IESL—New Zealand Chapter Committee 2016-17

President - S.B.Rangamuwa BSc Eng, MSc(Eng), MIPENZ, MICE, MIE(SL), CPEng, CEng, Int PE Regional Asset Planning and Policy Manager, Auckland Transport . Tel: 09 447 4469, mob: 027 498 2350 Siri.Rangamuwa@aucklandtransport.govt.nz

Past President - Dr Shahane De Costa BSc Eng, MSc, PhD, MBA, FIE(SL), MIPENZ, CPEng, IntlPE, Vice President of IAHR APD Senior Lecturer, Unitec Insti-tute of Technology Auckland Tel: 09 815 4321 Ext 7036, mob: 021 342276 rdecosta@unitec.ac.nz

Vice President - Sam Nandasena M.Sc ( Eng.Hydrology.IL) PGD ( Moratuwa,SL),MIPNZ, CPEngNZ.IntPENZ,MIESL,FIIESL Stormwater Specialist Tel.02102698380 Sam.Nandasena@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

Secretary - Sunil Arewgoda BSc Eng,BConst( QS) NZ, MIE{SL),MIPENZ,CPEng,AIE CPEng,RPQE Australia, Asset Quality Assurance Engineer, Auckland Transport, Tel:021 824 616 Sunil.arewgoda@aucklandtransport.govt.nz

Asst. Secretary - Dayananda Manawaduge BSc Eng, PG Dip (Construction Management), CEng, FIE(SL), TIPENZ Development Engineer, Auckland Council Tel: 09 6292957, mob: 021 01580245 dayamw@xtra.co.nz

Treasurer – K A Madunishanthi BSc Eng, MEng, CEng(SL), IntPE (SL) Civil Engineer - DEES Consulting Ltd. Tel: 09 4103115,mob: 021 1580245 madunishanthi@yahoo.com

Editor - Mahinda Attanayake BSc Eng,PG Dip ( Project Management), CEng, MIE(SL), MIPENZ, CPEng, IntPE(NZ) Project Manager, Watercare Services Ltd, Tel: 09 4144424, mob: 0274890468, mahindaa@xtra.co.nz

Committee member - Don Karunaratne BSc Eng, FIE, MICE, MIPENZ, MHKIE Senior Engineer, Planning Fletcher Infrastructure – Water-view Project Tel: 09 523 5467,mob: 027 5125325 dkarunaratne@hotmail.com

Committee member - Sampath Dissanayake (Web De-veloper ) BSc Eng, MEng Software Engineer, Callplus Ltd. Auckland Tel: 09 551 0589, mob: 020 100 0557 samapathnd@gmail.com

Committee member - Renuka Anthony (Event Organ-iser) BEng (Communications) AMIE(SL) Test Engineer at Wireless Data Services, Auckland Tel: 021 0348572 renuka.anthony@wds.co

Committee member: Navin Weeraratne ME,MIENZ, CPEng, IntPE (NZ) Principal Engineer/Project Manager, Calibre Consulting Tel: 021628446 nrweeraratne@gmail.com

Committee Member: Duminda Wijayasinghe MBA, BSc Eng(Hons),PRINCE2,CIMA Senior Programme Manager ( Auckland and Northland Region) New Zealand Transport Agency Tel : 021686473 Duminda.wijayasinghe@nzta.govt.nz

Committee Member: Parakrama Wijesuriya Senior Infrastructure Development Engineer, Auckland Transport Tel: 021803427 Parakrama.wijesuriya@at.govt.nz

Committee member - Koswatte G Chandrasena

(represent regions of NZ) BSc Eng, MEng, Eng(SL)

Land Development Engineer, Wellington Water Ltd.

Tel: 04 9103854, mob: 021 02264611

Chandra.koswatte@wellingtonwater.co.nz

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Page 1 — Committee Members, Message from the President IESL ( New Zealand Chapter ) Page 2 — Growing Auckland with new additions to the motorway network Presentation by Eng. Duminda Wijayasinghe Page 3 — Railway Electrification: Why hesitate?

