With the under-construction Mopa airport getting the go ahead ten months after the environment clearance given to the project was suspended, work on the greenfield project will likely resume soon and pick up pace. However, the Supreme Court, on lifting the stay on the environment clearance, has imposed a number of new conditions on the project proponents and very importantly accepted the undertaking of the concessionaire to adopt a zero carbon programme, both in construction and operation of the airport. The court also asked the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to supervise compliance of the conditions that have been imposed.

Some of the conditions that have been added in the revised assessment of EAC include a certificate that the project does not fall in notified eco-sensitive zone (ESZ), installation of noise, air and water quality monitoring and preservation, energy conservation measures, waste management, development of a green belt cover entire periphery of the airport, and public hearing on human health issues. While the decision of the Supreme Court has been welcomed by the State government and the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, there is now the additional responsibility to ensure that all the conditions that have been imposed – earlier and by the latest judgement – are met during the construction process, as also once the airport begins operations. 

This monitoring turns important as the Supreme Court has observed that its earlier judgment had highlighted a number of deficiencies by the project proponent that led to the grant of the EC. It had highlighted numerous concerns including the preservation of forests, the existence of ESAs with their attendant features and the impact of the proposed project on natural water channels. Significantly, the Court also noted the abject failure of the project proponent to provide complete information on the existence of reserved forests. The State does not need a repeat of these failures, and in the light of this the onus placed on NEERI to supervise the project and ensure environmental conditions are met is of extreme significance. The zero carbon programme in operations of the airport has to be adhered to, since an assurance has been made.

The petition that was filed by Hanuman Aroskar and Federation of Rainbow Warriors was after the National Green Tribunal disallowed their prayer to stop cutting of an estimated 55,000 trees, and approved the EC. The petitioners may not have succeeded in stopping the project, but they did manage to raise the environment issues surrounding the site. This can be seen in the reaction of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry to the Supreme Court decision, whereby the chamber said that while it appreciates the concerns raised by the environmentalists, it wants the focus to be on proper implementation of environmental norms and not on stopping a good development project. That should be the benchmark that is used for all future projects, where the balance between development and the environment is met.

It now appears that the airport at Mopa will go ahead and become a reality. The attempt to stall the airport through the environmental route has not borne fruit. The movement against a second airport has also not gone far. All the options now appear to have been exhausted. Yet, just recently the expansion of the Dabolim airport was announced. While inaugurating the 3km long parallel taxi track for commercial airlines that will reduce take-off time, it was revealed that Airports Authority of India is to expand the capacity of the terminal to handle 1.3 crore pasengers per year by 2022. This will be the same time when the Mopa airport will also be thrown open. The question that returns, is whether Mopa airport will be a financially viable project.