Cochin International Airport Ltd may bag deal to build Sri Lankan (weerawila)airport

Weerawila International airport

The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) - India's first airport built with private-public sector participation - may bag a deal to build a greenfield airport in Sri Lanka, the company said Thursday in a statement here.

A seven-member CIAL delegation, headed by managing director S. Bharath, is at present in the island nation and has held several rounds of talks with government ministers. It has also met President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Weerawila International airport-site plan

'On Jan 29, we (the delegation) were taken in a special Sri Lankan Air Force plane to the airport site at Weerawila in southern Sri Lanka for a visit and study,' the statement said.

'The proposed airport site is 15 km away from Hambanota in the southern province of Sri Lanka and around 300 km from Colombo. It is also the political constituency of Rajapaksa.'

Rajapaksa - on a visit to the famous Guruvayoor temple in Kerala two years ago - himself mooted the idea of CIAL building the airport in his country.

'The Sri Lankan president and other officials expressed satisfaction at the discussions held. The minister for ports and aviation informed us that they are keen to take the project forward and has requested all possible assistance from CIAL for this purpose.'

'A delegation of senior officials from the Sri Lankan government and the Airport Authority of Sri Lanka would visit CIAL within next few months to study our facilities here and to hold further discussions in the matter,' the company statement said.

Sri lankan girl dies in Saudi Arabian Airline flight

A Sri Lankan maid who left the Saudi Arabia on Saturday (27th)morning on Saudi Arabian Airlines flight SV784 died en route to Colombo.

The woman, Letchumi Devi Rasiah, 30 from thalawakele, was returning home on an exit visa after spending one year and 10 months in the Kingdom. The cabin crew gave medical aid when Letchumi developed chest pain two hours after the aircraft left Riyadh.

An airline official in Colombo said that the entire crew had done its best to save the woman. “She was given oxygen and first aid was administered but to no avail.”

L. Ruhunuge, assistant general manager for foreign relations at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), said that he had informed the woman’s parents who would come to claim the body being kept at a morgue in Negombo, some seven kilometers from the Colombo airport.

An autopsy was done yesterday afternoon to establish the exact cause of death.