A report by The Mechanical Engineering Sectional Committee of IESL Page 4 — Turnkey Contracts for Infrastructure and Utility Projects

Article by Eng. Gamini Ranasinghe Page 5 — Innovator’s Corner Page 6 — Migrant’ Engineer’s Page Page 7 — Information on IESL ( New Zealand Chapter ) activities Page 8 — Upcoming Events of IESL ( New Zealand Chapter )

Please contact any committee member for any feedback / suggestions / views on IESL activities.

IESL New Zealand Chapter

Newsletter

President’s Message Dear Friends, IESL NZ Chapter was formed early in 2015 with the participation of then IESL Sri Lanka Presi-dent Dr. S B Wijekoon. It is registered under the Company’s Act as an incorporated society in NZ.

So, we are in the second year of existence and you may be just wondering what we have achieved so far as an organisation and what we want to do in the future.

First of all we have created a forum for engineers of Sri Lankan origin to meet, greet and share their experience in a fairly informal manner. This is important as we are all in a place far away place from Sri Lanka but we still do want to maintain our close professional and social connec-tions. IESL NZ chapter provides an opportunity to enhance these opportunities.

Looking forward, we’ll continue to organise frequent get-together functions and an annual engi-neers’ night at the end of each calendar year.

We are also embarking on a program to assist migrant engineers, to enhance cooperation be-tween Australian chapters in NSW and WA and to improve liaison between the parent body in Sri Lanka and IESL NZ.

It is expected that these initiatives will bring benefits to the wider Sri Lankan engineering commu-nity in NZ.

Your continued support and help will be essential to make this young organisation successful.

With Best Wishes,

S B Rangamuwa Chair 2016/17 IESL NZ Chapter

Become a Member of IESL NZ Chapter

If you hold any membership category of IESL, you automatically become a member of NZ Chap-ter. The committee decided to open the membership to all Sri Lankan engineers in New Zealand.

We want to have a good forum for us and to have social meetings as a group.

Regular activities are being planned .Please download a membership application form from the IESL NZ Chapter website and send the completed form to ieslnz.org@gmail.com.

June 2016 Volume 2 : Issue 1

A few light moments captured in our cameras at the last AGM of IESL NZ Chapter

Duminda Wijayasinghe Senior Programme Manager Highways and Network Operations New Zealand Transport agency

How Auckland and Northland State Highway Network shapes in next decade after accommodating the rapid regional growth

A very informative presentation was made by Duminda Wijesinghe, Senior Programme Manager, Highways and Networks Operations of New Zealand Transport Agency on 03 April 2016 after the IESL New Zealand Chapter Annual general Meeting. Highlights of his presentation are: The population in Auckland region is predicted to increase from 1.4 million in 2010 to 2.2 mil-

lion in 2040 Auckland and Northland region is from Bombay Hills to Cape Reinga and the growth of Auck-

land region is predicted to be higher than any other region in New Zealand 50% of NZ’s GDP is generated in Auckland region 50% of the NZ’s total freight movements are with in the Golden triangle of New Zealand, Tau-

ranga, Northland and Waitakere. There is a heavy pressure to develop infrastructure of the Auckland region to meet the future

demand New Zealand Transport Agency ( NZTA) is managing state highways across the country. Auckland Central and Northland is separated by a narrow isthmus Rapid growth in the Auckland Region has created an enormous challenge to NZTA to improve

and maintain the connectivity of Auckland and Northland Following major projects have been prioritised by NZTA to meet the above challenge

Connecting Northland Northland Bridges Western Ring Route Auckland accelerated projects Ara Tuhono—Puhoi to Warkworth East West Connection Additional Waitamata Harbour crossing

Those who interested to know the development plans of this region that are implemented by various infrastructure development agencies shouldn’t have missed that presentation. The website of the IESL New Zealand Chapter has published the full presentation including the slides. If you are interested, please visit IESL New Zealand Chapter Web Site News and Events Tab.

