He made these remarks after observing the repair work of the runaway of the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) this morning (6th March).

He said that in case the runaway was not repaired there was a possibility that the airport would have got blacklisted. That is the reason we started the repair work on 6th January.  People accused us of closing the airport but we did not fully close it instead we closed the airport for 8 hours daily and did the repair work. We have been able to complete 75% of the work. Therefore we will be able to complete the work on schedule and hand over for the normal schedule.    

The development work is being done according to the technology of Netherlands by the Chinese firm Cathic. Foreign as well as Sri Lankan engineers have confirmed the strength of this runaway for more than 20 years.

After the repairing of the runaway, the construction of the second terminal building of BIA will commence in July while tenders have already been called.

The current government while giving priority for the aviation services has granted financial provisions for the development of the entire transport sector.