High Commission of Sri Lanka in India

As the news has it, Sri Lanka is planning big to woo Indian tourists. The Sri Lankan tourism department is banking on the Ramayana Circuit and a few other common cultural Indian heritage sites to boost the number of travellers from India and increase the growth by two folds.

Nearly 450,000 tourists from India visited Sri Lanka in 2018, while the government is aiming to cross the one million mark by developing the Ramayana circuit this year. 

Addressing the media at the Business & Luxury Travel Mart (BLTM) 2019 in Delhi, Sri Lanka Minister of Tourism Development John A E Amaratunga said, “Now we are targeting almost up to one million (10 lakh) arrivals with all the publicity which we are doing all that which we have to offer”.

The project involves refurbishment of the auditorium and construction of a modern building complex with recording cum editing facilities and supply vehicles to the institute through a grant of over 27 crore Sri Lankan rupees from the Government of India. The MoU was signed by High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and M.M.P.K. Mayadunne, Secretary, Minister of City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education. Minister of City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education Abdul Rauff Hakeem and senior officials were present on the occasion.  

In an exclusive conversation to WION, the new Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India said, that India and Sri Lanka are not just two neighbours and friends but relatives.   

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Sri Lanka wants to take back all Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who are now in India, country’s High Commissioner to India Austin Fernando said on Friday

"With around 5,000 of these refugees having already returned, we now want to take the rest of them back to their original places," Fernando said while delivering a speech on "Post 2015: Reconciliation Milestones in Sri Lanka", organised by the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

According to Fernando, who took charge as the new Sri Lankan High Commissioner in November last year, there are around 100,000 of these refugees who had come to India during the civil war in the Indian Ocean island nation that ended in 2009.

He said that while some 20 to 30% of these people would like to stay on in India, the rest would like to go back, adding that he would soon be going to south India to meet them.