(By Tharindu Jayawardhana – MediaLK)
Ambuluwawa is a public trust established by Parliament, not a private enterprise. Created under the Ambuluwawa Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Jayaratne Religious Centre and Biodiversity Complex Trust Fund Act, No. 44 of 2009, it is legally bound to operate in the public interest and is subject to annual audits by the Auditor General.
Yet a MediaLK investigation—grounded in official audit findings, company registry records, and civil registration documents—reveals how a Rs. 1.2 billion cable car project at Ambuluwawa was awarded outside the tender process to a company registered just six days after the Board of Trustees approved the project. That company is closely linked to the Chairman’s family and sitting Board members of Ambuluwawa trust fund.
What the Auditor General Revealed
According to the Auditor General’s Report for 2024, the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees decided on 10 June 2023 to implement a cable car project with an estimated cost of Rs. 1.2 billion. The plan was to lease the completed project to a private company for construction and operation, while the Trust itself would bear 16 per cent of the estimated cost.
However, the audit report records a critical deviation:
“At the Board of Trustees meeting held on 10 June 2023, it had been decided to implement a cable car project based on an estimated cost of Rs. 1.2 billion, to lease the completed project to a separate company for construction and operation, and for the trustee to bear 16 per cent of the estimated cost. However, without calling for tenders, an agreement had been entered into with a company that had been registered only six days after the date of the Board meeting, that is, on 16 June 2023, to execute the project.”
Agreement between Ambuluwawa and Amber Adventure
Agreement between Ambuluwawa and Amber Adventure
Auditor General’s Recommendation
The Auditor General recommended the following:
“A proper inquiry should be conducted regarding this project, appropriate action should be taken against the parties who acted irregularly, and steps should be taken to regularize the project.”
Following this disclosure, MediaLK carried out further investigations into the manner in which the cable car project was awarded.
Legal Framework Governing the Trust
Under Section 15 of the Act, the Ambuluwawa Trust Fund is classified as a scheduled institution under the Bribery Act.  According to Section 3, the Board of Trustees consists of 10 members, including two ex-officio members:
  • Secretary to the Ministry of Buddha Sasana
  • Secretary to the Ministry of Environment
The Chairman of the Board must be the founder of the Trust Fund.
Section 19 states that the founder is D. M. Jayaratne. After his death, his son must succeed to the position, and thereafter the eldest male descendants, as set out in Section 16.
Accordingly, the current Chairman is Dissanayake Mudiyanselagé Anuradha Lanka Pradeep Jayaratne, the son of D. M. Jayaratne.
Board Composition and Gaps
Apart from the Chairman and the two ex-officio members, seven additional members should be appointed. However, the Trust’s official website (“Our Team”) lists only six members in addition to the Chairman.
The listed members including chairman are:
  1. Dissanayake Mudiyanselagé Anuradha Lanka Pradeep Jayaratne (Chairman)
  2. Samarawickrama Mudiyanselagé Indika Prasad
  3. Godamunne Wedagedara Chandraratne
  4. Sivan Gnanasekaran
  5. Meewature Vajiragnana Himi
  6. Naeem Asath Ali
  7. J. M. Senanayake Bandara
Origins of the Cable Car Idea
The earliest written evidence MediaLK was able to find regarding a Cable Car Project associated with Ambuluwawa appears in the speech delivered by the then Minister of Plantation Industries, Mr. D. M. Jayaratne, when presenting the Ambuluwawa Act (No. 44 of 2009) to Parliament on 22 July 2009. He stated:
“Preliminary plans have already been prepared to install a cable car system from the Gampola Railway Station up to the Govisewana area near Pillar 11 of the Ambuluwawa hill centre, to provide Sri Lankan people with a remarkable experience. Several investors from Switzerland have also shown special interest in this project, and I am making a strong effort to provide visitors to Ambuluwawa with this unparalleled experience in the near future.”
No further reports regarding this project surfaced thereafter, and information about a Cable Car Project at Ambuluwawa re-emerged only in January 2023.
