B. D. Rampala

Education and training Rampala was born on 14 November 1910 in Pannipitiya Rukmale. He received his education at Kottawa Ananda Maha Vidyalaya (then Kottawa Buddhist Mix School) Nalanda College Colombo & Ananda College Colombo.

After completing his engineering apprenticeship in 1934 at Colombo University College, he joined Ratmalana Railway Mechanical Engineering Department of the then Ceylon Government Railway (present Sri Lanka Railways). which gave him full praise.

Rampala sought to upgrade the railways. In the mid-1950s, he launched express trains to shorten journey times to major destinations. Named trains, like the Yal Devi and the Udarata Menike, were launched under his leadership. When he launched the Colombo-Matara Ruhunu Kumari train service, in October 1955, it was Rampala himself who drove the train from Colombo to Matara.