By Yohan Perera
Sri Lanka is slated to decide on manufacturing train tickets locally after 150 years with an investor who has been in the local paper industry and is set to meet government top brass to convey his plan to produce train tickets locally.
Chairperson of Ceylon Eco-Friendly Products (Pvt) Ltd Udaya Gunarathne said he will engage in a meeting with the government top brass this week when he will present his project proposal of developing train tickets using recycled paper made out of tomato, mustard and chilli seeds. These tickets can also be planted and anyone can thereby have his or her own vegetable garden. I had discussions with the Railway Authorities, and they promised me that they would get into an agreement with me to start up a pilot project. This never got off the ground,” Gunarathne said.

“Sri Lanka has been spending US $ 500,000 to import third-class train tickets. This has been the case for the last 150 years. They agreed to a pilot project, and later they told me that they were going for e-tickets. This was not true as they called for tenders to purchase train tickets from abroad,” he alleged.
“I don’t think the subject minister is aware of it as it is the officers in the department who are running the mafia,” he also said.