Deyata Kirula exhibition ready for the public

Nimal Wijesinghe- Anuradhapura Additional District group corr

Infrastructural arrangements have been completed at the Oyamaduwa "Deyata Kirula" National Exhibition site, extending to around 600 acres, in the Oyamaduwa government farm.

Ministries, departments, corporations and authorities and also private sector agencies are busily engaged in providing the final touch ups to their relevant stalls amounting to about 500.

It has cost the government a sum of Rs 5,000 million for holding the exhibition, simultaneously to the Anuradhapura district "Deyata Kirula" - 2012, whose overall development activities have been estimated at Rs 21,000 million.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to inaugurate the Deyata Kirula 2012 National Exhibition in the evening of February 4 , which will continue till February 10.

The Deyata Kirula phenomenon, a brainchild of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, had been initiated six years ago when LTTE terrorism was at its climax, for strengthening the morale of the nation and awakening patriotism as a strategy to win the war.

Last week, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa and later Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, accompanied by the Deyata Kirula steering committee chairman and Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, made a tour of the exhibition construction site and inquired about the progress and the lapses.

The Deputy Director General of Physical Planning Department who had been entrusted with the overall supervision of the exhibition. B A Tilakaratne told the Daily News that 3.5 to 4 million people are expected to visit the Oyamaduwa seven day Deyata Kirula Exhibition.

"A comfortable road network has also been created to reach "Oyamaduwa" from the four quarters of the country. There is a parking space for 10,000 vehicles or more at the exhibition site.

A special feature is that without travelling via Anuradhapura, as it has been done earlier, the people could arrive in newly constructed and rehabilitated roads to Oyamaduwa.

Tilakaratne appealed to the public visiting Oyamaduwa, to carry the minimum of baggage, since there were ample food and beverages of high quality at cheap rates within the exhibition site, plus adequate drinking water and sanitation facilities.

He requested the public to use polythene as minimum as possible during their visits, to keep the environment clean and tidy.

The Road Development Authority's North Central Provincial Director T K Ranathunga, explaining to the Daily News about the new short cuts to Oyamaduwa off Anuradhapura, said that those arriving from Colombo via Puttlam, could either turn off at Nikawewa junction, Ulukkulam junction or Pandulagama junction having passed Nochchiyagama town, and reach the Oyamaduwa exhibition site.

The public arriving from Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, etc., could reach Cheddhikulam along the Medawachchiya - Manner main road and arrive at Oyamaduwa via Cheddhikulama, Thantirimale by the new road crossing the new bridge across Malwathu Oya, adding that the road had been broadened and carpeted. He said that those who travel from Anuradhapura to Oyamaduwa could use the rehabilitated roadway which is about 18 kilometers.

Ranathunga further said that he had requested the public to follow the name boards along the road sides for ascertaining the correct direction.