CEAT resumes road safety program presenting equipment to 25 schools

CEAT Kelani Holdings Head of Marketing Prashan Costa (right) presents the road safety related equipment to Royal College Principal P.A.S.P. Jayalath

CEAT Kelani Holdings has resumed its Schools Road Safety program – the company’s flagship community initiative in Sri Lanka – this year with the distribution of road safety equipment to 25 schools in several districts of the country. 

The manufacturer of products that are closely linked to road safety, CEAT Sri Lanka presented 175 road safety signboards and 200 traffic cones to schools located in congested areas and main cities such as Colombo, Gampaha, Kandy and Chilaw under this program which is executed under the ‘CEAT Cares’ portfolio of community initiatives.

Commenting on the resumption of the Schools Road Safety program, CEAT Kelani Managing Director Ravi Dadlani said: “Most schools have reopened after the shutdowns necessitated by the pandemic, and traffic on the roads is back to pre-pandemic levels. The resumption of our program is therefore timely. By equipping schools in busy localities with the necessary equipment, we hope to not only contribute towards the safety of students, parents and staff but to help remind the public about the need to adhere to road rules and drive safely.” 

The beneficiary schools in 2022 to date include Ananda College Chilaw, Bandaranayaka College Gampaha, Basilika College Ragama, D.S. Senanayake College Colombo, Dharmapala Vidyalaya Pannipitiya, Dharmasena Attygalle Balika Vidyalaya Kesbewa, Galahitiyawa Central College Ganemulla, Good Shepherd Convent Colombo, Holy Cross College Gampaha, Holy Family Convent Colombo, Isipathana College Colombo, Kingswood College Kandy, Presbyterian Girl’s School Dehiwala, President’s College Kotte, Royal College Colombo, Sri Chandrajothi Maha Vidyalaya Yakkala, Sri Dharmaloka Central College Kelaniya, St. Lawrence’s Convent Colombo, St. Mary’s College Chilaw, St. Pauls Girls’ School Colombo, St. Mary’s College Veyangoda, St. Peter’s College Colombo, Thurstan College Colombo, Wesley College Colombo, and Yasodara Devi Balika Maha Vidyalaya Gampaha. 

Historically, the CEAT ‘Road Safety for School Children’ community program directly engaged with students, parents and transport providers, principally school van drivers, and was coupled with the presentation of traffic management kits comprising of traffic cones, safety jackets, traffic signs and other aids to the traffic squads in each of the schools visited. This year, CEAT has moved forward with an equipment-only model, considering the pandemic-related risks involved in interacting with large numbers.

Titled ‘Maga Yana Maga’ this program was initiated in 2009 and has to date covered schools in Colombo and the southern, northern, north western, central and eastern regions of the country.

The manufacturer of half of the country’s pneumatic tyre requirements, CEAT Kelani Holdings is considered one of the most successful India-Sri Lanka joint ventures. The joint venture’s cumulative investment in Sri Lanka to date exceeds Rs. 8 billion, and another Rs. 3.2 billion has been committed in 2022 for expansion of volumes, technology upgrades and new product development. The company’s manufacturing operations in Sri Lanka encompass tyres in the radial (passenger cars, vans and SUVs), commercial (nylon and radial), motorcycle, three-wheeler and agricultural vehicle segments.

The CEAT brand accounts for market shares in Sri Lanka of 48% in the Radial segment, 80% in the Truck category, 84% Light Truck tyre category, 51% in the Three-Wheeler tyre segment, 36% in the Motorcycle tyre segment and 72% in the Agricultural vehicle tyre category. CEAT Kelani exports about 20% of its production to 16 countries in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Far East.