Sunday Times 2
Mattala – the magnificent mistake
I have not been to Mattala except passing on that 4-lane highway on my way to Yala. I knew there was a big new airport surrounded by controversy. But as it was white-washed so much in politics I paid scant attention to aeroplanes coming and going from Hambantota.
Recently I read in the Sunday Times about the taxiways of Mattala Airport. I did not believe what the Sunday Times journalist had written but just out of curiosity I looked at a landing chart of Mattala. It shocked me to see the runway and taxiway plan of this 35 billion rupee airport. The journalist was right; we had bungled mega style. If I may manipulate Cervantes and modify his quote the expression would be “one man’s airport is to another man a complete folly.” Not even a ‘Full Fool” would have designed the absurdities of Mattala where the ground movements are concerned.
Forget the commercial reasons; I am talking pure construction matters. Some exaggerated genius from a high political pedestal may have drawn this plan and constructed an airport with a glaring basic mistake. There is no taxi-way to reach the two ends of the runway without back-tracking on the main take-off and landing strip. Do not go far, just look at Katunayake; that will clearly tell you how international airports construct their taxiways. The ones in black are the runways and the ones in grey are the taxi ways.
Yes, there are other places where this type of designs exists. Hululle International Airport in the Maldives is one. But the Maldivians had a reason to construct a back-tracking runway. Theirs is an island strip and there is no room to construct a separate taxi way to reach the starting point.
How did we end up inheriting a colossal shame in aviation? Space — we had all the land we wished to construct taxi-ways and could have even gone to Bundala and back to join the runway-end if such was the ambition. But someone and some others in collective agreement constructed this taxiway-less airport. Have a look at JFK International Airport in the middle of New York City. It has four runways and all have taxi-ways to reach the end and no one back tracks to take off. Anywhere in the world it is the same. And if there is any city that is crowded for space, it is NY. But they had sensible people who know aviation to design their runways at JFK. But we? Guess some things are best left unsaid.
Do not blame MR. It is those highly-paid so-called experts who should be castigated. The Grand-Masters who designed Mattala made it more like a cripple in crutches lining up to run a 100-metre race. Maybe it was a reincarnation of ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ syndrome, Sri Lankan style. Mattala walked naked to the cheers of ‘yes’ men who lined up to applaud all the way to Diyawanna Oya.
So now we have a four-lane highway to bring and take out passengers, but no passengers. Runway strength and length to land the heaviest and the largest modern skybirds, but no planes. Fancy appearance and fancier electronics with instrument landing systems, but some fool forgot to have a taxiway for the jets to enter the runway without doing a 180-turn at the end. I am not even mentioning runway alignment and cross-winds, bird strikes and raping the environment. That is trivia relative to the ‘no taxiway’ construction. We will even forget the no-passenger story. All such things we know are purely political. But the construction without the proper taxiway is nothing but incompetency at the highest level and the culprit responsible should pay for that mortal sin.
I also read in the newspapers someone advising COPE that the airport earned a lot of money from over-flying traffic. It stated that airlines flew the route on Sri Lankan skies because Mattala was there to land in case of an emergency. Tomorrow you can set fire to Mattala, burn it to the ground and paste the ashes on the foreheads of those experts; the planes will still fly the same route without batting an eyelid. That I know for sure for I have been in that sky for a long time flying heavy aeroplanes all over the world.
Just for comparison, San Francisco International has many runways and the longest is 3,600 metres in length and 45 metres width. Mattala is 3,500 metres long and 60 metres wide. Wider than SFO and only short by 100 metres. Of course we have a brilliantly designed taxiway – my foot!
Now let’s get back to a simple argument, kindergarten style. Someone built Mattala and another closed it and the cost was borne by the coffers of the motherland. Well! One of them has to be wrong, either the builder or the ‘shut it down’ man. But looks like no one is at fault? The reason is simple, in politics “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.”
What would be the solution? The taxiway problem can be sorted out if someone wakes up and admits and constructs a new taxiway. As for the airport and its commercial value, well that is a whole new ball game. Other than international passenger jets coming and landing and taking off from Mattala, any other utilisation of it would be like housing back-packers at the Taj Mahal.
Of course there is another solution; no I am not serious, but mine in jest is no worse than the original vision of building Mattala. Send four Kobelco bulldozers and run it to the ground. After all, it is only a matter of 35 billion rupees? The people who run this country have spent a lot more than that on their whims and fancies and that started from the day we received independence.
Elmojay1@gmail.com