Railway Electrification : Why hesitate? Published in Financial Times : 04 May 2016

By Mechanical Engineering Sectional Committee of IESL ( MESC)

Ask any audience to raise their hands if they support the renewed thrust for railways in Sri Lanka to be electrified and modernised; all of them are most likely to raise both their hands. The engineering community of the country strongly supports the upcoming project to modernise and electrify the rail-ways. This article explains why efficient railways are important.

Passengers sweat it out in stuffy carriages, running at a deplorable average speed of 25 km per hour. They wait endlessly for trains during signal failures. Passengers in other countries, including the major cities in India, travel at double or triple that speed.

Governments that value the overall economic benefits to its people, imple-ment public infrastructure projects. In railway electrification and modernisa-tion, people save time, money and fuel. Therefore, the country saves. Each minute wasted on the road, is a financial loss to the individual and an eco-nomic loss to the country. Furthermore, with modern, fast suburban services, passengers carried can be doubled, and more fuel and man-hours saved. Be it New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, or Jaipur. Be it Singapore or Hong Kong. Their Governments implement people-friendly transport services. Imagine that you travel daily from Panadura to Colombo Fort by train. You have to travel to the railway station by bus, because there is no place to safely park your motorcycle or carat the station. You wait in a long queue to buy the train ticket. Passengers struggle to board the train; children, ladies and old people struggle even more, owing to the height difference between the platform and the floor of the train. Trains frequently run late. The heat inside the coaches is high. Freshness of the morning has vanished by the time you get off the train, your productivity is down. While at work, the bitter train ride in the evening to get back home keeps coming back to your mind. Thinking of leasing a car and drive to office daily, and spend even more time and money, to be in the traffic for longer hours? Wait! All this is about to change for the better. The Ministry of Transport and the Government have now got the best opportunity to take this project on board.

Which railway project?

The Railway Electrification and Modernisation Project (REMP), is now ready to go. Initially, the Panadura-Colombo-Veyangoda section will be upgraded and modernised to run electric trains. Soon you will be a proud passenger on one of the advanced electrified suburban railway services in South Asia. Now you have many questions in your mind. Why should we electrify the Panadura-Colombo-Veyangoda (64 km) section first? A large share of railway passengers now get in and get off between Panadura and Veyangoda. This section serves 43% of railway passengers. More passen-gers will benefit by extending the electric train service to Kalutara South and Pol-gahawela. What about the increasingly popular Avissawella (KV line) service? What about Negombo and the Airport? Certainly, such sectors will be done in stages 2, 3 and 4, as Sri Lanka moves systematically to modernise the entire suburban rail net-work in the Western Province. Then move to Kandy, Jaffna and Galle.

Economic benefits are Immense Sri Lanka imports all her petroleum requirements, imports coal for power genera-tion, and efficient energy use is a national economic priority. Electric power sets are more energy efficient compared with diesel power sets. Energy and maintenance costs per km would be halved with electric trains. The net fuel saving will be about Rs. 40 per train km, which will work out to be equiva-lent of Rs. 1 billion of foreign exchange every year, just for train operations be-tween Panadura and Veyangoda, to serve existing passengers. It has also been established by the pre-feasibility study jointly conducted by the Institute of Engineers (IESL), Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) and Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) that maintenance costs would also be slashed by 55%. The project can expect the passenger load currently served to double by year 2025, and the equivalent net savings to the economy to increase by a further Rs. 1 billion per year. There are numerous other macro-economic, social and environmental benefits such as economies of scale of train operations, attraction of passengers from road to rail, travel time saving, reduced passenger fatigue, and reduced air and noise pollution.

A technical brief Technology behind electric trains is not so complex. It is our engineers’ duty to introduce the latest, proven technologies to Sri Lanka with this mega project, to build the most modern and efficient suburban railway service in South Asia.

The project will use the existing rail route: no expensive tunnelling or elevated tracks. Tracks will be improved to allow 100 km per hour, and will be fenced to avoid accidents. Remember: electric power sets are fast and quiet. All level crossings will be automated and the number of level crossings will be reduced by providing overpasses and underpasses. There will be a catenary wire fixed above the tracks. Two pantographs fixed at two ends of the train will tap the electricity supply. One rail will be used as the return wire.

