IESL Centre- Central Province organized a public speech on Northern Expressway on 11th November at E.L. Senanayake Children’s Library Hall in Kandy.

The target groups were Engineers, other professional’s, interested parties and general public of Kandy to let them be aware about the history, present status and future outlook of the above road construction project. Eng. L.V.S. Weerakoon, Project Director (Northern Expressway) Road Development Authority presented the proposal to the gathering.

Distinguished guests including Deputy Mayor of the Kandy Municipal Council and Council Members, District Secretary, High Court Judge, University Lecturers, Organizational Heads of government as well as private companies, members of traders associations and dwellers of Kandy city participated in the programme. The total number of participants exceeded the seating capacity of 300 available in the hall, necessitating many to stand for the whole two hours to listen to the speech and the discussion session.

It became a good forum for awareness creation, giving feedback, seek clarifications and to voice the concerns of participants regarding this proposed highway. The discussion was very lively with lot of participants raising their concerns about the forthcoming project, where it was evident that people from very faraway villages like Galagedara, Pothuhara and Aladeniya etc. are also present in the gathering. It was a great experience for all the Engineers to get the feedback from the public on this kind of a mega project, as well as being a good platform for the public to have first hand information and a stage to raise their concerns.