The Chief Minister’s prolonged visit to Delhi and his meetings with various ministers and ministry officials is a crucial landmark and was needed to remove some long standing developmental bottlenecks. And while he has rightly been criticized for massive inaction on some issues that are non negotiable, his Delhi meetings highlighted the need for the state to move on, specially on the infrastructure front.
Most of the key meetings Mr Parrikar had were infrastructure based and need to green be lighted in order to ensure that allied investments can be drawn to attract the Rs 25,000 crore investments in the next five years – a dream perhaps, but even a scaled down target of fifty percent of this figure is good enough.
Importantly, much of this infrastructure push is in and around Vasco as it should be with the airport and the port, both strategically placed. The real bread and butter issues are coming home. The linkages between the airport and the port, and their joint proximity to infrastructure hubs, are paramount. Even as the Mopa adventure continues, the basics need to be addressed in and around the port town. And that is what the Chief Minister did in Delhi. The new Zuari bridge is no longer a matter of negotiation. It’s a non negotiable need. That was rightly raised. The four lane road from Varnapuri to the MPT is crucial to the movement of goods and ease the congestion within Vasco town.
Thirdly, more parking space for planes at Dabolim is important. But equally important is parking of cars for passengers and airline staff. We have dealt with this in detail in a previous edit this week but warrants a passing mention here to record that issues of parking of vehicles, which has been handled shoddily by this government. But back to the issue of planes. The Goa chapter of the CII has done very credible track 2 work to make the Goan Air Asia boss Tony Fernandes’ interest in Goa as the hub for his airline but this interest has to be sustained by concrete steps by Goa and the Civil Aviation ministry. This will have a spin off effect with the government reducing VAT on aviation fuel from 12 to 5% , which will positively impact both passenger and cargo transportation.
The third element in the troika, the Navy needs to be brought on board for the fulfillment of many of the in principle clearances. Infrastructure around the airport cannot be envisaged without getting the navy on board. Firstly the Navy cannot be wished away from the equation with a hope that it will move its present base to Karwar at a time and pace dictated by Goa. If there is a case for the Navy to give up land, this needs to be negotiated hard with a clear plan to prove that the space is required by Goa over and above the ostensible purpose for which the Navy needs it. And this cannot happen with in principle clearances from the Road and Surface Transport ministries. The negotiation cannot happen through letters. It needs a tripartite meeting between the concerned ministries including very importantly the Defence ministry.
It cannot be underlined enough the need to augment, create and develop infrastructure. The Mandovi bridge not only needs repair and replacement but the plan to connect parts of North Goa to the South by bypassing Panjim, by building a bridge is on the anvil. And then of course are micro urban issues like decongesting cities, improving traffic and collecting and processing garbage.
The Chief Minister, by his own positioning has further strengthened the need to augment existing infrastructure especially around the airport and port area. In the light of this, his own pro Mopa arguments get a hit because the advantage of the airport and the port and the possibilities of making this area of central Goa a manufacturing, pharma and IT hub and giving enhanced business to the struggling MPT, far outweigh each and every so called advantage of the airport in Mopa. There advantages have to be created. Here in Dabolim and Mormugao, they exist. The choice is clear, Mr Parrikar, and you too know it.
