Airport expansion

The government is looking for funding worth Rs. 30-40 billion to double the Colombo Airport’s passenger capacity from the current six million to 12 million annually by 2020.
Last year some five million passengers passed through the Colombo Airport.
Funding under Japan’s 40th yen loan for this year could not be obtained due to other priorities of the Government, S.M.R. Rafeek , Project Engineer, Airport & Aviation Services, the state owned Government agency that owns and operates the Colombo Airport, told a seminar on Tuesday.
Those priorities were Eastern development and the building of roads.
He said that the Chinese weren’t approached, as they had already committed themselves to build the Southern Airport.
The design works of the airport expansion project has already been completed, which includes the construction of a new passenger terminal building and the capacity to accommodate eight aircraft. However the airport’s capacity to take in more aircraft is impinged because of limited runway capacity.