Celebration of 50 Years

On 11th of September 2019, the Institute of Surveying and Mapping, Diyatalawa (ISMD) celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Surveyor General's Training School initially started in Colombo in the year 1912 and shifted to Diyatalawa in 1924. Survey General's Training School was upgraded to Institute of Surveying and Mapping with the assistance of United Nations Development Programme in 1969. In 1990, it was again uplifted to award Bachelor Degree in surveying sciences under the section 25A of the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978.

During this fifty year of journey Institute of Surveying and Mapping, Diyatalawa carries prestigious history with a track record in making of more than 5,000 Surveying Professionals, nearly 3,000 Mapping Technical Officers and around 3,000 Field Survey Assistants not only for Sri Lanka but for South East Asia and Middle East. Graduates of ISMD performed in excellent manner and brought credit to Sri Lanka and to Institute of Surveying and Mapping. Moreover, through this era ISMD conducted many well-structured short term courses related to Surveying, Mapping, GIS & GPS to cater the national demand from the state organizations & academic institutions. Addition to this ISMD conducts about 100 one day visiting programs for technological awareness as requested by various institutes and defense authorities.

To commemorate this event two days exhibition was conducted on 11th & 12th of September 2019 at ISMD with all kind of technological development in surveying field and opened for public including school children. Key celebration was held on 11th of September 2021 with chief guest of Hon. Kayantha Karunathilaka, who was the subject minister at the time and to remark this day Standardized Web-Based Geographical Name System was launched under the direction of Professor J.B.Dissanayake.