TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Reinforcing that the greenfield airport at Mopa is not only on the state agenda but also that of the Centre, the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, K C Venugopal informed Rajya Sabha Tuesday that out of the 17 new airports proposed for construction during the 12th Five Year Plan, Mopa was one of them.
Besides Mopa, another airport in the neigbouring Sindhudurg, Maharashtra has also been listed.
Other airports include one each in Gulbarga and Bijapur in Karnataka.
The land acquisition for the Mopa airport is done and the global tenders are set to be out even as it faces tremendous opposition from sections of the state that feels that this airport is not needed and would affect them if it was constructed.
There is also a fear that because of the amount of money to be put on Mopa, there might be a demand to close down Dabolim or to hand it over to the Navy.
