JAFFNA: Sri Lanka and India are close to signing an agreement to redevelop Kankesanthurai Port on the northern coast of the Jaffna peninsula, with Sri Lankan officials saying only cabinet approval in both countries now stands in the way.
The expansion of Jaffna International Airport at Palaly, a few kilometres away, has made far less progress. Sri Lankan officials say the work is held up by disputes over land. A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Jaffna Monitor that the government does not want to develop the airport.
Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation Anura Karunathilaka said negotiations on the Kankesanthurai project, commonly known as KKS, had reached their final stage. "There are no obstacles to the development work at Kankesanthurai port," he said. "The agreement is in its final stage, and the signing is also close."
In an overview of bilateral relations on its website, the Indian High Commission in Colombo says India "has extended a grant of USD 65 million" to Sri Lanka to develop the port, and that a memorandum of understanding to formalise the arrangement is still under negotiation. The grant, which the High Commission has said also covers consultancy work, meets the full cost of the project.
Indian diplomatic sources told Jaffna Monitor that the memorandum was in advanced stages of finalisation. The two governments have agreed on its substance in principle, the sources said, and only some wording remains to be settled. They said an announcement could come soon.
The same sources dismissed recent remarks on the two projects by Bimal Rathnayake, the minister of transport, highways and urban development. Mr. Rathnayake is not the minister responsible for the subject, they said, and India's discussions on the project are with the subject minister and with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Mr. Rathnayake held the ports and civil aviation portfolio until a cabinet reshuffle in October 2025 transferred it to Mr. Karunathilaka.
At a news conference at the National People's Power office in Jaffna in August, Mr. Rathnayake said the government would decide when and how to develop the airport and the port, regardless of who provided the financing. He said India had given some money for the airport but not enough to complete the work, and that Sri Lanka would have to borrow the balance. He offered no timetable. He cited Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, which has run up heavy losses, as a warning against poorly planned infrastructure. Mano Ganesan, leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance, has accused him of standing in the way of both projects.
A long detour for goods
Most goods from India now reach the north by a roundabout route. Cargo from Chennai and other south Indian ports is shipped south past the Jaffna peninsula to Colombo, cleared there, and trucked about 400 kilometres back north along the A9 highway. Kankesanthurai lies about 56 nautical miles from Karaikal port in India.
Jaffna traders say a direct route would lower prices. The Jaffna District Chamber of Commerce has asked the government to allow shipments of 350 to 500 metric tons, including clothing and vehicle spare parts, through Kankesanthurai, which now handles only passengers. Feasibility studies for the redevelopment project monthly cargo of 2,000 to 5,000 tonnes, according to a report carried by the Indian news agency IANS last year. The same report said a working port could connect the north's fisheries, agriculture, dairy and palmyra industries to markets across the Palk Strait.
The planned works include rehabilitation of the breakwater and the existing pier and a new pier for commercial cargo.
Kankesanthurai is already linked to Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu by a passenger ferry. The service was launched in October 2023, after a gap of about four decades, and has run since August 2024 after an early suspension. India has provided financial assistance to keep fares affordable, and the Indian High Commission said the ferry carried more than 15,000 passengers in its first ten months after resuming.
Palaly
Indian diplomatic sources told Jaffna Monitor that India was not involved in the development of Palaly airport.
In 2023, after Alliance Air began flights between Chennai and Palaly, Sri Lanka sought Indian financial help to extend the runway. But in December 2024, when Airport and Aviation Services invited proposals for a feasibility study on expanding the airport, it barred firms from India and other countries adjacent to Colombo's flight information region, citing a conflict of interest.
The Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation has said the expansion of the passenger terminal is scheduled for completion by July 2027. Progress has been slow, and the longer-term expansion plan has run into disputes over land acquisition, funding and the scale of the development.
Capt. Daminda Rambukwella, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka, attributed the delays to difficulties in acquiring land, some of it controlled by the Ministry of Defence and some of it privately owned. He said the land required for the next phase had been identified in the airport's master plan, but that acquisition had met protests and unresolved questions over compensation.
"Some of the land identified for the airport's development is under the control of the Defence Ministry, and the rest is private land," he said. "There have also been protests over the acquisition."
In August, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority told a Colombo newspaper that the extent of land needed had not been decided, because Airport and Aviation Services had not yet specified the scope of the expansion.
Other sources with knowledge of the project, including the senior government official, said the government was unwilling to develop the airport.
Residents of Myliddy and neighbouring villages in Valikamam North, much of which was held by the military for decades, have received notices concerning land earmarked for the expansion and have staged repeated protests demanding the return of their land. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, an opposition member of Parliament, has alleged that about 3,000 acres could be taken for the airport. He has said Tamil people could support development work already planned at Palaly but would not support an expansion that required acquiring more land.
