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Inspired to go beyond
The CECB - Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau. The foremost consultancy in Sri Lanka today : Multi-Disciplunary in Function, Futuristic in approach and, above all, Gifted with a team of Inspired Professionals yearning to go beyond.
That inspiration comes with a history - A history thta has left its indelible marks numerously on the face of this country from over two millennia ago : A history thta flourished when the developed world of today was hardly awake.
Fortunately, those indelible marks - ingenious engineering feats - of that distant time are still with us, not as some lifeless artifact, but as something that runs through our veins... feeding us...and breathing very life to our souls. And thta sprouts inspiration in the men and women we have chosen.
At CECB, we give wings to such inspiration
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The stupa – relic shrine – is one of the largest brick structure in the ancient world. The sheer volume and height of these commanding edifices are only surpassed by the Egyptian pyramids. Abhayagiri Stupa, Anuradhapura, here depicted, built
in the 1 st centaury BC, accommodated many subsequent expansion schemes to reach the gigantism seen today.
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Watadage, Polonnaruwa - the circular relic house - 12 centaury AD.
In form and style it is unique to Sri Lanka. Here one could find art and
architecture, scuipture and structure, Engineering and aesthetics, design
and deco- muilty - diciplines in perfect harmony - all under one roof.
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Biso – Kotuwa – the valve pit – is a water releasing mechanism of a reservoir. It was the single most important feature that enabled our ancient tank builders to construct gigantic reservoir with ever great a water-head. The Sinhalese had mastered
the technique two thousand years before the west did it and it was to serve and survive long into the future.
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Yoda –ela, 5 th century AD – Yet another ingenious execution of engineering. Though on first appearance it looks like a canal way, in its pass-through traps 66 micro-catchments making it an elongated reservoir. What is even more amazing is its gentle gradient of 6 inches to a mile throughout its 54 ½ course. Talk about precision!
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Galpotha , 12 th century AD. This obelisk of a stone block, 26’x4’x2’, and weighing over 20 tones, must have had some higher significance than for the mere purpose of inscription when the king ordered its transportation from a quarry over 60 miles away. The exercise more than hints at the means of transportation, the carriage and the road in use at the time; and that nothing stood in the way of its timely delivery.
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The bund of Parakrama Samudra, 12 th century AD. Stretching for 13.6 km this earthen bank of 4.6 million cubic meters of compacted earth was the largest such construction ever to be built by human hands until Gatun Dam in Panama surpassed it in 1912 AD. In spite of the eight hundred years, it is till dependable in holding up a body of water 135 mcm.
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Maduru Oya Dam. One time the tallest earthen bank in the world, at 34 meters. This engineering feat was carried out in 460 AD so the record books say. In recent times, when engineers of the present day drew up plans for a dam site when construction worker cut the first sod, they hit upon the extract spot and found the remains of that ancient dam! East and the west may have their separate ways but there is harmony in the underlining principles.
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