New ‘electric power sets’ will run between Veyangoda and Panadura, through Colombo. Their fast acceleration and rapid braking capabilities help achieve high average speeds; time to run between two stations will be reduced. Air conditioning will be a standard feature, with doors closed. Long distance trains will run express in the electrified section. At peak times, Sri Lanka Railway (SLR) now operates the maximum possible number of trains, but we know there aren’t enough trains to meet the passen-ger demand. This project will also build a modern signalling and control system to run trains in two minute intervals. Imagine trains running at two minute intervals. It will be a reality by 2020. Stations will be refurbished with modern architectural designs, with larger cir-culating areas to welcome passengers newly joining trains. Platform height will match the height of the coach deck. Latest electronic displays and passenger information systems will be installed. Parking facilities for private vehicles will be available at main railway stations. E-ticketing will be introduced and there will be no long queues at ticket count-ers, because your ticket can simply be re-loaded through a text message to your bank. Gates at the station will monitor your entry and exit, and deduct the train fare from your account.

Fits well with the Masterplan When public transport fails, people are forced to move to private transport. Private transport is more expensive, requires heavy expenditure on road build-ing, and roads occupy properties. Often there is no money or land to build new roads, or even to widen existing roads. Many countries have modernised bus and rail transport to provide efficient and cheap mobility.

The Colombo Transport Masterplan developed by the Ministry of Transport and revised by the University of Moratuwa in 2015 has proven that railway electrification and modernisation should be a priority project. It shows that there can be a total of six corridors including the Panadura-Veyangoda sector that can provide efficient rail transport to Colombo City. These six priority rail corridors, include two new lines from Dematagoda to Horana and from Ke-laniya to Biyagama area.

How to finance the project The IESL is aware that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged tech-nical and financial support to design and implement Sri Lanka’s Railway Elec-trification and Modernisation Project (REMP). ADB website and various pro-gress documents confirm this. Concessionary financing from international agencies such as ADB and the World Bank, are given to nationally important projects, at very concessionary interest rates, sometimes as low as 1%, repayable in 30 years! Any Govern-ment, especially one that wants to reduce imports (fuel) and improve economic productivity, would grab such funds, and diligently implement such projects at utmost speed.

A country that is sunk deep in debts secured at higher interest rates (some as much as 8% per year), would grab cheaper financing to implement people-friendly projects. So where is the hitch, the lock, the stumbling block, or what-ever you may call it? The secret is in two words: private investment. Readers may remember that at least three ‘private investors’ offered to build, at different time, an expressway each from Colombo to Kandy. Previously in the 1990s, the Government was looking for that elusive private investor who would build the expressway to the airport. Alas! They came and went, made it into newspaper headlines, and ran away at the same speed, never to be seen again. Railways worldwide are built by governments. Why? Because they are not financially viable as private investments, but economically viable as public in-vestments. When you visit some country, do not be misled by seeing a private-looking train and friendly, private-looking staff. It may be the modern version of the Government railways of that country, running the efficient service.

[Contributing Authors: Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya (Energy Consultant), Sr. Prof. Amal S Kumarage (Dept. of Transport and Logistics, University of Moratuwa) Dr. T. L. Gunaruwan (Sr. Lecturer, Dept. of Economics, Uni-versity of Colombo), and Eng. Priyal De Silva (former GM of Sri Lanka

Railways and Past President of IESL).]

Due to massive traffic congestion in Colombo and suburbs, once again the “Railway

Electrification” has come in to the limelight. MESC of IESL has initiated several fo-

rums to highlight the issues behind this important subject.

Please ctrl/click Railway Electrification /IESL for details of these initiatives

including full proceedings of an IESL panel discussion.

