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New tarmac and taxiway for BIA by September

28 Jun 2021

The construction of a tarmac ramp to allow the parking of aircraft, and a taxiway at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake, is to be completed by September this year. According to the Ministry of Tourism, 93.85% of the construction is completed and a total of Japanese yen 1.1 billion, or Rs. 4.4 billion, has been spent on this project. Although its construction was scheduled to be completed in two and a half years, its work was delayed due to the lack of proper oversight by the previous Government, the Ministry of Tourism claimed. The project has been inspected by Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga personally every two weeks. Construction of a second passenger terminal at the Airport was launched in 2014 and construction work resumed in 2020 after the current Government came into 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 has instructed the Airport authorities to report to him on the progress of the construction every two weeks. The cost of the project is 41,553,891,286 Japanese Yen and approximately Rs. 80 bn. Construction work is also in progress. Its construction period is three years.    


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