Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Oh how silly! “This is the first Sri Lankan Airport that operated as an International Airport from its inception” – profound statement from the Aviation Minister



Buffoonery at its highest! We are the only country, that has buffoons for ministers who utter absurdities such as above. What an asinine statement to make. Considering it was a Greenfield site badly chosen and the location, costly to operate and costly to the citizenry, and he has the audacity to make a statement like that. One should say that is why it is such a ridiculous airport. It is only needed for international flights that don’t take passengers from SL nor disgorge them!
So let it be tucked away in some corner where we do not need to see it! Come on how long will it take and at what cost to bring a highway to Mattala, and then onto Hambantota. Unless there is a highway linking Mattala, Hambantota and Colombo, the airport in this location is a further burden on the people.
Think of the added congestion, the longer distance to travel the higher cost to get there, and the difficulty for the people who are working there to get home and back, and find dormitory accommodation to stay. It is just a ghastly choice.
Further if Katunayake where there is traffic is denuded of its good people, then it stretches Katunayaka further, and makes it more difficult, as we don’t have the trained people to run two airports at once. The gridlock is just about to start.
How are you going to get to Mattala? Does anyone have an answer to that. There are no qualified people living in the Hambantota Electorate, and the Rajapakses are probably the unqualified also! So everyone will have to forcibly shipped there kicking and screaming, NOT out of choice to operate this white elephant.
There is no point in my talking about it at this stage as it has happened. We cannot reverse a mistake. I was told a plane about to land ran into a flock of birds. Well all it takes in one plane to make an emergency landing and you will NOT find any international airline wishing to go there. Then I hear the elephants are NOT amused, and that a electrified fence will have to be ringing the airport to prevent the pachyderms from coming inside and on the runway harm both themselves and the planes landing or taking off. Again no airline will wish to land if there is even one incident of Jumbo on the runway, not a 747 I might add!!!
Jokes apart the folly that we have just built is only second to the Port folly we dumped taking more land space when at least we could have used the sea! All this bodes ill for our debt payments, balance of payments, foreign debt, interest rates, exchange rates and long term growth prospects. A veritable litany of bad news, because of the lack of vision of leaders, who have displayed their village mentality down to the core. After all they believe their village will attract the population!

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