Jaffna Airport: Indo-Lanka ties hit the skies
The Jaffna International Airport was opened on Thursday by President Maithripala Sirisena in Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s presence, with the first flight bringing in Indian dignitaries from Chennai.
The ATR72- 600 short- haul flight was operated by Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India. This is Alliance Air’s first international flight. It took just 35 minutes to reach its destination.
Bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka have now truly touched the sky, Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu said, adding that the
inaugural flight was yet another example of India’s commitment to continue with people- oriented development projects here.
“We couldn’t have done it if we had followed routine diplomatic channels,” Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said of the speedy conclusion of the project. “Both parties worked hard to make this happen within six months whereas the project was at talk level for the past 30 years.”
India earlier offered grant assistance to renovate the runway and basic infrastructure at the Palaly Airfield. The recent expansion of the airport and setting up of ancillary facilities were carried out by the Sri Lankan Government. Regular commercial flights between Chennai and Jaffna will start next month.
The airport started receiving international commercial flights after 46 years, bringing hope of economic revival and better connectivity to the war- battered North. Only the first phase has so far being completed with two others to follow.
Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi ( ITAK) Parliamentarian Mavai Senathirajah who is from Maviddapuram in Palaly called the opening a historic post- war event. He said the Government took extraordinary effort to fast-track the project. He called on leaders to resolve the ethnic question in a similar manner.
There were senior citizens in the North who remember boarding Air Ceylon flights from Jaffna to Tiruchi in the 1960s. Among them was one-time Jaffna Municipal Commissioner and Northern Provincial Council Chairman C. V. K. Sivagnanam. He related how, as a 20-yearold, he bought a 40 rupee ticket in 1959 to fly to India from Jaffna.
The Palaly project cost Rs 2.2bn. Sri Lanka spent Rs 1.9bn while India gave grant assistance of Rs 300mn. The main runway's first 950 metres have been overlaid. This will be extended to 1.5 kilometres in the second phase. (See also page 12.)