Turnkey Contracts for Infrastructure and

Utility Projects

Eng. Gamini Ranasinghe

IIntroduction

The principal task in development projects is to execute within the projected time targets and financial budgets. In order to achieve the above, the main phases i.e. project design, construction and maintenance need to be carried out in a highly planned and efficient manner., During the last few decades the agencies implementing such projects worldwide are adopting turnkey contract mechanisms very extensively to achieve a smooth and efficient process. This system is now very common and used in large projects to build motorways, railroads, tunnels, power plants etc. Universally accepted contract conditions such as FIDIC have very comprehensive guidelines to execute the turnkey con-tracts

My assumption is that in New Zealand a similar mechanism had been adopted in large infrastructure projects including the recent Waterview tunnel and mo-torway extension. To my understanding, in the past decade many infrastructure projects in our motherland Sri Lanka had also been executed on turnkey basis or under similar contractual arrangements. Unfortunately, I never had the op-portunity to be involved in such projects neither in Sri Lanka or here in New Zealand to comment on my experiences. However for about a ten year period from early nineties, I got the opportunity to be involved in a few large public infrastructure projects implemented on turnkey basis in a relatively developed and prosperous country in SE Asia That country was following the universal trend, where mega projects for con-struction of bridges, roads, power plants, harbours etc. were executed on turn-key basis. This system of contracts was used due to many built-in advantages that could lead to completion of such projects in a relatively short duration of time. In this essay I wish to share my observations through direct exposure to this system of contracts. I have noted some salient facts that need the attention of professionals in relevant areas to make turnkey projects achieve the right tar-gets, The 'turnkey' approach A turnkey contract is a business arrangement between the owner of the project and a contractor to deliver a project in a completed state.

Here, rather than contracting consultants to design and contractors to build, the client enters into a contract with one party called a turnkey contractor (normally a developer or a contractor or) to finish the entire project. In effect, the developer or contractor is finishing the project and 'turning the key' over to the client.

The turnkey contractor is expected to hand over the project to the owner or the relevant authority when the project is complete and is fully operational. This type of arrangement could be used for construction projects ranging from single buildings to large-scale development including power plants, highway tunnels and railway networks

Turnkey projects are normally executed through a traditional lump-sum con-tract, where the client agrees to pay the contractor to complete a project that is built to the project specifications. The client is given many opportunities to make decisions throughout the project, and to make changes as needed.

Advantages

When the turnkey contracts are awarded, essentially the design and build phase will be the responsibility of the awardee organization. Post construction maintenance is usually a part of the contract. Sometimes, these contracts also include operation and management of the completed project. To be very fair, execution of contracts on turnkey basis have many advantages above the other forms of contracts, although it is not a universal truth.

A few notable advantages of Turnkey Contracts are given below,

The developer or contractor normally owns the project until it is complete,

and therefore it has the financial motivation to complete the job as quickly and efficiently as possible

Easy coordination among the design/ documentation and the construction

teams, as all are reporting to the turnkey contractor. This arrangement gener-ally negates possible delays in implementation of the project due to differences of views that may arise during execution. The turnkey contractor will follow up such issues, as any delays will result in direct costs to the project.

Funds made available for the project are disbursed in an orderly manner to

avoid any losses resulting from delays.

A turnkey contract provides more time for a client to seek financing and

investors before he/she is required to pay for a completed project; An inexperienced client does not need to make difficult construction decisions, as those decisions are left entirely in the hands of the developer or contractor.

Disadvantages observed through experience

Despite the above positives, I had the opportunity to witness many serious flaws that took place in the implementation of these projects with state funds. These weaknesses significantly affected the construction budget, quality of construction and the maintenance of the completed project.

Some of the glaring inadequacies noted were as follows:

Locations and the terrains for the projects were not the optimum both eco-nomically and technologically, that led to rather expensive options

Turnkey contractor for the project was not selected through transparent and open system.

Turnkey contractor was always sanctioned by the high level politicos who had either direct or indirect personal connections.

Project values were generally inflated, as based on the estimates given by developer. Although the tender committee was appointed by the public sec-tor authority owning the project there had been much back door influence to inflate the contract price.

