The construction works of large scale projects at the Katunayake International Airport is being expedited. Minister of Tourism,Hon. Prasanna Ranatunga has instructed the airport authorities to identify the existing obstacles and resolve them expeditiously.
The Minister gave these instructions at a progress review meeting of the Katunayake Airport Development Projects. The meeting was held at the Ministry of Tourism recently
Two large scale projects are currently underway at the Katunayake Airport. Construction of the second passenger terminal at the airport has commenced under the Package ‘A’ works. The Government of Japan has provided Japanese Yen 41,553,891,286.00 for this purpose and the Government of Sri Lanka is spending Rs. 35,135,843,333.00. Although the project was commenced in 2014 when Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa was the President, the previous government continued to delay its commencement and construction works resumed in 2020, after the current government came to power. Construction of new terminals will increase the annual passenger capacity of the Katunayake Airport up to 15 million passengers. At present, the annual passenger capacity of the Katunayake Airport is 06 million passengers. Construction works of the project is overseen by Japan Airport Consultants and Nippon Koi Limited. The contractor of the project is Japan Taisei Company and the project is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Construction of the new terminal, which will have multi - storied car parks, new airport lounges, passenger lounges and interconnected multimode transport services, is expected to be completed in 36 months.
Hon.Minister, Prasanna Ranatunga stressed that the construction of this project should be completed within the scheduled time. The Minister said that there were already allegations of construction delays and pointed out to the Japanese contractor that the government was not prepared to delay or halt development projects in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the Minister instructed that the project be completed within the scheduled time frame without giving reasons for the delay. The Minister also instructed the airport authorities to report to him on the progress of construction every two weeks.
The construction of the Package ‘B’ works of this project, i.e, construction of apron and taxiways is scheduled to be completed in September this year. A sum of Japanese Yen 1,152,273,761.00 and Sri Lankan Rupees 4,456,377,248.00 have been spent on this Package ‘B’ works. The Minister instructed to complete the construction of the project on time and stressed that further time could not be given as time had been given on two occasions.
Hon. State Minister, D.V. Chanaka, Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism, Mr. S. Hettiarachchi, Secretary to the State Ministry,Mr. Madhava Devasurendra, Chairman of the Airport and Aviation Company, Retired Major,Mr. G.A Chandrasiri, Deputy Chairman,Mr. Rajiv Sooriyarachchi and representatives of the Contracting Company were also present.