The Tender That Raises Questions
In January 2023, a tender notice titled “Tender Calling – Cable Car” was published on the Ambuluwawa website.
That tender notice is as follows:
“TENDER CALLING
AMBULUWAWA DISSANAYAKE MUDIYANSELAGE JAYARATNE RELIGIOUS CENTRE AND
BIODIVERSITY COMPLEX
Tender is called hereby for the construction and operation of ‘Cable Car Project’ at the Ambuluwawa Complex and lease the premises for a period of 13 years on the following conditions.
All costs involving the abovementioned project should be exclusively borne by the Tenderer.
Any expenditure borne by the Tenderer for this project will not be refunded by the Trust Board.
This tender should be prepared based the specifications of the proposed Cable Car Project already in place with the Trust Board.
The entire project should be handed over to the Ambuluwawa Trust at the expire of the period of 13 years.
Terms & conditions of the Lease shall be decided by the Trust Board.
Application procedure is as below.
  • Tenderer may prepare his/her own application.
    • Tender application should be forwarded by either registered post or in person to the Chairman, Procurement Board, Ambuluwawa Complex, Ambuluwawa, Gampola.
    • “Tender for the Cable Car Project” should be written on the left hand corner of the application envelope.
    • Close of application: Before 10.00 a.m. on 06th February 2023.
    • Opening of tenders: At 01.00 a.m. on 06th February 2023.
Chairman
Procurement Board
Ambuluwawa Complex
01st January 2023”
This notice was published on the website, it was not possible to ascertain whether it was advertised in national newspapers.
The notice outlined a 13-year lease, under which:
  • All project costs would be borne by the tenderer
  • The completed project would be handed over to the Trust after 13 years
In the end, a portion of the project cost was borne by Ambuluwawa itself. According to the Auditor General’s Report 16% of the project cost was to be borne by the Ambuluwawa Fund, indicating a deviation from the conditions set out in the tender notice published on 1 January 2023. The Auditor General has also stated that, although the decision to hand over the cable car project to a private company was taken on June 10, an agreement was later entered into with a company that was incorporated only six days later, on June 16, to implement the project.
MediaLK therefore conducted an in-depth investigation into the identity of the company involved.
A Company Registered After the Decision
The cable car project was awarded to Amber Adventure (Private) Limited (PV 00278438), registered on 16 June 2023.
However, official company records show that the registration forms for Amber Adventure were submitted on 5 June 2023—five days before the board of trustees approved the project.
If the date stated by the Auditor General for the Board’s decision is correct, the company applied for registration before the decision it would later benefit from, raising serious questions about foreknowledge and procedural integrity.

Directors, Board Members, and Family Links
Amber Adventure was registered with four directors:
  1. Houng Yupin
  2. Samarasinghe Herath Bandula Karunaratne
  3. Jayasekara Mudiyanselagé Senanayake Bandara
  4. Subasinghe Mudiyanselagé Suresh Deepal Subhasinghe
One of these directors, J. M. Senanayake Bandara, is a sitting member of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees and also a shareholder of Amber Adventure.
Further investigations by MediaLK confirmed that Samarasinghe Herath Bandula Karunaratne, the second director of Amber Adventure (Pvt) Ltd, is the father-in-law of the Chairperson of the Ambuluwawa Trust, Anuradha Jayaratne.
The marriage certificate of Anuradha Jayaratne shows that the male party is Dissanayake Mudiyanselagé Anuradha Lanka Pradeep Jayaratne, and the female party is Samarasinghe Herath Dilini Wasana. Under the entry for the father’s full name, the father of Dilini Wasana is stated as Samarasinghe Herath Bandula Karunaratne.
Accordingly, the second director of Amber Adventure—the company awarded the project outside the tender process—is the Anuradha Jayaratne’s father-in-law.
Shareholding and Corporate Control
The initial shareholders of Amber Adventure (Pvt) Ltd are:
  1. Houng Yupin – 36 shares
  2. J. M. Senanayake Bandara – 14 shares
  3. Art Decoration International (Pvt) Ltd – 16 shares
  4. Tranquility Estate (Pvt) Ltd – 34 shares
MediaLK examined official records of both corporate shareholders. These records reveal that Art Decoration International and Tranquility Estate are controlled by the Chairman of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees immediate family, including his wife, father-in-law, and mother-in-law.
