COLOMBO :With the technical evaluation of the two bids received for the expansion of Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) still incomplete, the Airport and Aviation Authority Limited (AASL) is to set up additional check-in counters under a marquee to deal with an anticipated seasonal rush of visitors.
The marquee will be provided by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), AASL Chairman Air Chief Marshall (Retd) Harsha Abeywickrema said.
A “garden area” in the departure lounge will be taken over for this purpose. The marquee will be geared with 14 additional counters, starting at the beginning of November. It will remain for around four months.
The Chairman said this is a temporary measure pending the start of a separate project—the tender for which has already been awarded—to permanently increase the number of check-in counters at BIA from the current 60 to 74 within the existing space.
In addition to an increase in the number of visitors, including tourists, to Sri Lanka, it has now become urgent to put in place contingency measures to deal with the traffic, travel industry sources pointed out, adding that airlines have asked for extra slots for the upcoming winter season.
Meanwhile, the much-awaited award of the BIA expansion project has yet to take place, with bids received by Japan’s Taisei Corporation and the Sojitz-L&T consortium still under technical evaluation. A high-level Cabinet committee is overseeing the process. Once the contract is awarded, it will take around 30 months (with contingencies) for the project to be completed.
The project is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and is now urgent due to the heavy overcrowding of the existing terminal during peak hours.
The bid closing date for the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) Development Project was March this year, but the tender was advertised as early as mid-last year. The financial bids can only be opened once JICA concurs with the results of the technical evaluation.
Industry sources said officials are exercising “an overabundance of caution” after the Committee on Public Enterprises denounced the manner in which the project was executed in the past.Sunfay Times
