President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed officials to expedite projects aimed at increasing passenger-handling capacity and improving facilities at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake.
He also said other domestic airports across the country needed to be developed alongside the Katunayake expansion to meet future aviation requirements, the Daily Mirror reported.
The President made the remarks at a discussion held at the Presidential Secretariat on Tuesday on the 2027 Budget proposals for the Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation. The meeting reviewed the progress of ongoing airport development projects, with particular attention to work intended to raise passenger capacity and upgrade infrastructure.
Discussions also covered the expansion of supporting infrastructure, including highways, to serve the aviation sector.
Those attending included the Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation and Minister of Energy, Anura Karunathilaka; the Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Anil Jayantha Fernando; Deputy Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation Janith Ruwan Kodituwakku; the President’s Chief of Staff, Prabath Chandrakeerthi; Senior Additional Secretary to the President Russell Aponsu; the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Dr Harshana Suriyapperuma; the Secretary to the Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation, W.W.S. Mangala; and the Director General of the Department of National Budget, Jude Nilukshan.
The Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation was the subject of a similar pre-budget review chaired by the President at the Presidential Secretariat on 16 July, when EconomyNext reported a 30-year blueprint to raise BIA’s annual capacity to 24.2 million passengers by 2055. Tuesday’s filing carries none of those figures, and the two meetings should not be read as one.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror’s filing gives no cost, no timeline, no passenger target and no named project under the Katunayake expansion, and does not say which domestic airports are to be developed. No other verified newsroom had filed on Tuesday’s meeting at the time of writing.
