CEAT Kelani Holdings has extended the company’s road safety programme for school children to its 15th year, with the donation of road safety kits to 10 more schools in the first three months of 2024.
Each of the beneficiary schools received seven road safety signboards, 10 traffic cones, 10 traffic warden jackets and 300 booklets on road safety awareness for school children, making up a total of 3,270 items for the 10 schools.
Titled ‘Maga Yana Maga,’ the programme is one of the community initiatives CEAT Kelani has committed to under the ‘CEAT Cares’ programme of community projects. It involves the donation of traffic safety equipment to schools located close to main roads and in high congestion zones as part of the company’s continuing commitment to make commuting safer, especially for school children. This flagship community initiative was designed to reflect CEAT’s focus on safety on the roads – a key element in all its products, which are engineered with safety in mind – and is an articulation of the company’s credo: “Making Mobility Safer and Smarter. Everyday.”
The 10 schools that benefitted from the latest round of donations were Hemamali Girls’ College – Kandy, Badulla Madya Maha Vidyalaya, Kithalagama East Kanishta Vidyalaya – Thihagoda, Mundalama Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya – Puttalam, Kirillawala Central College, Sangilikanadarawa Maha Vidiyalaya – Medawachchiya, Maliyadeva College – Kurunegala, Walasmulla National School, Ashoka College – Horana and Sri Parakrama Maha Vidyalaya – Panagoda.
CEAT’s ‘Maga Yana Maga’ programme commenced in 2010. In its original phase, the programme directly engaged with students, parents and transport providers, principally school van drivers, via road safety workshops, and was coupled with the donation of traffic management kits comprising traffic cones, safety jackets, traffic signs and other aids to the traffic squads in each of the schools visited. An equipment donation model was adopted after a short hiatus necessitated by the global pandemic.
This community programme has to date benefitted 290 schools across the country. It was launched in response to the alarming statistics of deaths and injuries caused by road accidents resulting from negligence and non-observance of rules, making road safety a significant challenge in Sri Lanka.
The CEAT brand originated in Italy and is backed by German manufacturing technology and extensive research and testing facilities in India and Europe. CEAT Kelani Holdings currently manufactures half of Sri Lanka’s pneumatic tyre requirements, exports about 20 per cent of its production to 16 countries and plays a significant role in helping the national economy conserve foreign exchange by reducing dependence on imported tyres. The joint venture’s cumulative investment in Sri Lanka over the past decade exceeds Rs 8.5 billion.