Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva instructed officials to expedite the procurement process for the establishing electronic gate (e-gate) facilities similar to those facilities at other modern and developed international airports, at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayake.
The Minister gave these instructions to Airport and Aviation (Sri Lanka) (Private) Limited officials at a special discussion held at the Ministry Auditorium on January 13.
At the discussions, the Minister gave further instructions to establish two such electronic gates at the Arrivals Terminal and two at the Departures Terminal under Phase I of the project.
“Although the Project had been initiated in 2017, it had not been implemented due to various reasons. Therefore, I instructed officials to expedite obtaining the required approvals according to the relevant procurement process and reinstate the project immediately, with less expenditure and in a more advantageous manner to the country,” the Minister said.
It was also revealed at the discussions that the financial provisions for the project will be allocated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and that the process will take around one year.
The Minister emphasized the importance of implementing the project through the financial aid from the IOM and until such time to establish as an urgent requirement utilizing funds from the Airport and Aviation (Sri Lanka) (Private) Limited according to accepted tender procedures.
“We must obtain the IOM assistance for modernization projects of the port sector; a Joint Committee is to be appointed for this purpose. Under that committee, priority should be extended to obtain the scan machine that should be available very soon at the Kankesanthurai (KKS) Port. The technical assistance of the IOM should also be obtained for performing operations and other activities at the port with enhanced productivity,” Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva emphasized.
The requirement for two scan machines for security scanning of metal and other material for the passenger ferry service between KKS and India to be launched in the near future was emphasized at the discussion and instructions were extended to obtain them without delay.
Secretary to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Aviation K.D.S. Ruwanchandra, IOM National Programme Officer Neshan Gunasekara, Airport and Aviation (Sri Lanka) (Private) Limited Chairman (Retired Major Gen.) G.A. Chandrasiri, Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Vice Chairman of Gayan Algewattege, Actg. Additional Managing Director (Administration and Operations) of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Prabath Jayantha and officials of relevant institutions were also present.
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