TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Now that the RFQ for the proposed Mopa Greenfield International Airport is out, and most of North Goa is supporting the airport, the issue of compensation to be paid to landowners has assumed importance with the work set to begin. Most of the villagers have got compensation of Rs 33 per sq metre, which according to one of the pro-Mopa airport activists is not enough to have a cup of tea, given that the market rate of land in that area is close to around Rs 1,000.
The RFQ will decide the concessionaire for the Rs 3,000-crore project. The State government’s part in the PPP project is to give the private partner land for which the entire acquisition process has been completed. The government has acquired total area of 81,29,455 sq mts for development of airport and has paid Rs 11.77 crore towards compensation to the farmers. The area encompasses five to six villages.
Though there is some opposition in the area, the residents of the area by and large are all in support of the airport, but there is a firm demand that the compensation should be raised to at least Rs 400 per sq metre.
People whose land has been acquired are putting forward the argument as to why the government is paying them so little compensation and they are selling the same land to private business. However, there is another section – albeit a minority – under the aegis of the Mopa Vimantall Piditt Xetkari Samiti that is opposed to land acquisition at Mopa.
Within the Cabinet itself there was some opposition, forcing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to state that the government has entrusted the EIA study of the project to the Engineers India Limited, a Government of India undertaking at a total cost of Rs 19.70 lakh, and RFQ has nothing to do with EIA. “There were apprehensions that without completion of EIA how can we float RFQ. But I would like to clear that for listing out qualified and eligible bidder we don’t require EIA to complete. It’s a long process and I can’t wait for it to be completed to float the RFQ,” Parrikar told media.
As per the RFQ, the important parameters for qualification are development experience in airport sector, core sector, operational experience, passenger throughput and others. The applicants would be evaluated based on their experience in development of airports –basically Greenfield or Brownfield. “The applicant’s competence and capability will be established taking into account their technical capacity and financial capacity,” RFQ document reads.
By 2017, both the airports would be in position to cater to 7 million passengers annually. “Dabolim International Airport will continue its civilian operations even after commissioning of the new airport,” he announced.
Compensation has been paid to approximately 500 to 600 people who form majority of the land owners. Locals say that the land was not being cultivated for 35 years and was barren. Even at that time people used to cultivate, it was mostly finger millet know locally as nachini or ragi and that too only once a year. Very little paddy was being cultivated there.
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Our organization’s main intention was to create awareness and to counter the pro-Dabolim organisation to keep the issue that we started alive. And we are happy that the government has at least fulfilled its promise. Our second aim was compensation. We are not at all happy (with the compensation paid). We have given the word to people of Mopa that we will fight for at least Rs 400 per sqm. For increasing the award we will enhance the compensation.
— Adv Prasad Shahpurkar, pro-Mopa activist
I feel that Mopa is a big land scam because the traffic projections can be accommodated in present Dabolim Airport (13 million in 2045) with a few modifications. Looking at this there is no need for Mopa at all. The politicians have also sabotaged giving of the areas for the land for parking and parallel taxiway basically to create an artificial need for Mopa. There is a MoU signed for land for a parallel taxiway as well as land that was acquired and supposed to be for parking, subsequently being denotified. Yesterday, the new airport director said there are some hurdles in making the parallel taxiway and parking leading one to question whether there is some conspiracy.
— Sidharth Karapurkar, pro-Dabolim activist
