Air Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is going to get a third International Airport that will be contructed in Hingurukgoda as per the Master Plan that had been drawn up for the development of Trincomalee, which was handed over to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe by Singaporean Consultancy group Surbana Jurong at Temple Tree.

Addressing the event, the Prime Minister said that the vision to develop Sri Lanka into a commercial and tourism hub in the Indian Ocean would be completed with the inclusion of this Master Plan.

Accordingly, Trincomalee would be made as an export hub by creating a clean industrial ecosystem,which can add value to the already abundant agriculture, aquaculture, minerals and resources in its hinterland. The region will also be an Eastern Logistics centre through the economic opportunities gained as a result of the many Free Trade Agreements Sri Lanka has entered into with South and South East Asian nations, as well from maritime traffic in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean.

Megapolis and Western Development MinisterPatali Champika Ranawaka, who also spoke at the event, said that special attention would be paid to environmental protection and natural resource preservation.

“11% of the plan consists of urban development while 89% of it would deal with wildlife, water and irrigation and environmental conservation,” the Minister said.

The Master Plan lays out that the first step would be the setting up of a special planning and development authority, which will be called the Master Plan Implementation Unit.

“This would be later upgraded to Trincomalee Metropolitan Planning and Development Authority. The Plan would see the development of an international airport in Hingurakgoda, a new City Centre, multi-story parking centres, a theme/amusement park, an international cricket stadium, several highways, specialized highways such as dedicated freight highways, a cruise terminal, container terminal at China Bay, an oil refinery and an LNG power plant,”Surbana Jurong Managing DirectorPhilip Tan elaborated.

The entire Trincomalee project is to be completed by 2050.

Should Sri Lanka contruct a seperate International in Hingurukgoda instead of developing the Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport which urgently needs the terminal expansion. Why Sri Lanka didn't want to develop the existing the Trincomalee airport instead of building the new airport from the scratch?