ADVERTORIAL

Dialog and customers chip in for flood relief:

SMS donation campaign raises Rs 5 million

Customers of Dialog Axiata PLC together with their service provider raised Rs. 5 million towards flood relief efforts in the North Central and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. The relief items consisting of dry rations, milk powder, water and sanitary items were handed over to the Sri Lanka Army represented by the Eastern Range Army Commander, Major General Boniface Perera, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Director General Anusha Pelpita, in the presence of Dialog Axiata PLC Group Chief Executive Dr Hans Wijayasuriya.

Dialog launched a flood relief SMS campaign on January 14, and invited its customers to donate Rs 10 through an SMS pledge. Dialog in turn pledged to match each donation with a further Rs 10.

The campaign generated close to 200,000 SMS pledges and together with a special monetary contribution from Dialog, a round sum of Rs 5 million was directed towards the purchase of essential items for flood victims.

As a further token of gratitude for the invaluable efforts of the Security Forces, Dialog Axiata further pledged to waive off all communication costs of the Sri Lanka Army (Security Forces) in the Eastern and North Central Provinces during the period of the rescue and resettlement efforts.

In the aftermath of the incessant rains and flooding in the Eastern and North-Central provinces, the Sri Lanka Army has lead operations on the ground coordinating rescue and relief efforts for the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons.

Troops in coordination with Government agencies and other organisations have provided temporary shelter, cooked meals, dry rations, medicine and clothes to civilians at camps set up in the Ampara, Batticaloa and Dambulla areas. Troops have also conducted mobile medical camps to assist the affected.

Access and Mabey & Johnson UK complete Sangupiddy Bridge:

Roads connector to Jaffna just like A9

The end of the 30-year-long conflict paved the way to the re-emergence of development in the Northern peninsula and providing vital infrastructure to facilitate rapid economic development and social welfare, has been the focal point of the Government. The only available road link connecting the Jaffna peninsula to the main land was the A9 road and people commuting to the Northern peninsula had to use only this road. The causeway across the Kilali lagoon connecting the Northern peninsula to the main land on the Western/North Western coast line was always considered a very useful transport link to the peninsula. The conflict which prevailed did not permit the use of this transport link due to obvious reasons.

The Sangupiddy bridge which has been considered to facilitate the road link to Jaffna peninsula through Kilali lagoon will link Sangupiddy and Karaithivu on the A32 road.

The duel carriageway bridge which is 288m long and 7.35m wide is erected on a RCC structure founded of pile foundations and the super structure being a steel girder structure and anti skid steel deck system. The designs and preliminary works related to project started on December 2009, even as the civil construction commenced on April 2010. The bridge construction was completed by Access Engineering Ltd in a period of 8 months in partnership with M/s Mabey & Johnson Ltd of UK under the Regional Bridge Program using British Government finance assistance.

With the proposed development of the A32 road and the other roads linking Puttalam to Mannar and Pooneryne will facilitate access to the peninsula over the Sangupiddy bridge.

The road link will reduce the distance to travel from the South to the Jaffna peninsula by almost 110 km and the reduction in travel time would be of even greater significance.

This land mark project will provide a boost to the development work in the Jaffna peninsula providing alternate economical, quick and reliable road link to the main land.