MARGAO: Independent MLA Vijai Sardesai on Monday said the Centre has forced the Airports Authority of India to form a Special Purpose Vehicle to bid for the Rs 3,000-crore Greenfield airport project at Mopa.
Addressing the media, the Independent MLA highlighted the recent reports in national dailies stating that AAI will form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to bid for the airport project.
“From this development, it is obvious that all the bidders have ‘privately’ indicated to the government that the Mopa project is not commercially viable and that they are not interested in bidding. It appears that the Central Government has forced the AAI to take this step to save face and to ensure that the Mopa Airport is bulldozed against the wishes of the Goan people and by neglecting environmental and safety concerns,” he said.
He said that former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had time and again stated that no public money would be involved in setting up the airport. “This U-turn which is a joint venture of both the State and Central governments has been taken to protect the interest of those who have invested in land around Mopa and for the sake of other vested interests who are close to the BJP governments. It is a perfect case of crony capitalism where the poor farmers’ land and public money is being squandered for the interest of a select few close to the government, yet another example of the pro-rich and anti-poor stand of the Central BJP government,” Sardesai said.
“Having both airports being operated by the AAI will only make it easier for the government to close down Dabolim Airport and the spin doctors of the BJP will then come up with various reasons to justify the same. I have learnt from reliable sources that the bidders had unofficially raised many environmental and safety concerns regarding the Mopa airport. The move to make AAI bid for the project is to prevent these concerns from being made official and public or else the duplicity of the government and the various agencies including the one who had made the EIA study would have been exposed,” Sardesai added.
He said that the BJP is blatantly bulldozing the project is obvious from their office bearers’ approach to Sunday’s public hearing of the EIA study. They were ordered to be present in large numbers and it is reported that ministers and MLAs even threatened their constituents to attend the hearing.
