Airport purchase: India buys desolate airport in Sri Lanka to deal with China

India has paid $300 million to take a 2, 000-acre wide airport on lease, in the South of Sri Lanka. This was done in a bid to limit China’s growing impact in the Indian Ocean. Reportedly, Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, built by former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, opened in 2013 with much hype. Unfortunately, the airport that was meant for accommodating a million passengers annually, failed to attract even bare minimum passengers. Now, it receives hardly twelve passengers a day. So for obvious reasons, the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport is now the world’s emptiest airport, and was being used for storing rice.
According to reliable sources, India has been anxious about China’s rising force around its oceanic borders. A report published by the US Defence Department in 2015 confirmed that the Chinese were operating their missile submarines in the Indian Ocean. To accomplish its designs, China has acquired the Hambantota port to increase its “strategic and economic footprint” in the Indian Ocean.


Therefore, to counter this strategic move, India went ahead and bought the least-thronged airport of the world. The newly-purchased airport is only a 30 minute drive from the Hambantota shipping port currently run by China. The deal is actually a joint venture which grants a 40-year lease over the spacious Sri Lankan airport.
For now, India’s plan for the future of the airport is unplanned.