AJIT JOHN
DABOLIM: Passengers travelling to the airport and those going over to either see off or welcome loved ones will now have a more pleasant experience following a meeting between the AAI and the Minister of Panchayats and District collector on Thursday. A spot for parking yellow and black taxis, tourist coaches and other cars has been identified 200 metres away from the airport. This will be allocated as soon as possible to end the mess at the airport.
Bhupesh Negi, Airport Director, said this would be a temporary move till a final solution would be provided once the grade separators ie the flyover was built. This he said would be completed by January next year. There would be space under the structure which would be ideal for parking of vehicles which would be used. The Airport Director said the meeting with the Minister Mauvin Godinho and the District Collector was very fruitful and this would sort matters out. He said a new parking policy was coming through which would have several slabs and lesser rates. In addition, to help tourists and others who needed transport to move into the State, there were plans to bring Rent a Cab to Goa. This was done following discussions with taxi drivers and research by the authorities. The taxi drivers had opposed car rentals but were open to having rent a cab in the State.
These changes he said were part of an initiative to make it a more pleasant experience for everyone. The airport, he said, was no 5 in terms of airports managed by AAI and it was above Pune till last year but was overtaken by an increase in passengers in domestic travellers. In terms of all the airports in the country it is the 10th ranked airport. The aim now was to increase passenger flow and improve the ambience.
There have been a lot of complaints regarding the levels of cleanliness maintained in the facility. The earlier contract was for a period of three years and was worth Rs 3 crore. The present contract with Updater Services or UDS, a Chennai-based company is valued at Rs 11 crore for a period of three years. There are now 160 people working at the airport. The Airport Director said “There is a three-time increase in manpower. Each washroom is now manned, mechanised cleaning is involved and we can access each and every corner of the building. Due to lot of complaints about the washroom, we decided to renovate the washrooms and work under progress. In the domestic side we had only one washroom, we created one new which is operational and one is being renovated. It will be all ready by January or February in total three are being renovated, one in domestic departure and arrival and one in international departure.”
With regards to earning revenue via retail outlets a contract has been signed with the Future Group. This was possible after the management came with a change in the policy and appointed a master concessionaire and it would be their responsibility to bring in the brands. With regards to F&B the contract was given to Travel Food Services a company in Mumbai and it would be mandatory for them to bring two international brands and one domestic brand. Both these contracts would run for a period of four years.
Plans were afoot to increase the number of gates into the airport from the existing two to four. One will be allotted for VIPs and trolleys and the remaining for various airlines with each gate allotted to a certain set of airlines. To make this a smooth experience, signages will be changed and efforts will be made to make it smooth. Plans are afoot to make the airport a silent airport which would bring it on par with the airport in Mumbai and others in the country.
Last year around 7.65 million passengers passed through the airport till March 31, 2018. This year the passenger growth between April and September is around 12 per cent. The Director said it was the lean period but now with the season expected to begin he anticipates the growth to cross 8.5 million this year due to more flights and more people coming in. With regards to charter flights he said around 800-900 flights are expected to land, though he did not have information on hand.
Speaking of the future he said there were plans to expand the airport to increase the capacity by 2 million passengers. At present the airport was handling 7.65 million passengers and had a handling capacity of 8.65 passengers. The extension on the eastern side would increase to 10.65 million passengers. Synergy, a Delhi based company, had been awarded the contract as the project management consultant and a contractor who will build the structure will be selected in January or February. The project is expected to be complete by February 2021. In addition to reduce the time aircraft spend circling the airport the parking bays will be increased to 11 from the existing 8.
The challenge of overlooking such a facility was the fact that it was also used by the navy and there were restrictions. Most of the airlines wanted to come in the morning and usually scrapped to be first in the afternoon slot. The airport authorities, the Director said, was trying to make them come in the evening or late night. Airports, he said, were growing by leaps and bounds in the country but due to these restrictions, Dabolim was growing but not as fast as the others.
In five years he expected around 12 million passengers to pass through the airport and even if MOPA came up, this airport, he felt, would be used by commercial airlines because tariffs would be cheaper and at the end of the day it was always a business reality that was behind such decisions.
