Mattala will not be sold: Deputy Minister

Deputy Transport Minister Ashok Abeysinghe yesterday assured that the Mattala Airport would never be sold and it will function as a joint venture between the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Sri Lanka and the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Addressing the media at Sirikotha, the Deputy Minister said the agreement in this regard is scheduled to be presented to the Cabinet in the near future. After that, the agreement will also be presented in Parliament for ratification.

The government invited prospective investors to transform the loss making airport into a profit-making joint venture. But no such proposal was received. Finally, the AAI agreed to operate the Mattala Airport as a joint venture.

The Mattala Airport was constructed with an investment of 252 million US dollars which was made out of a 190 million US dollar loan from the China Exim Bank and China Harbour Engineering Company spending approximately 40 million US dollars and the Lankan government spending 22 million US dollars for the project. The Deputy Minister said the Chief Valuer has estimated the current value of the MIA as 320 million US dollars.

The monthly average income of the Mattala Airport stands at only Rs. 6.5 million against an average monthly expenditure of Rs.290 million.

He further said the airport has to pay debt servicing of Rs 1.7 billion per a year and the government has already paid three installments for 2015 to 2018 using funds generated from the Katunayake International Airport.

“The joint venture with the Indian party would be a win-win situation for both parties because the profits as well as the losses will be borne by the parties at a ratio of 70 to 30,” he added.

 

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