MATTALA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
SRI LANKA
CONTROLLED BY INDIA+ RUSSIA
SARASIJ MAJUMDER
Q==Why India bought an economically nonviable AIRPORT
in SRI LANKA??
Actually, the
above question was asked by many PUNDITS, called themselves “Economists”
ANSWER:- LOOK AT THE IMAGE SHARED BELOW.
IMAGE 1:--
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Above is the image of China Belt and road initiative. I want
you to concentrate on the Indian ocean area, the Maritime Route.
You may sometime, somewhere heard about “STRING OF PEARLS” and or “SAGAR
MALA”. I will discuss about both in a different BLOG.
This is a strategic move by India to prevent the
attacks/threats from China on INDIA’s only sea route., or rather countering only
one pearl of the ‘String of Pearls’.
China by its OBOR initiative have surrounded India in all STRATEGIC directions. One dot in the image is Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port. When, and if there is a war in tomorrow between India, & CHINA, China can stop all the supplies to India via
sea route and also restrain India’s exports just by strategically placing its
Military and Naval resources in the Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The relationship between
India and Pakistan is well known already. Pakistan is also an ally of Chinese government. So, movement of
export/import of products for, and by
India will be attempted to be stopped by
Pakistan. India would have huge economic impact and would be surrounded in all
directions by enemy.
This is where India came with a counter strategy. The
Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport is just 25 minutes away(30km) from the
Hambantota port . See image 2 below.
IMAGE-2:
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A joint venture between an Indian and a Russian Companies
has been awarded the management of Sri Lanka's Mattala Rajapaksa International
Airport in Hambantota. The $209 million facility was once dubbed the
"world's emptiest airport" due to a lack of flights.
The airport has a 12,000 square meter terminal building, 12
check-in counters, two gates, a runway long enough to handle the largest
commercial jets, and capacity for one million passengers per year.
All above can be used for defence purpose, by India.
Now I will tell you why it failed commercially. I think,
China betrayed Sri Lanka here. They could jolly well know that it would fail,
from its location point of view.
The Mattala airport is in the middle of a migratory route
for birds and several aircraft were forced to ground after striking airborne AVIANS.
Sri Lanka's military was once forced to deploy hundreds of troops to clear Deer,
Wild Buffalo and Elephants off the airport's runway so that it could continue operations.
Since 2016, the government has been looking for commercial
partners to manage the airport as it was making heavy losses.
CHINA’S DEBT: The project was funded through
Chinese commercial loans availed at high-interest. It was built for $209
million, with $190 million coming as a high-interest loan from the Exim Bank of
China.
The first foreign airline to operate out of the facility was
Air Arabia in 2013 but they pulled out after six weeks of scheduled services.
Fly Dubai quit in June 2018 without providing a reason, but
officials said poor passenger traffic may have spurred the budget carrier to abandoned.
National carrier Sri Lankan Airlines stopped flying to
Mattala in 2015 soon after Rajapaksa was defeated in the that year's
presidential election. The company later said it saved $18 million annually by
not flying to the isolated airport.
Since India gains control of the airport, it will install
RADARs which will certainly scan the HAMBANTOTA port and render it’s military
angle sufficiently compromised, if not useless for the Chinese navy. Just in the
same way THAAD in South Korea is
compromising Chinese naval secrecy.
Operating this airport in losses India can gain
the control of the strategic location nearby and can even have combat
measure to counter the China during crisis times. This will also keep a
check to China’s ambitions of creating a naval base in Hambantota port.
India was a little
slow to react, on the PORT, but have realized the Chinese plan in the
Indian ocean. Next China would have moved to get hold of the airport. No county
will ever want an enemy eyes, and installations in its own backyard having
naval and air superiority over it. So, India has quickly moved to get access to
the airport and make it as an airbase in times of crisis/war. Already Chinese
are manipulating other regions of Indian ocean like Maldives and Seychelles. It
is indeed a very good counter move by India to stalemate China in SRI LANKA..
China actually cheated Sri Lanka and bought its Hambantota
port by DECEIT, as usual, by bribing
RAJAPAKSHA. Thats a different story for another BLOG, DEAR WATSON!
REFERENCES:--
1.0 https://www.airport.lk/mria/index
4.0https://www.businesstoday.in/world/story/sri-lanka-leases-hambantota-airport-built-with-chinese-loans-to-indian-russian-firms-427199-2024-04-27
IMAGES:-- GOOGLE- and references listed
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