- Access Engineering chosen for selected works at terminal
Access Engineering has been selected as the contractor for the ongoing construction of certain selected works in the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) Terminal II project, with a budgeted cost of Rs. 500 million, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Pvt) Ltd. (AASL) reveals.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business,AASL Chairman Maj. Gen. (Retd) G.A. Chandrasiri stated that the construction work on the superstructure of the BIA Terminal II project would continue to remain suspended until Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) initiated the release of funds following the completion of the debt restructuring process.
However, in the interim, the AASL has received Cabinet approval to commence construction work in respect of certain selected works with an approved budget of Rs. 500 million.
Accordingly, the AASL has called for tenders and selected Access Engineering to carry out the related construction. Chandrasiri also disclosed that the construction pertaining to these works was anticipated to span approximately five months.
He stated: “Things are done in stages. Firstly, we commenced the maintenance work. We have now commenced construction on certain selected work. Once the restructuring is completed, if JICA fails to return, we will start construction on the main project.”
He further indicated that the AASL had already identified certain other additional selected works.
He explained that once the ongoing construction of the selected works was completed within the next five months and if JICA funds remained inaccessible, the AASL would proceed to issue a new tender and appoint a contractor to undertake the construction of those additional works. He emphasised that this would be an ongoing process until the JICA funds became available.
Chandrasiri stressed that work on the superstructure would commence only once the JICA funds had been released and that the AASL funds would not be used for the purpose.
He also disclosed that the AASL was undertaking separate maintenance work at the project site, with a monthly cost of Rs. 10 million.
The contract for the construction of the BIA Terminal II project, which involves the construction of a multi-level terminal, was valued at $ 564 million and awarded to the Taisei Corporation in 2020. According to the terms of the JICA funding, the contractor must be Japanese.
However, with the stoppage of construction work last year due to the funding freeze imposed by JICA following Sri Lanka’s default, Taisei Corporation terminated its contract with Sri Lanka.
The construction of this multi-level terminal is part of Package A of the BIA expansion project which is estimated to cost Rs. 133 billion and will be largely funded by the Special Term for Economic Partnership (STEP) concessionary Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan granted by JICA amounting to Rs. 131.5 billion (¥ 74.4 billion) at a 0.1% interest rate per annum. The remaining Rs. 21.5 billion is being funded by AASL.
With regard to Package A, the AASL entered into two agreements with JICA – the first agreement was entered into in March 2012 for ¥ 29 billion and the second agreement was entered into in March 2016 for ¥ 45.4 billion.
