Iranamadu runway to open next month
by Dhaneshi Yatawara
The Iranamadu runway in Kilinochchi, which the Sri Lanka Air Force
(SLAF) plans to open next month, will be open for all domestic aviation
activities, said Air Force Spokesman Wing Commander Shiraz Jaldeen.
The new runway is being constructed according to International Civil
Aviation standards enabling its use by any civil aviator, according to
Wing Commander Sumedha Silva, the Commanding Officer of the Rapid Runway
Repair Wing of the SLAF.
At present 85 percent of the construction work is complete, according
to Wing Commander Silva. "At the moment we are installing runway lights.
The aviation tower is under construction and we have almost completed
the construction of a separate parking area for air planes," explained
Wing Com. Silva.
"The C130 is the largest air plane we have with the Air Force and the
runway is suitable to land this large cargo plane," he explained. As the
runway serves all commercial domestic airlines a separate building is
under construction as the air movement area for passengers.
Construction has used over 42,000 cubes of gravel that the Air Force
found from the vicinity of the construction area. "The aggregate base
coat on top of the gravel layer needs a large amount of granite and the
entire requirement was from the metal crusher owned by the SLAF at
Mamaduwa in Vavuniya," Wing Com. Silva said.
"We bought all material after thoroughly testing them for suitability
to construct a standard runway. We have established a fully-fledged
testing lab at the premises," he said.
The SLAF has 14 runways around the country at the moment and the
Iranamadu runway is the first to be built by SLAF with their own
expertise. Last December, Air Force Commander, Air Marshal Harsha
Abeywickrama landed a light aircraft to test the condition of the
runway.
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