The Ministry of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation has decided to invite new private sector investments for the development of the operations and infrastructure of the Mattala International Airport (MRIA).
Deputy Minister Ruwan Kodithuwakku stated that a cabinet paper will be presented to streamline the process and attract new investors for the underutilized facility. Earlier, the cabinet had approved the transfer of the airport operations to a Russian-Indian joint venture, but the agreement was later abandoned.
The reason for this was that issues arose regarding the sovereignty of the national airspace due to the subjection of a relevant party to US sanctions and therefore the government withdrew from the agreement.