Call to display sign boards in all three languages

Airport authorities have been advised by the Official Languages Commission to take immediate steps to put up sign boards inside the airport building in all three languages following a complaint that signs boards only in English were inconveniencing thousands of passengers who were not competent in that language.

Commission members who undertook an inspection tour of the airport last week after they received the complaint found all notices and sign boards were displayed only in English and passengers knowledgeable only in Sinhala or Tamil were forced to ask their way around.

Official Languages Commissioner Raja Collure said he had brought the issue to the notice of the airport authorities nearly two years ago but the matter had been ignored. After the latest complaint, the Airport and Aviation sServices Authority chairman had been informed of the legal requirement that sign-boards be displayed in Sinhala and Tamil.

He was instructed to take steps to remedy this shortcoming.

Airport authorities have been delaying acting on this issue claiming they would have to follow the procedure of calling for tenders to set up new sign boards in all three languages and that it would be an additional expense to the Government. These sources say that the foreign company which provides the sign boards, provides them only in the English language.

Commenting on this shortcoming Mr. Collure said, every airport should have a national identity. He said that in cities in India, the Middle East or even in Europe, name boards were displayed not only in English, but in their other national languages as well.
He said the flight information data too needed to be displayed in all three languages as there were thousands of travellers who were not competent in English and needed to have the information to make their way around the airport. The AAA chairman was unavailable for comment.