Two additional companies (not individual directors) also hold shares in Amber Adventure. MediaLK paid the required fees and obtained official documents from the Registrar of Companies to examine those two companies, revealing the following:
According to Form 15 submitted to the Registrar of Companies on 30 November 2024, the directors of Art Decoration International (Private) Limited (which holds 16 shares in Amber Adventure) are:
  1. Samarasinghe Herath Bandula Karunaratne
  2. Nilani Hachinson
  3. Samarasinghe Herath Ruchini Thamali
  4. Samarasinghe Herath Dilini Wasana
  5. Samarasinghe Herath Chaman Dilanga Karunaratne
Father-in-law of the Chairman of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees is listed as a director of this company as well.
The second director, Nilani Hachinsion, was verified as the mother of Dilini Wasana (Wife of Anuradha Jayaratne) through her birth certificate registered on 15 February 2011, where her mother’s name is recorded as Nilani Hachinsion.
The name Samarasinghe Herath Dilini Wasana is also listed as a director and is recorded as holding 2,361,607 shares in Art Decoration International. To confirm whether this Dilini Wasana is the Anuradha Jayaratne’s wife, MediaLK obtained the assets and liabilities declaration (2025) submitted by Anuradha Jayaratne. Under section 06 (Corporate Rights), it is stated that his wife is a director of Art Decorations International (Private) Limited and holds 2,361,607 shares.
The 3rd and the 4th directors of this company are the siblings of the wife of Anuradha Jayaratne.
Tranquility Estate (Pvt) Ltd
MediaLK then obtained and examined official documents related to Tranquility Estate (Private) Limited, which holds 34% shares in Amber Adventure.
It was revealed that Anuradha Jayaratne, the Chairman of the Ambuluwawa Trust Board who awarded the project to Amber Adventure, had served as a director of Tranquility Estate and resigned on 01 June 2023, which is 10 days before the project was awarded to Amber Adventure. On the same date, his wife Samarasinghe Herath Dilini Wasana was appointed as a director. She resigned as a director on 07 August 2024. The two initial directors of this company were:
  1. Anuradha Jayaratne
  2. Suresh Deepal Subhasinghe
Another Copmany with Board of Trustees
MediaLK further revealed that another private company, Act Venture (Private) Limited, has been registered using the address of the Ambuluwawa Biodiversity Complex. It was registered on 18 March 2021.
According to Form 15 submitted to the Registrar of Companies on 31 December 2022, the shareholders of this company are:

 

  1. Godamunne Wedagedara Chandraratne
  2. Sivan Gnanasekaran
  3. Naeem Mohamed Asad Ali
  4. Samarasinghe Herath Chaman Dilanga Karunaratne
  5. Subasinghe Suresh Deepal
  6. Thanura Chandrala Panapitiya
  7. Jayasekara Mudiyanselagé Senanayake Bandara
  8. Ganggahagedara Hasitha Maduranga Amarakoan
Among the current members of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees, four are shareholders of this private company:
  1. Godamunne Wedagedara Chandraratne
  2. Sivan Gnanasekaran
  3. N. Mohamed Asad Ali
  4. Jayasekara Mudiyanselagé Senanayake Bandara
4th  director of Act Venture Company is also a director of Art Decoration International (Private) Limited, which holds 16 shares in Amber Adventure. 5th Director of Art Decoration International is also the director and a shareholder of Amber Adventure. The 7th director of Act Venture Company is also a director of Amber Adventure and also a member of the Board of Trustees of Ambuluwawa.
Accordingly, MediaLK’s investigation confirmed that Amber Adventure—the company awarded the cable car project without following the tender process—is an entity closely connected to the family of the Chairman of Ambuluwawa board of trustees, and that the Chairman himself served as a director of a shareholder company holding a major share in Amber Adventure until 10 days before the project was awarded.