Project supervision was totally in the hands of the consulting engineers who were employed by the Turnkey Contractor. In reality the consulting engi-neers had to always please the turnkey contactor to secure future work as-signment and also in financial matters

Although the Technical Director of the State Authority was named as the “Engineer’ for the contract, no technical teams appointed by the “Engineer’ were stationed fulltime in project sites to oversee the construction.

In the absence of a third party to oversee the execution of the works on a continuous basis, always the aim was to complete the works in a shorter period of time, rather than strictly maintaining the construction specifica-tions. Such irregularities mostly happened in stages like earthworks and works below ground level, that will be difficult to judge at the time of com-pletion.

Maintenance period on completion was usually 12 months as used in the other forms of contracts. Therefore, achieving high quality in construction to last the design life of the project (say 20 years for a road pavement) was not critical to the turnkey contractor.

In the context of Sri Lanka, it is expected that in the ensuing years there will be large infrastructure projects implemented under proposed scheme like the Megapolis for Western Province and also more expressways. In summary the adoption of some of the following criteria suggested, may help to avoid waste of scare public funds, where the future generations will have to bear the bur-den.

At the very outset to undertake an extensive feasibility studies to assess the economic viability and environmental impact by experts in relevant fields.

Keep politicians out selection of developers and turnkey contractors

Selection of developers on purely a competitive basis from a pool of eligible contractors who have significant experience in the project area.

To involve professional bodies representing engineers and Quantity Surveyors in the evaluation of

(i) Technical proposals (ii) Selection of contractors Tender prices.

Contracts to be approved by an authority such as a procurement commission

Employing a team of professionals to oversee the execution and pe-riodically report on the progress, and the essentially on quality stan-dards maintained in construction.

Establishing relatively long maintenance period beyond the tradi-tional one year. It will ensure that care will be taken by the contractor for quality works during the construction stage

Preferably use Build Operation and Transfer system of contracts for infrastructure projects

The purpose of this write up is to draw the attention of the decision makers including the professionals, the areas that needs strengthening if any infra-structure projects will be implemented on turnkey or a similar basis, which is a common way of execution of projects worldwide.

Gamini Ranasinghe is a Senior Structural Engineer at Auckland Council. He worked as a Civil and Structural Engineer in SEC for nearly 20 years and was involved in Design, Construction and Project Management in Building and Infrastructure projects. Subse-quently he worked in Building and Infrastructure projects in several countries in South East Asia.

We would like to allocate a space in this News Letter for the people who are keen to share their innovative

ideas with others. It may be in the form of an article, a presentation or just an email, about an idea you

may have in your own mind but would like to develop in to a practical solution that will help somebody who

lives somewhere in the world.

Our intention is to provide a forum for Grassroots Innovators who are living among us. At the same time

we would like to share experience with the people who have already gained experience in innovation pro-

jects.

Who are the Innovators?

We understand that there is no special category or a profession called an Inventor.

According to Prof Anil K Gupta,

“They are ordinary people just like you and me and moving among us. They are unnoticed and unsung as

they try to crack problems that have engaged their attention. — or frustrated them for too long.

At one level, many of us improvise everyday for personal gain — to save money, lighten our workload or

boost yields. Only a few take it to a higher level. They are unhappy with the status quo. They probe how

things work and speculate how it can improve. They tackle problems that daunt most.

Spotting them isn’t easy. Such innovators may come from any social, educational or cultural background

but they all march to the beat of a different drum. While education and training help, some of the most suc-

cessful inventors in history were entirely self-taught.”

By providing a forum, we encourage our young generation living in New Zealand to join the older genera-

tion by exchanging the modern concepts that are being introduced and generated in the Universities and

the age old experiences that are being practiced in the work places.

Innovator’s Corner will not be restricted to the IESL News Letter only. If there are sufficient re-

sponses, we can spread it in to our website , in the form of a live blog. There are several initiatives that have already been taken by our mother body, Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, and some of it’s chapters in other countries, by presenting Engineering Excellence Awards in sev-eral categories for novel ideas. Annual “IESL Ray Wijewardene Memorial Lecture”, organised by IESL has dedicated to promote the In-ventors and Innovators in Sri Lanka.

