The Mattala white elephant
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So the government has come up with another plan to re-develop the loss-making Mattala International Airport, once dubbed the ‘loneliest airport in the world’ for its lack of passengers.What is it? I dived deeper into the issue after receiving a call this Thursday morning from Ruwanputha, my young economist friend. “It seems we are going through another cycle of foolhardy decisions pertaining to the Mattala airport,” he said. “Why do you say that?” I asked. “Well the government has decided to transform the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) into an aircraft maintenance hub. Was this decision arrived at after a proper assessment?” he asked. “I am not sure about that. Surely, the decision must have been taken after much thought,” I said. “Well let’s wait and see,” he said.
The decision to convert the airport to an aircraft maintenance hub was made by Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Bimal Rathnayake in Parliament on March 7 during the budget debate. He said the government is seeking a suitable foreign partner to make MRIA a profitable venture, adding that the airport was constructed at a cost of Rs. 36.5 billion, but over the past five years, it has incurred a total loss of Rs. 38.5 billion. “Our goal is to turn this into a profitable institution.” Noble words indeed!
There have been many similar ‘attempts” to transform Mattala airport into a profitable venture like the plan to transform it into a ‘strip-and-sell’ venture – inviting aircraft owners to send their old aircraft to be stripped and usable parts exported. Then in April 2024 (the tenure of the Ranil Wickremesinghe regime), the government announced that India’s Shaurya Aeronautics along with a Russian firm had been awarded a management contract to run the Mattala airport. What happened to these proposals? Just like the current government’s decision to continue with the IMF’s bail-out package, even though President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his parliamentary colleagues were opposed to it when in the opposition, the incumbent government needs to take a hard look at decisions made by the previous regime and consider the ‘good’ ones instead of discarding every proposal made by the former rulers.
Of course, the decision to construct an international airport (at a cost of US$209 million, with $190 million coming from a high-interest loan from the Exim Bank of China) was a foolhardy one, as it was based on the fact that one-time President Mahinda Rajapaksa wanted to develop the infrastructure in his constituency for political reasons rather than it being a rational decision based on demand and supply. The following years of the struggling airport are proof that the airport has become a white elephant. The then government virtually ‘forced’ or ‘coerced’ some airlines to use Mattala, but after a while it became evident they couldn’t continue due to losses in such operations. Scheduled airlines stopped operating between the years 2015 to 2020 and then operations of only a few airlines resumed. In recent times, only a few charters have been using the airport. At one time the airport witnessed less than a dozen passengers a week, while its cargo terminals were also once used to store paddy during the harvesting period!
Environmentalists have been vehemently opposed to the construction of the Mattala airport as it meant clearing nearly 2,000 acres of land and forests used frequently by elephants and migratory birds. Once again Sri Lanka had encroached on elephant territory compelling the animals to stray into nearby villages in search of food. Often elephants are seen on the Hambantota highways.
Along with the airport (named after Mahinda Rajapaksa), came the construction of the Hambantota port and an international conference hall (said to be bigger in capacity than the BMICH in Colombo) which has become another white elephant. Who is paying for this folly? The taxpayers, of course, in which billions of rupees of Citizen Perera’s hard earned money have gone down the drain. The first phase of the port was constructed at a cost of $508 million, higher than the original estimate of $360 million, while its total cost was to be in the region of $1.7 billion. In November 2016, during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure as Prime Minister, the China Merchant Port Holdings Ltd., acquired 80 per cent of the equity of the Hambantota port valued at $ 1.08 billion and now the port is running smoothly under Chinese control. That’s the only silver lining in the costly and exorbitant infrastructure development of Hambantota.
In an earlier column, I stated that no market research was done on promoting the airport or even beforehand on the suitability of the location for an international airport. All the new infrastructure in Hambantota – a new airport, a new conference hall with 1,500 seat-capacity built with South Korean support (as big as the BMICH), a new port and wide roads – didn’t bring the intended returns; only carry forward losses.
After delving deep into the Mattala malaise, I went to the kitchen to fetch a ‘bunis’ and a mug of tea (the second one for the morning) and wanted to find out what the trio was up to under the margosa tree.
“Mae davas wala aanduwa eka-eka ayawa allanawa eka-eka varadi walata (The government seems to be ‘catching’ all kinds of people for different offences, these days),” said Kussi Amma Sera. “Mae nadu ikmanata ivara karala waradakaruwanta danduwam karanna oney (These cases should quickly be disposed of and the guilty ones punished),” added Mabel Rasthiyadu. “Policiya neethi-reethi kriyathmaka karanawita deshapalana angiligaheem nethi ekata isthuthiwantha wenna oney (Thankfully there is no political interference in what the police are doing in implementing the law),” noted Serapina.
Another foolhardy decision was the move in 2023/24 to re-develop the Hingurakgoda airport into an international airport at a cost of Rs. 2 billion, essentially to accommodate Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft. What happened to that proposal? Maybe it’s on the backburner, thankfully. Rather than trying to promote Hambantota at various international tourism and aviation shows to make it work, Sri Lanka was going to invest unwisely on another international airport.
Well, I have come to the end of another column and my wish this week is for practical and rational decision-making on growing the country’s infrastructure based on need, governance, transparency and accountability rather than on a political agenda!
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