Arjuna Ranatunga Initiates World's Tallest Christmas Tree 1
Arjuna Ranatunga initates the world's tallest Christmas tree

Sri Lanka surpassed the world record for the tallest artificial Christmas tree on Saturday despite building delays forced the organisers to prune the structure by half. The plan was initiated by cricket legend Arjuna Ranatunga to build the record-breaking tree in Srilanka’s capital Colombo. But the Catholic Church felt that the money could have been better spent on charity.

Event coordinator Mangala Gunasekera quoted “Initial opposition… meant a delay of about 10 days in our construction work”

“Our target was 100 metres (328 feet), but construction delays forced us to cut down the height”

But as of Saturday, the tree was 57 metres tall which is two metres taller than the artificial Christmas tree erected in the Southern Chinese Province of Guangzhou last year.

The Sri Lankan claim is subject to confirmation by the world records. Gunasekera also claimed that 600,000 LED bulbs would be used to decorate the tree along with a six metre Santa and a 12-metre sleigh.

“On Christmas eve, we will switch on the lights” Gunasekera added.

Ranatunga has initiated the tree as a symbol of religious unity and has been at the forefront of the project to raise funds.

Th project was initially discarded by the archbishop as he felt that it was “wasteful expenditure” but was later on rescued when after the Sri Lankan Prime Minister spoke to the archbishop of Colombo to secure his blessings.