We kindly request you to spare 1 hour 30 minutes of your valuable time and listen to the “IESL Ray Wije-

wardene Memorial Lecture” presented by Mr Deepal Sooriyaarachchi on 30 November 2015. We can

assure you that it will be a very interesting 90 minutes of your time.

Please Ctrl/click, IESL Ray Wijewardene Memorial Lecture 2015

In one of the previous Ray Wijewardene Memorial Lectures, Prof Anil Gupta told the Sri Lankan audience,

“You get innovators all over Sri Lanka, but most are not known or recognised even in their own communi-

ties,” ..“To make matters more challenging, most innovators tend to be loners: they are day-dreamers who

don’t follow the pack. They don’t come to meetings or speak up much. We have to reach out to them,

make them feel comfortable and valued,” His suggestions were: : “Sri Lanka should launch a national ef-

fort to discover its own innovators — both technological and social. The media can play a big role in spot-

ting and promoting innovators, as can schools, universities and state agencies with relevant mandates.”

The television media in Sri Lanka has launched TV Programmes to introduce the innovators and Inven-

tors by interviewing them regularly, which undoubtedly encourage the viewers to come up with ideas that

are hidden in their minds.

Innovator’s Corner is attempting to support the efforts that are already initiated by IESL and others

on this issue. We sincerely appeal all our readers to send a short email to ieslnz.org@gmail.com and ex-

press your views and ideas on this effort or tell us about your innovative ideas.

Innovator’s Corner

Simple devices have been developed in Kerala, India to climb coconut trees and pluck the nuts. The mechanisms appears to be simple and apparently need only a little effort. Coconut plucking has now taken over by many women in Kerala. Please Ctrl/Click: Coconut Ladies A common feature of innovation effort is it’s multiplying effect. Now there are several models tried by many in that part of the world. Here is another one. Please Ctrl/ Click Coconut Men Somebody has thought about the safety aspect of this whole exercise and tried to develop remote controlled device too. Please Ctrl/Click Coconut Robots We published all these links to emphasise few valuable points.

Sri Lanka is (was) a coconut export-ing country.

Sri Lanka produce several hundred engineers annually.

As Engineers, are we satisfied with the level of inventions , innovations in Sri Lanka ?

Can we do something to improve? We would like to receive your views discuss about these issues in this News letter and the Web Site. Please listen to the IESL Ray Wijewar-dane Memorial Lecture 2015, you may get some ideas.

A few examples of innovations

“ Some men look at things the way they are, and ask why.

I dream of things that are not, and ask why not. “

Robert Kennedy

IESL, the University System in Sri Lanka and a few TV Channels in Sri Lanka have started to promote inventions and innova-tions in Sri Lanka. “Bright Ideas” and “Bright People” are slowly coming out. This is one of them who produced a Cashew Shelling Machine and currently exporting to several countries. Ctrl/Click Sri Lanka Cashew Shelling Machine

MIGrant enGIneer’s PaGe

The New Zealand Chapter of IESL has setup a subcommittee to identify ways in which the organisation and its members can support Sri Lankan engineers hoping to migrate to New Zealand. Key opportunities identified thus far include providing mentoring and coaching on relevant industry conditions and expectations, and giving guidance on how to write CVs, and prepare for interviews. The subcommittee hopes to make helpful information accessible to future engineering migrants via the IESL New Zealand Chapter website. How-ever it is also hoped that a network of practicing engineers could be formed from within the IESL New Zealand Chapter membership, to provide one-on-one guidance to future migrating engineers. A workshop to discuss ideas as to how best this programme could be delivered in an effective manner is planned as part of the upcoming IESL NZ Chapter event, on the 9th of July. The workshop will begin at 5:30pm, and will provide our membership an opportunity to contribute and help the subcommittee progress the proposed programme. We welcome all members, and any new migrant engineers who are willing to share their experiences of migrating to New Zealand, to attend and participate in this workshop, and help us shape what we hope will be a valuable and rewarding programme for our organisation. The draft process is attached and it will be taken up for discussion at the workshop on 09 July 2016.

