MAGA wins Construction Excellence Award

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

MAGA Engineering won the excellence award at the ICTAD Construction Excellence awards ceremony at the Galadari Hotel, Colombo yesterday.

It has won 22 Construction Excellence awards and merit awards and has made history by becoming the construction company which has won the highest number of awards in the field in Sri Lanka. It won the first merit award for the construction of Army Commander’s Secretariat in 1992.

L.H.Piyasena Pvt Ltd won the second place and Sanken Lanka won the third award at the event.

Chairman, ICTAD, Archt. Asitha J. Pathirage said it was the most important day of the year, for the entire construction community in the country as it recognised the abilities and the commitment of the winners.

He said that Sri Lankan manpower in the construction industry has an impeccable international recognition. The professionals in the industry like Engineers, Architects, Quantity Surveyors and Project Managers, technicians and tradesmen are recognised.

He pointed out that a lot of opportunities were opened as a result of the delegation of construction professionals’ visit to the State of Qatar and the Emirates of Dubai. He said it is not an easy job as the Gulf demands the best in the industry.

But Sri Lankans can play a vital role in construction, consultancy, best materials, best technology and best management which is the need and where the performance factor comes into play.

Pathirage said that development of the Sri Lankan construction industry, is the prime objective of ICTAD and Construction Excellence Awards Scheme no doubt encourages and motivates Sri Lankan contractors in achieving this goal. “Awards are the mild stones of their journey towards development and success,” he said.

Elaborating the progress of ICTAD, he said several new initiatives have been taken to broaden its services to the Industry.

The MOU signed between ICTAD and Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI) on June 26 for conducting training programmes on Quality Assurance, was a key event in this respect.

“Training of Senior level professionals , Supervisor Training Programme

Training opportunities on quality assurance in Road Sector of the industry as well as that at provincial level, to the construction community are some of the initiatives,” he said.

He also said that like in other industries, motivation mechanism plays a vital role in the advancement and promotion in construction as well. “Therefore, the Awards of this nature are important.

They give recognition in the industry and a competitive edge over the others in the evaluation process,” Pathirage added.