Minister Silva directs officials to expedite introduction of e-gate facilities at airport

Minister of Ports Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva has instructed officials to expedite the process of establishing electronic gate facilities at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA). The Minister gave those instructions to the officials of the Airport and Aviation (Sri Lanka) (Private) Ltd at a special discussion held at the Ministry auditorium on Friday (13).

It was decided to install two such electronic gates at the Arrivals Terminal and two at the Departures Terminal, under Phase I of the project.

“Although the Project was initiated in 2017, it was not implemented due to various reasons, I noticed. Therefore, I instruct officials to expedite obtaining required approvals, according to relevant procurement processes, 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 would be allocated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and that the process would take around one year.

The Minister emphasised the need for the implementation of the project with financial aid from the IOM.The need two 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 emphasised at the discussion, and the Minister directed the officials to procure the machines expeditiously.

The Secretary to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Aviation, K. D. S. Ruwanchandra, the National Programme Officer of the IOM –Neshan Gunasekara,  Chairman of the Airport and Aviation (Sri Lanka) (Private) Limited – (Retired Major Gen.) G. A. Chandrasiri, Vice Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Gayan Algewattege, Actg. Additional Managing Director (Administration and Operations) of SLPA Prabath Jayantha, and higher officials of relevant institutions were also present at the discussion.