The National Mobile Service Provider SLT Mobitel reached another milestone recently when it was awarded the prestigious Project Management Excellence Award 2015 for the Asia Pacific by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Young Project Manager of the Year 2015 from the International Project Management Association (IPMA), the world’s leading professional project management organizations based in the United States and Europe respectively.

SLT Mobitel was awarded for its Stage VII Network Expansion Project which received immense recognition for the company’s ingenious efforts. The staggering USD 100 million initiative was completed within a short duration of 16 months well ahead of the scheduled 19 month timeline. The success of the project was led by the application of Project Management best practices and innovative methodologies followed by effective decision-making.

In the meantime, SLT Mobitel Network Implementation Senior Manager, Amila Aluthwala, the Project Manager of the Stage VII Network Expansion Project won the Young Project Manager of the Year 2015 from the International Project Management Association (IPMA).

SLT Mobitel Chairman P.G. Kumarasinghe stated, “SLT Mobitel has won this prestigious award because of the team’s commitment, loyalty and discipline, without which the Stage VII Expansion Project could not have been a grand success. We are very proud of our Mobitel team and their untiring efforts. Through this achievement we have been able to introduce cutting-edge capabilities to the local telecommunication service ecosystem in keeping with our ideals of caring and sharing, and we have also successfully claimed market leadership in rural areas.”

“Being awarded an internationally highly acclaimed award from the Project Management Institute is a proud occasion for SLT Mobitel and gives added recognition for the SLT Group. This high level of achievement will give greater recognition to the skills and capabilities of local professionals in the international arena and would thereby further enhance our opportunity to compete in the international market,” SLT Mobitel Group CEO Dileepa Wijesundera commented.

“We were able to successfully complete the project because of the clear communication of the project objectives among all stakeholders and the continuous monitoring and timely re-planning carried throughout the project cycle that allowed us to coordinate and work efficiently to meet our targets.  Our team takes great pride in receiving recognition for their efforts and for the remarkable opportunity of being part of an immensely successful initiative,” SLT Mobitel Senior General Manager - Engineering and Operations Rasantha Hettithanthrige stated.

In addition to that, SLT Mobitel’s Stage VII Network Expansion Project had been recognized previously by several other institutes as follows, “Best Project of the Year” category at National Project Management Excellence (NPME) Awards, organized by the Project Management Institute (PMI) Sri Lanka Chapter in November 2013 and became the winner of “Engineering Excellence Award for Services” by the Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) in August 2014. The company was also recognized as the first runner-up in “ImpACT 2014”, the CIMA Business Case Awards organized by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in November 2014.

PMI is the world's leading not-for-profit professional membership association for the project, programme and portfolio management profession. PMI delivers value for more than 2.9 million professionals in several countries through global advocacy, collaboration, education and research.The Project Management Excellence Awards recognizes utilization of Project Management best practices as per the PMI guidelines and one award will be awarded to each 5 regions of the world. Furthermore, the Annual IPMA Young Project Manager Award gives recognition to the best practices in project management and effective demonstration of project management competences, scope and the value of the project.

Photo caption: (From left) PMI Vice Chair – Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, SLT Mobitel Manager Project Management –Malindu Hapuarachchi, SLT Mobitel Senior Manager – Network Implementation –Amila Aluthwala, PMI Representative – Sujitha Seevaratnam, SLT Mobitel Senior General Manager – Engineering and Operations – Rasantha Hettithanthrige and PMI Chair – Steve Del Grosso