He was responding to a question raised by a journalist regarding an announcement by the Civil Aviation Ministry of India which claimed that there is no proposal under consideration for the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to buy a controlling stake in Sri Lanka’s Mattala Airport. “The discussions on the development project of Mattala Airport are still underway.

Most probably the Indian Minister of State for Civil Aviation would have made such a statement to the Indian Parliament since the agreement between two parties is yet to be finalized,” said the Minister.The Minister assured that the Government will not sell the Mattala Airport and will act with utmost transparency when entering into the agreement which will go through Parliament.

“I promised the Parliament to table the agreement which is scheduled to be signed between the two partners after obtaining the approval of the Cabinet,” he added.