Programme to expand BIA

 The government has rolled out a major expansion programme at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to the tune of US$ 400 million to cater to 2.5 million tourist arrivals by 2015.

According to the chairman of Airport and Aviation Services Ltd (AASL) Prasanna Wickramasuriya, the proposed expansion project would commence shortly where a second terminal would be built with modern facilities benchmarked with the Shanghai International Airport in Singapore.

The project consists of a 300-room transit hotel inside the airport in addition to the existing 24 room transit hotel as a part of the passenger facilitation programme, Wickramasuriya said.

He said that authorities are also planning to open a duty free apparel zone at BIA with the assistance of the Board of Investment and other relevant stakeholders in order to promote the Sri Lankan apparel sector worldwide.

“At present, BIA’s annual passenger capacity is six million but in 2010 alone more than 5.3 million passengers went through the BIA, which was closer to the saturation point with the ever increasing number tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka,” the Chairman said. (www.info.gov.lk)