Inform IESL in SL

Decision made to Migrate

Information pass to the IESL NZ

Chapter from SL Head Office

Immigrant enters to NZ

Immigrant enters to NZ

Information through different channels

about IESL NZ (USLA, SPUR…etc)

Engage with IESL NZ

Community

Direct to a Single Point of Contact depending

on the Filed of Speciality

Mentoring & Coaching

CV Refinement

Interview Preparation

OBJECTIVES OF

IESL NZ CHAPTER To provide a forum for professional engineers and persons with interest in Engineering, especially in New Zealand, to foster the ideals of the profession while socialising in a profes-sional and cordial environment. The ideals of the profession should encompass the characteristics and values enshrined in the vision and mission statement of the IESL as well as the laws governing New Zealand. These objectives may be achieved by, but not limited to:

Discussion and dissemination of ideas

Training and coaching

Helping the community projects through professional engineering methods

Practising , promoting and encouraging professional ethics

Exchange of ideas with the parent body and other IESL Chapters

Collaboration with other professional bod-ies

Help Engineers migrating to New Zealand from Sri Lanka

Help Students coming from Sri Lanka to study in New Zealand

Help IESL in expanding the member base in New Zealand

Help members in acquiring of services from the parent body

Mission Statement of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka

To be the apex national body of engineers in Sri Lanka which ensures internationally recognized and locally relevant standards in the professional practice and education in engineering, while actively supporting national development and diligently serving its members

and the society at large.

ARTICLES TO THE NEWSLETTER You are invited to send in articles, case studies or short writeups on interesting engineeering projects that you were involved in NZ, Sri Lanka or other places. Let's share any information that could be helpful or of interest to others. Please send your piece by the end of August to be included in the next issue of the Newsletter. You may wish to write an article to be published in IESL ( Sri Lanka) Newsletter, trans-

actions and journals. We can coordinate and facilitate the publication.

Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka New Zealand Chapter

Vision of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka

Be amongst the leading professional institutions in engineering and technology in the world.

Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka New Zealand Chapter

IESL NZ Chapter serves the members of Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL), resided in New Zealand. It provides an independent forum for IESL members in New Zealand and other Engineers who have an interest in IESL activities.

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

IESL recently has obtained Washington Accord full signatory status, and extended its membership in the International Professional Engineer's Agreement (IPEA). Therefore, after being admitted to the register of Int.PE maintained by IESL would be given the same recognition as any one of those in the member countries (New Zealand is a member country). Hence, IESL NZ members would have increased mobility and enhanced image. Refer -http://www.ieagreements.org/emf

Persons who take up membership with IESL NZ would become IESL members too

( if you are already not one) and hence could directly work in Sri Lanka, if they wish to go back and work.

It will open up opportunities for international Engineering consultancies and pro-

jects. Young New Zealand Sri Lankan Engineers or even otherwise could add to their

portfolio of memberships by taking up membership with IESL NZ. IESL NZ would provide a forum for discussion and dissemination of information/

ideas of interest to Engineers, and particularly about Engineering projects in Sri Lanka. It will provide a forum for exchange of ideas with parent body IESL.

IESL NZ Could be a forum for greater interaction between Sri Lankan Engineers

and IPENZ. IESL NZ would provide a forum for fostering and developing links and fellowship

for its members. IESL NZ would provide assistance to Engineers migrating from Sri Lanka as well

as Engineering students from Sri Lanka

NEWSLETTER

This is a quarterly Newsletter informing the membership of major engineering develop-

ments in New Zealand and Sri Lanka. It will be a forum to share your expertise, ex-

perience and ideas with fellow engineers and others. Please don’t hesitate to ex-

change views with others either through our newsletter or the Web Site.

UP COMING EVENTS