Colombo, April 30: India is looking forward to assist Sri Lanka in the development of the crucial Palaly air base and the Kanakesanthurai port in Jaffna peninsula, as the country works to rebuild the war-torn Tamil-dominated North.
These opportunities have once again opened up, creating numerous openings not only for Sri Lankans but also for Indian companies.
The crucial Palaly air base is the nerve centre of Sri Lanka’s military presence in the Tamil-dominated Jaffna peninsula. The air base served as the main lifeline to Jaffna as there was no land supply route to the peninsula until 2009.
Till then much of the essential food items, medicines as well as ammunition was brought regularly via air to the Palaly base.”Indian government’s help has been sought for development of the Palaly air base and the KKS port projects. India has said it will consider providing assistance for these two projects,” Sri Lankan government sources said.
Government has agreed to assist Sri Lanka in development of the Palaly airport and Kankesanthurai Port. “Indian High Commissioner Ashok K Kantha conveyed this decision to Prime Minister D M Jayaratne when he called on the Prime Minister to congratulate him on his assumption of office and have discussions yesterday,” the newspaper said.
Quoting a statement by Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s office, the paper said the Indian government always desired to widen economic, social and cultural ties with Sri Lanka at all times.
India was also willing to assist Sri Lanka in its resettlement programme in the North, it said.Prime Minister D M Jayaratne also recalled with gratitude the timely assistance given to Sri Lanka by India.”Indian assistance was much needed at this juncture when Sri Lanka is striving to achieve economic development after eradicating terrorism,” the paper quoted the statement. According to a statement by the Indian High Commission here, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister and Kantha discussed the
friendly ties between the two countries.
During the meeting, they discussed ways and means of further strengthening relations between the two countries and discussed other matters of bilateral interest, it said. It may be recalled that recently the Sri Lankan authorities put in place a refurbished 12000 ton capacity fuel
storage tank at Kankesanthurai port.
This was to enable cutting the costs previously incurred by the government as a result of long delays in the turnover of ships in Kankesanthurai due to the lack of a fuel storage tank facility.
The Sri Lankan air force through its organisation called “Helitours” offers scheduled commercial flights to Palaly in Jaffna and China Bay in Eastern Trincomalee.
—Agencies