A member of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees -J M Senanayake Bandara also serves as a director of Amber Adventure, and the lease agreement signed between the Ambuluwawa Trust Fund and Amber Adventure was signed on behalf of the Board of trustees by that same director.
It was also revealed that several members of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees, together with individuals connected to Amber Adventure, have established and maintained a separate private company using the address of the Ambuluwawa Complex.
Therefore, MediaLK’s investigation confirms that there exists a conflict of interest beyond what the Auditor General highlighted. Since Ambuluwawa trust fund is considered a scheduled institution under the Bribery Act, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) has the authority to conduct an investigation into these matters.
Summary of Relationships Based on the Detailed Information Above
Board of Trustees of Ambuluwawa
  1. Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Anuradha Lanka Pradeep Jayaratne
  2. Samarawickrama Mudiyanselage Indika Prasad
  3. Godamunne Wedagedara Chandrarathna
  4. Sivan Gnanasekaran
  5. Meewature Vajiragnana Thero
  6. N. Asath Ali
  7. J. M. Senanayake Bandara
Initial Board of Directors of Amber Adventure (Pvt) Ltd,
the company to which the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees awarded the Cable Car Project
(Company registered on 16 June 2023)
  1. Huang Yuping
  2. Samarasinghe Herath Bandula Karunarathne
    (Father in law of Anuradha Jayaratne, Chairman of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees)
  3. Jayasekara Mudiyanselage Senanayake Bandara
    (Member of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees)
  4. Subasinghe Mudiyanselage Suresh Deepal Subasinghe
Initial Shareholders of Amber Adventure (Pvt) Ltd,
the company awarded the Cable Car Project by the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees
  1. Huang Yuping – 36 shares
  2. Jayasekara Mudiyanselage Senanayake Bandara – 14 shares
    (Member of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees)
  3. Art Decoration International (Pvt) Ltd – 16 shares
  4. Tranquility Estate (Pvt) Ltd – 34 shares
Board of Directors of Art Decoration International (Pvt) Ltd,
which holds 16 shares in Amber Adventure
(According to the 2024 Annual Return)
  1. Samarasinghe Herath Bandula Karunarathne
    (Father-in-law of Anuradha Jayaratne, Chairman of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees)
  2. Nilani Hutchinson
    (Mother-in-law of Anuradha Jayaratne)
  3. Samarasinghe Herath Ruchini Tamali (Sister-in-law of Anuradha Jayaratne)
  4. Samarasinghe Herath Dilini Wasana
    (Wife of Anuradha Jayaratne)
  5. Samarasinghe Herath Chaman Dilanga Karunarathne (Brother-in-law of Anuradha Jayaratne)
Founding Directors of Tranquility Estate (Pvt) Ltd,
which holds 34 shares in Amber Adventure
  1. Anuradha Jayaratne
    (Chairman of the Ambuluwawa Board of Trustees. He resigned from the company 10 days before the Cable Car Project was awarded, and on the same day, his wife was appointed as a director.)
  2. Suresh Deepal Subasinghe
    (Founding director of Amber Adventure, the company awarded the Cable Car Project)
Directors of Act Venture (Private) Limited
the company registered using the address of Ambuluwawa complex.
  1. Godamunne Wedagedara Chandraratne (Member of Board of Trustees of Ambuluwawa)
  2. Sivan Gnanasekaran (Member of Board of Trustees of Ambuluwawa)
  3. Naeem Mohamed Asad Ali (Member of Board of Trustees of Ambuluwawa)
  4. Samarasinghe Herath Chaman Dilanga Karunaratne (Director of art decoration international (pvt) Ltd.)
  5. Subasinghe Suresh Deepal (Director of Amber Adventure)
  6. Thanura Chandrala Panapitiya
  7. Jayasekara Mudiyanselagé Senanayake Bandara (Member of Board of Trustees of Ambuluwawa, Director of Amber Adventure)
  8. Ganggahagedara Hasitha Maduranga Amarakoan

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