Pioneering engineering consultancy firm ECL celebrates golden jubilee

Five decades ago, Engineer C.C.T. Fernando and Engineer M.S.M. de Silva combined their expertise and skills to establish Engineering Consultants Ltd. (ECL), which today has grown into an iconic multi-disciplinary consulting company celebrating its golden jubilee milestone.

At its inception, ECL provided specialist engineering consulting services to the irrigation and water sectors and later expanded to other areas such as architecture, urban planning, highways, rural and provincial roads, water supply and sewerage, ports and airports, and irrigation and rural development. ECL’s expertise gained further credentials working with leading international development consultants. 

ECL secured its first international project with a sewer and wastewater network systems project in the Maldives and has also undertaken and successfully completed numerous major donor funded projects funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), etc. Even today ECL continues to be a major player in the nation’s donor funded infrastructure development.

Heralding a new era for the company, in 2002, MG Consultants (MGC), a dynamic young company with an aggressive marketing ability as part of their expansion strategy completed a landmark acquisition of ECL. 

As a result of this transformative acquisition and ensuing restructuring, ECL’s expertise were enhanced, with a more sector specific focus which has changed the conventional business model of the company. Today, the organisation has the flexibility and dynamic capacity to deliver services from project concept to completion in a wide range of fields, and has become the leader in providing consultancy in the fields of education facilities, health facilities and urban development. The firm’s dedicated, qualified and experienced in-house staff and fully fledged design office continue to provide unparalleled services to their clients while steering the company towards greater prosperity. 

Commenting on the company’s achievements to date, MG Group of Companies Chairman Ranjith Gunaratne said, “ECL has excelled and mastered their fields of engineering, architecture and urban planning, over the last 50 years and have reached international standards. As the group prepares for exponential international expansion, I firmly believe that ECL is well positioned to offer turnkey solutions in their sphere of expertise.” 

ECL’s full-spectrum of services to-date includes the design of educational facilities, hospital and health care institutions, habitable urban spaces, roads and highways and many of the firm’s projects have been path-breaking industry firsts. Among recent projects is the National School of Business Management (NSBM) Green University at Pitipana, Homagama, a state-of-the-art, professionally equipped, purposed built campus integrating learning spaces presenting a total university solution hitherto never seen before in Sri Lanka. Additionally, the beautification of certain areas in Kandy city under Strategic Cities Development Project is another significant achievements of ECL. Garnering praise for its world-class infrastructure projects, ECL has received international recognition for its NSBM Green University and the Nestle Lanka’s green certified factory among others. 

Being a pioneering Engineering Consultancy company with its proven track record over the years, ECL has been a training ground for hundreds of professionals which include some of the Industry’s most prominent and respected professionals and considers the grooming they received at ECL as an integral part of their core values and professional stature. 

As ECL celebrates its landmark golden jubilee, the mastery of excellent technical skills coupled with professionalism, integrity and exemplary employees remain key characteristics for its continued success. While looking back at its dynamic history, ECL now looks towards the next 50 years very optimistically, with expertise and disciplines that place the company at the forefront of its profession.