Dr. Lawrence Perera
Dr Lawrence Perera’s name has gone down in the annals of the history of Sri Lanka as the first man to manufacture utility motor cars in Sri Lanka and is one who risked and took up the challenge of first local manufacture of cars and the product - economical and affordable ‘Micro Car’ is now fast selling in the local market and expected to export soon.
A man with 30 years of experience in the field of transport saw that there is an infrastructure built in since 147 years in the Sri Lanka Government Railway without maximizing its efficiency. He said that road transport can serve only a limited way and it would not serve the masses of the country properly. This reason prompted him to use his expertise, pick up the vast technology available internationally in designing a prototype train which can carry many people at the same time – to establish Lanka Econo Rail Project.
As they did not have the right kind of total technology in Sri Lanka, they have obtained technical assistance from a world renowned manufacturer Bombardier Transportation from Denmark and also the other company involved is ZF AG transport manufacturers from Germany for the engine. He said that they tied up with this company to manufacture the first prototype train in Sri Lanka. The Micro Car Company is a BOI project having the main objective of manufacturing motor cars locally set up a car manufacturing plant in Polgahawela in 2003. The company is considered the pioneering automobile manufacturer in Sri Lanka. Three Micro models namely Micro Econo, Micro MPV Junior and Micro Trend were introduced during the starting two years.
Micro Cars Ltd as one of the pioneer car manufacturers in Sri Lanka will enter the mass transport business in the country in the near future, Chairman Micro Cars Ltd Dr. Lawrence Perera said at the award ceremony of ISO Certificate 9001-2008 for Micro Cars Ltd held at Cinamon Grand Hotel recently.
Dr Perera said that Micro Cars is the first industry in Sri Lanka to receive ISO 9001-2008 which is a great achievement. It has already launched a range of products from cars to buses and tractors. The company has signed up with world renowned companies and is now looking at the export market. It will export protected Rexton cars to Pakistan, Bangladesh and India in the near future. Micro Cars has the capacity to manufacture 300 cars a year which will save a huge amount of foreign exchange. Commenting more, he said he is planning to enter mass transport business especially with long distance traveling luxury buses that even have restroom facilities.
Dr. Perera, a product of St. Anthony's College, Katugastota and the Ceylon German Technical Training Institute at Ratmalana has wide knowledge and experience in automobile engineering through his work experience in Germany, France, Middle East and local leading companies including Car Mart.
He was honored by Japan for the tremendous service rendered to the automobile engineering sector during the last twenty-five years.
Reference: Online news sources
