COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has entered the Guinness World Records for constructing the world’s tallest artificial Christmas tree in 2016, Guinness has said in a statement.

The tree is 72.1 metres tall, and has been made by Arjuna Ranatunga in December last year, the statement said.

The certificate by Guinness World Records recognising the achievement has been handed over to the government of Sri Lanka and former cricket player and the then Minister of Ports and Shipping Arjuna Ranatunga cited the achievement as a mark of unity in the multi cultural and multi religious island nation.

“This is just to show the world that we can live as one country, one nation,” said Ranatunga, who came under much criticism for “waste of money”.

The artificial Christmas Tree was put up at the Galle Face Green in Colombo last Christmas and was initially planned to be 325-foot high, but due to delays in construction workers were able to achieve only up to 236 feet by Christmas eve.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2017