|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Friday, 16 January 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Business | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
New five star hotel to be built near BIA by Shirajiv Sirimane
A 100 room five star hotel would be constructed by Sanasuma Development Ltd (SDL) near the Katunayake Airport. The construction of the project would commence end of this year. According to Chairman of Sanasuma Development Prasanna W. Jayewardene this would be a Rs. one billion project and a Lankan investor based overseas would jointly finance this amount. It is expected to provide direct employment for over 250. A hotelier with 35 years experience, Jayewardene said a land close to the Negombo lagoon had been already identified and the project would be ready by 2005 December. The management would introduce water sports, night activities and shopping malls to attract the high-end clientele. The airport expansion would bring in more transit traffic and aircrews to Sri Lanka. In addition Free Trade Zone market, and the local business clientele would be the main areas they would be targeting at. The economic development in the country is surging ahead and this was the reason for this investment. "We cannot control politics in the country," he said. The former manager of Mount Lavinia Hotel said that the Sri Lankan tourism industry started in the 1960's and during that time hotels such as Bentota Beach, Serendib and Pegasus lifted Lankan tourism potential in the era when hotel rooms were confined to rest houses. "Even during the 1971 era where there were many restrictions and during two insurrections and Tamil terrorism problems the industry survived and today is one of the most profitable industries." In addition to the airport hotel investment, SDL will invest Rs. 400 million to construct a 40-room four-star plus hotel project in Jaffna which would be opened this year. Within the next two years, the management would invest on three chalet type hotels projects in Matale, Yala and Wilpattu.
The total investment would be around Rs. 1200 million. According to Executive Director SDL, Susanne Filippin, their first project was the Rs. 400 million Elephant Corridor hotel in Sigiriya a joint venture between Sierra construction, SDL, and Sarath Herath. Built on a 200-acre land belonging to Jayewardene it has 21 suites. She said that with the Cultural Triangle the property is in demand both by locals and foreigners. They have a 30 percent Sri Lankan market. ############# Conservation questions at Ajanta caves The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has halted an operation it had undertaken to clean up the 1,500-year-old wall paintings in the Ajanta caves, a site which figures on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). This follows pressure from art historians and conservationists who say that far from helping to preserve the paintings in the Buddhist rock-cut cave temples and monasteries near Ajanta village in north-central Maharashtra, the cleaning operation was leading to the obliteration of details of the world-renowned paintings. Dr. Walter M. Spink, an art historian from the University of Michigan who has studied the caves for 38 years and has been campaigning for a halt to the cleaning process, sent an appeal to ASI Director-General Ajai Shankar requesting him to stop the work. Ajai Shankar confirmed that he had halted the work and had asked the ASI's Director of Science for a review. He said he had chosen such a course of action because he had heard the views of someone as eminent as Spink. But he clarified that this did not necessarily mean that the ASI shared Spink's views, only that the work warranted another look in the light of the art historian's expression of concern. (Spink is now a Professor at the University of Michigan. Earlier at Harvard University, his dissertation was on the history of Indian art. Among his published works are Krishnamandala, The Quest for Krishna (a booklet) and Ajanta to Ellora. He is currently working on, among other things, a six-volume study of Ajanta.) Spink visits Ajanta with his students from U.S. and Indian institutions regularly. He is distressed at the ASI's "negligence" while trying to restore the paintings: in his view, although the ASI is zealous about the work, its efforts in the caves might be doing more harm than good. "The paintings don't sing any more," Spink told this writer, who attended a workshop conducted by the art historian at Ajanta village in August. It appears that the paintings have been scrubbed too clean, and Spink implied that those who sought to restore them had removed details of the art on the walls and ceilings. Spink, 70, who has studied the paintings for decades - his first visit to the caves was as a Fulbright scholar in 1952 - says that although the paintings have deteriorated over time, the most serious damage has been caused in recent months, during the restoration work. As part of the cleaning operation, the soot that had been deposited on the images for centuries was being scrubbed away. The soot, which came from oil lamps and incense used by Buddhist monks during their prayer sessions centuries ago, covered up the newly-finished paintings almost completely. The challenge before conservationists is to remove the carbon deposits from the paintings, which are defined by black lines of the same material as the grime. With the technology available at present, it is impossible to do this without damaging the paintings. One fact, however, is undeniable: beneath the layer of soot, the paintings are generally in perfect condition (except where the plaster itself is broken). This is because worship started in these caves as soon as they were decorated, and the deposits started to build up rightaway. In fact, the layer of soot that gradually covered them formed a protective coating, which preserved them for 1,500 years. Courtesy: Frontline |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
