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Construction projects at BIA to be expedited

12 May 2021

By Dinitha Rathnayake   The construction work on large-scale projects at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake is to be expedited, The Morning learnt. According to Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga, two large-scale projects are currently underway at the BIA.  One project concerns the construction of a second passenger terminal at the airport.  The Government of Japan has provided Japanese yen 41,553,891,286 for this purpose.  Meanwhile, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is spending Rs. 35,135,843,333 for this project. Although the project was launched in 2014, construction work resumed in 2020 after the current Government came to power. The construction of the new terminal will increase the annual passenger capacity of the airport to 15 million passengers, it is learnt. At present, the annual passenger capacity of said airport is six million. The construction of the new terminal, which will have multi-storey car parks, a new airport lounge, a passenger lounge, and interconnected multimodal transport services, is expected to be completed in 36 months. The Minister also instructed the airport authorities to report to him on the progress of the construction, every two weeks. The other construction is of a tarmac ramp to allow for the parking of aircraft and a taxiway, and it is scheduled to be completed in September this year. A total of Japanese yen 1.1 billion and Rs. 4.4 billion has been spent on this project.   


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