The Government expects to complete the procurement process for the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) expansion project by the end of next month, with contracts for most of the project’s five sub-components set to be awarded, Deputy Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation Janitha Ruwan Kodithuwakku told The Sunday Morning.
Kodithuwakku said that the airport expansion had been divided into five sub-projects. The first contract has already been awarded to Maga Engineering, while procurement for the other four packages is currently underway.
“We expect to award most of the contracts by the end of next month,” he said.
“We have divided the expansion project into five sub-projects. As of now, the first project has been awarded to Maga Engineering. The remaining projects are currently in the tendering process. We are hopeful that by the end of August, we should be able to offer most of them. We are trying to finish these projects by around August of next year,” he said.
The Government had previously said that it was in discussions with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to secure additional funding after the concessional loan allocated for the long-delayed BIA expansion proved insufficient.
However, Kodithuwakku stated that the BIA expansion would be paid exclusively through national/local resources, with no foreign loans or aid requested for the project, despite previous claims of projects being linked to Japanese financing.
“The funding is entirely self-funded,” he noted, confirming that the Government was not seeking financing from foreign countries.
The latest update comes as the Cabinet of Ministers approved awarding the first construction contract to M/s Maga Engineering Ltd. for the development of a new departure terminal facility at the BIA.
The contract covers the construction of 36 check-in counters and six boarding gates that connect the departure terminal to aircrafts. The contract was granted following an international competitive bidding process that began after Cabinet approval in February 2025.
The broader airport development is part of the Government’s long-term plan to increase the BIA’s passenger capacity to 24.2 million per year by 2055.
During a recent meeting chaired by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, officials stated that the second phase of the BIA development project would include expanding the existing arrival and departure terminals, constructing a new terminal building, and carrying out depot expansion works, as well as efforts to digitalise airport services and improve transport connectivity to the airport.
The Government has stated that the long-term expansion strategy will be finished within the next three years and is intended to accommodate aviation demand in the coming decades.