Lottery revenues for Weerawila airport construction

COLOMBO: The additional revenue from lottery sales will be invested for the construction of the second international airport at Weerawila, National Lotteries Board sources said.

Prices of lotteries sold by the NLB will be doubled from the existing price of Rs.10 to Rs.20 from August this year.

The sales of ‘Airport Lotteries’ will be renewed from June, said NLB Chairman Upali Liyanage. The Airport Lotteries are available at the Bandaranaike International Airport in foreign currency for passengers.

The Board has also decided to implement a new system of purchasing lotteries through mobile phones or fixed line phone connections from June.

NLB figures indicate that around 10 percent of the 19.5 million population of the country, especially the low income segments purchase around two million lottery tickets each year.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in November laid the foundation stone for the US$ 125 million, 4,000 metre airport in Weerawila enabling it to handle the giant Airbus A380 airliner.

The airport, slated to handle two million passengers a year, is due to open in November 2009.