Tenders for the construction of the second terminal at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) will close and bids will be opened by the end of March, according to Deputy Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation Janitha Ruwan Kodithuwakku.
The technical bid process is scheduled to open at the end of March, while the commercial bid will follow in May.
However, Kodithuwakku informed The Sunday Morning that the budget for the project was yet to be finalised, as it would be allocated based on a balanced work model.
The project will not be directly funded by the Government but will rely on external loans.
Speaking in Parliament, Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports, and Civil Aviation Bimal Rathnayake confirmed that construction would begin this year, assuring that the BIA would have 30 new gates operational by next winter.
He also pledged to introduce a domestic aviation law to regulate domestic air transportation and stated that all international airports in Sri Lanka would be used for domestic air travel as well.
The Ministry of Transport, Highways, Ports, and Civil Aviation first called for tenders in September 2024 for the BIA Development Project Phase II Stage 2, which includes the construction of the second passenger terminal.
Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd. (AASL) released tender number 105/T/2024, outlining the construction required to complete Package ‘A1’ of the project.
The second terminal is being developed to accommodate the increasing number of passengers using the BIA. While the airport was originally designed to handle six million passengers annually, it processed 7.2 million travellers the previous year and was projected to serve 8.5 million in 2024, according to former Ministry Secretary K.D.S. Ruwanchandra.
To address this demand, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) agreed to finance Terminal 2 expansion under a concessionary loan scheme, committing Rs. 170 billion to the project.
This partnership aims to elevate the annual passenger capacity of the BIA to 16 million upon the terminal’s completion, significantly reducing air traffic congestion.
The new construction package is set to be completed within 30 months, with a final deadline in 2027. The project was initially launched in December 2020 at an estimated cost of Rs. 145 billion, but Sri Lanka’s economic crisis in 2022 halted progress, leaving only 6% of Phase II completed.