CIAL said its delegation which was visiting the island on the invitation of President Mahinda Rajapakse would be in Sri Lanka until February 02.

"The delegation will also visit the proposed airport site at southern Sri Lanka followed by further discussions with the concerned ministers and senior officials of Government of Sri Lanka about the steps required to undertake the project," CIAL managing director S Bharath said in a statement.

CIAL said President Rajapase was "extremely impressed" at the facilities at Cochin airport when he visited Kerala in December 2005 and when presidential secretary Lalith Weeratunga visited New Delhi in September 2007 the first discussions had started.

Bharath had then made a presentation to Weeratunga in the presence of Sri Lankan High Commissioner (ambassador) C R Jayasinghe and principal secretary to the Indian prime minister T K A Nair.

The Cochin airport was opened in 1999 and was built with private sector support. It is only 26 percent owned by India's central and state governments and has been supported by other corporations and capital from the expatriate Indian community.

State-run Indian Oil Corporation already operates a tank farm in the island's north-eastern port city of Trincomalee and has a third of the fuel distribution business of the island.

Another state-firm National Thermal Power Corporation is to set up a joint venture coal fired power station with Sri Lanka's state power utility, the Ceylon Electricity Board.