Nov 16, Colombo: The second phase of the Bandaranaike International Airport Expansion Project, the largest development project to be launched in the country this year, will commence next Wednesday (18).

The project will be launched to coincide with the one year anniversary of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa assuming office and the birthday of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said.

The current passenger handling capacity of the Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport is 06 million passengers per year. The project aims to increase the number of official passengers handled annually to 15 million. Accordingly, security, efficiency and customer service at the airport will be expanded.

The two-part project consisting of ‘Package A’ and ‘Package B’ is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The Government of Japan has provided a loan of 74397 million Yen (131.5 billion rupees) for the project. The airport and the aviation services companies will spend 21.645 billion rupees. The cost of the 'A' package is 108 billion rupees. Construction is scheduled to be completed in three years.

Phase 1 of ‘Package A’ consists of construction of new multilevel terminal building (Terminal 2) with an approximate floor area of 180,000 m2, where arrivals and departures are separated vertically, Pier no 2 and Pier no 3 with a link concourse, new parking apron and taxiways, elevated access roads, passenger bridges, electricity, water supply and waste disposal system, combustion engines and integrated machinery, and five-storey carpark.

Under the second phase (package A) the machinery, access road, retention pond and storm water drainage system will be constructed and about 80% of the development work has been completed by now. The estimated cost for this is Rs. 06 billion.

Minister Prasanna Ranatunga stated that the relevant contractor has been instructed to complete the construction on time. The Minister said that the Airport and Aviation Company has been instructed to take the necessary steps to complete this in a timely manner after conducting a full monitoring of the situation.