Batti domestic airport construction commences today

Construction work on the domestic airport at Batticaloa will begin today under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa who would visit the area today to look into the airport development project, the Civil Aviation Ministry said yesterday.

The airport which would be located at Batticaloa Air Force base was estimated to cost over Rs.820 million. The development project would include the construction of a terminal building, extending and overlaying of the runaway, repairing the apron, developing the access roads and setting up 24 hour operations in the airport.

The development of the Batticaloa domestic airport comes under a project initiated by President Rajapaksa to build ten domestic airports in the country to boost tourism and to enable tourists to travel directly to a particular destination in the country

“The development of the Batticaloa domestic airport comes under a project initiated by President Rajapaksa to build ten domestic airports in the country to boost tourism and to enable tourists to travel directly to a particular destination in the country via a domestic airport instead of landing at the Katunayake International Airport for the further convenience of travelers,” ministry officials said. Batticaloa, Puttalam, Ratmalana, Koggala, Sigiriya, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Jaffna, Trincomalee and Ampara have been chosen as tourist destinations where domestic airports would be developed in the next five years.

There were plans to build hotels and guest houses in close proximity to the Batticaloa domestic airport in the future, officials said. The 2011 budget allocation for the development of domestic airports was Rs.750 million. Since the cost of developing the Batticaloa airport alone exceeded the total budget allocation, President Rajapaksa had requested for funds to be allocated from the Treasury, ministry officials said.