IESL commemorated the 108^th  birth anniversary of the Late Eng. B.D.Rampala at the Wimalasurendra auditorium of its Headquarters on Thursday, 14^th November 2018 in the presence of a large audience comprised of Council members, Past Presidents, family members of Eng. BD Rampala, engineers of Sri Railways and general membership of the IESL.

The memorial oration for this year was delivered by Eng. M.J.D. Fernando, General Manager, Sri Lanka Railways and was on the theme “Digitalization of Sri Lanka Railways by 2022”

Eng. (Prof.) T.M. Pallewatta, President of IESL welcoming the audience said that the Late Eng B. D. Rampala became the first native Chief Mechanical Engineer,  in 1949, of the then ‘Ceylon Government Railways’ and went on to become the General Manager during the period 1955 - 1970, in what is now Sri Lanka Railways, and   through his initiatives revolutionized the country’s railways and the way we live in. The IESL has the honour of having had Eng. B.D. Rapala as its President in the year 1958.

The commemoration was organized by the Mechanical Engineering Sectional Committee for the 2018 / 2019 session of the IESL under the chairmanship of Eng. Asela Pathirathna who proposed the Vote-of- Thanks ending the event.