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Saturday, 31 October 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Railway is increasingly becoming a preferred mode of transport to many travellers, both local and foreign. The wide reach of destinations offered by the Sri Lanka Railway, with scenic routes and developing facilities, and the ability to avoid lengthy motor traffic, continues to encourage tourists to opt for the train.
The Mount Lavinia Railway Station is significant to Mount Lavinia Hotel not only as a neighbouring establishment. Incidentally, it is probably the only hotel to share the same name with a railway station; Mount Lavinia. Furthermore, over the past few years, Mount Lavinia Railway Station (MLV) has become a transit point to many guests who arrive at the hotel.
MLV is the seventh railway stop from the main railway station, Colombo Fort in the southern coastal line of Sri Lanka. As such many travellers going to the southern destinations as Hikkaduwa, Galle and Mirissa also go past the Mount Lavinia Railway Station. In addition, the luxury air conditioned first class train to Jaffna commences its journey every morning from MLV.
The importance of MLV to Mount Lavinia Hotel does not end there. As an organisation with a large cadre commuting from Colombo, Panadura and beyond, the railway is also one of the main modes of transport for many of the staff employed at the hotel.
With this background, the staff of Mount Lavinia Hotel came together to refurbish the neighbouring Mount Lavinia Railway Station, in lieu of World Tourism Day, with the aim of maintaining and preserving a clean and pleasant environment to all passengers utilising the railway service and as a good-will gesture to a neighbouring establishment.
The project overlooked the refurbishment of the Station Office by tiling the floor, painting the walls; painting of the outer area and the sign boards, providing brand new platform numbers, and cleaning and decorating the garden area. A board with the direction and distance to main places in Mount Lavinia and Colombo was also placed in the station as a help to many foreigners who arrive there.
“As a leading organisation in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry, we at Mount Lavinia Hotel understand our responsibility towards the society we operate in. Our neighbours are key stakeholders not only in our day to day operations but also in our aim to be a sustainable entity in the long run,” commented Resident Manager Harinda Weerasinghe. He further added, “Mount Lavinia Hotel will be celebrating 210 years next year. Among other facts, it is our acts of social responsibility such as this project that have enabled us to endure in an industry like this for so many years.”
