More than Rs 5 million paid to store paddy at Mattala airport; PMB official reveals

The Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) had paid around Rs 5.1 million to store paddy at the Mattala Airport, it has been revealed before the Police Unit of the Presidential Commission on state sector corruption.

A sum of Rs 850,000 had been paid for six months each from September 2015 to March 2016 by the PMB to Airport and Aviation Services Ltd for this purpose, a PMB official had revealed.

Around 5000 metric tonnes of paddy had been stored and subsequentally removed from the warehouses at the Mattala Airport in 2016 which caused damage to the facility.

These warehouses had reportedly been built according to international standards to house hi-tech air cargo terminals.

However, the Police Unit of the Commission which inspected the airport last week had discovered that the damages caused to the facility had not been repaired since 2016.

The warehouse had been infested with rats thereby causing damages to air conditioners and runway lights at the airport, Commission sources told Times Online.

The Police Unit is currently probing the decision to store paddy at the airport since they had discovered that a defunct garment factory near the airport could have been used for this purpose instead.

Meanwhile, another witness also revealed to the Police Unit that foreign airlines had chosen to refuel their planes in India after being diverted to Mattala during the period in which the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) had been undergoing refurbishment.