Airports Authority of India to develop Palaly airport

New Delhi: India’s state-owned airport authority has agreed to develop Palaly airport in Northern Sri Lanka and it will be the authority’s first project in the island nation.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) said in a release yesterday that it had signed an agreement with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the Indian Government for the preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the development of Palaly Airport in Sri Lanka.

The agreement was recently signed by Executive Director (Land Management & Business Development), Airports Authority of India Anil Gupta and Joint Secretary, IOR, MEA, of the Indian Government, Sanjay Panda.

An AAI official said all the technical and design aspects would be covered in the DPR, which is expected to be completed in three months’ time.

Speaking at the occasion, Gupta said that over a period of time AAI had developed more than 60 airports in Metro and Non-Metro cities in India and now AAI wanted to leverage its expertise to other countries on a bigger scale.