Colombo : Sri Lanka will resume flights from the northern Jaffna peninsula to India next month, Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has said, asserting that the move would support the country’s tourism industry and help in easing economic crisis. The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority plans to attract 800,000 tourists during the rest of the year.
The northern Jaffna peninsula’s Palaly airport is to resume flights to India from next month, Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said on Saturday. However, he did not specify a date. Resuming the flights would improve tourism and help the country in the current dollar crisis, de Silva said after inspecting the airport. The present runway can only accommodate 75-seater flights and therefore needs to be extended, he said. He hoped for Indian assistance for runway improvements. The airport was named the Jaffna international airport in October 2019. The first international flight to land there was from Chennai.
Meanwhile, Amidst the unprecedented economic turmoil in the country, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday said that steps will be taken to mitigate the food crisis in the island nation. Addressing a meeting of the Committee of Food Security, Wickremesinghe said that around four to five million people will be directly impacted by the food crisis in Sri Lanka, and measures will be taken to contain it, reported the Daily Mirror newspaper.The MPs will take charge of food security programmes in 225 divisions, he added. He ordered the formation of a committee under Parliamentarian Nimal Lansa to look into the mitigation measures and demanded the strategy preparation within two weeks. Wickremesinghe directed the officials to prioritise the fishing community in terms of providing them with food, gas, and fuel. Food security for children’s homes, nursing homes, and homes for persons with disabilities was given special emphasis, including the need to formulate a long-term plan for a modern agricultural system for the creation of a competitive market. Since March this year, Sri Lanka, formerly an upper-middle-income country, has been in the grip of an economic crisis unparalleled since the country’s independence. Severe protests have sparked political unrest leading to the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s brother Mahinda Rajapaksa from the Prime Minister’s post and the appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country’s Prime Minister in May. In May, food inflation stood at 57.4 per cent, while shortages of key food items, as well as fuel for cooking, transport, and industry, remain widespread, with ongoing daily power outages. The economy is bracing for a sharp contraction due to the unavailability of basic inputs for production, an 80 per cent depreciation of the currency since March 2022, coupled with a lack of foreign reserves and the country’s failure to meet its international debt obligations. The economic crisis has particularly impacted food security, agriculture, livelihoods, and access to health services. Food production in the last harvest season was 40 – 50 per cent lower than last year, and the current agricultural season is at risk, with seeds, fertilizers, fuel and credit shortages.