The Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Auditorium in University of Ruhuna, the largest auditorium of a Sri Lankan University, will be declared open under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena on the 3rd of September.
At the request of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Higher Education this state of art memorial auditorium was built with grant assistance from Indian government worth Rs 265 million, as an India – Sri Lanka Development Partnership Project in the field of higher education.
The Memorandum of Understanding regarding this project was signed between the Government of India and the Government of Sri Lanka on March 15, 2015, during Indian Prime Minister Modi’s visit. And the contract for the construction of the Auditorium was awarded to Link Engineering (Pvt.) Limited in March 2016.
Construction of the auditorium commenced in July 2016 with laying of the foundation by the, High Commissioner of India Y. K. Sinha and the construction is now complete.
Constructed in an area of about 3000 square meters, while capturing the unique architectural model of the Ruhuna University, the Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Auditorium boasts of well equipped theatre facilities with 1500 seating capacity.
The buildings of the Ruhuna University have been designed under the guidance of Geoffrey Bawa and auditorium too is designed to conform to the philosophy of “Tropical Modernism” by Bawa. The auditorium adds to the University landscape with characteristic and aesthetic tiled roof.
Reflecting the close cultural links that bind India and Sri Lanka, the Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Auditorium is named after Rabindranath Tagore the great Indian poet and noble laureate who left behind an enduring aesthetic and intellectual heritage for the whole of South Asia and the world.
This state of art auditorium which can will facilitate hosting of national and international aesthetic events, conventions, conferences as well as training programs, would address the needs of students and public of the Southern Province for cultural and academic activities.
Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Auditorium is the largest in any of the Universities in Sri Lanka and in the Southern Sri Lanka and is a shining example of India-Sri Lanka people-oriented development partnership.
The overall development portfolio of Government of India in Sri Lanka is close to 3 billion USD. Out of these around 550 million USD is purely grant assistance and the rest of them being concessional credit.
India partners with Sri Lanka according to Sri Lanka’s needs in areas such as health, education, capacity building, livelihood assistance, women empowerment, skill development, industrial and vocational training, and infrastructure development among others.
The largest grant project is the Indian Housing Project with a total commitment to build 60000 houses in Sri Lanka with 46000 of it have already been completed in the North and the East.
The second largest grant project is the Emergency Ambulance Service which was completed in Western and Southern Provinces initially and then expanded Island wide.
Currently around 20 people-oriented development projects under the grant assistance of government of India are ongoing including construction of rainwater harvesting units, construction of toilets, upgrading and construction of schools including the tri lingual school in Polonnaruwa and construction of buildings for Universities.
