgovernment institutions, with a view to facilitating mutual awareness oftheir resources and potential in fulfilling their needs, objectives and aspira-tions.

For further clarifications and/or stall reservations, please contact the TechnoSecretariat on 0115367315 / Mr. Malith Kannangara, Manager OperationsSales & Marketing - 0777771005 . E- mail: techno@iesl.lk / Mr. JiffryFarzandh , Manager Publicity – 0711094393/ E –mail: dir.pub@iesl.lk