PANJIM: The proposed airport at Mopa – mired in controversy over land acquisition – could give young job aspirants some hope as the project is expected to create employment avenues for students undergoing vocational training at Industrial Training Institutes (ITI).
To train youth for jobs at the airport, the Goa government has proposed setting up an Aviation Skill Development Centre at Pernem ITI campus or any other ITI centre.
“Our aim is to provide employment opportunities to youth and locals from the area for which we have proposed to establish Aviation Skill Development Centre on ITI Pernem or other government ITI land. It is the obligation on the part of the concessionaire to train the youth at the ITI to provide employment at the airport,” Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said. Construction work on the first phase of the project is likely to begin in December.
The government-appointed concessionaire will be bound under the Draft Concession Agreement to give preference to bona fide Goans for all jobs at the airport by advertising the vacancies in three newspapers.
However, Parsekar said that if the agency does not receive enough applications from persons of affected families at Mopa or Goans, it would not be restricted from hiring others.
As per figures, the project under the PPP model has 15 affected families including those belonging to Dhangar community. The State has spent several crores of rupees to pay compensating to the project affected families, land owners and tenants of Mopa, Chandel, Uguem, Casarvarnem, Varconda. But 14 families have refused compensation and instead demanded rehabilitation. The CM has assured to rehabilitate them and has proposed to acquire land in Cansarvanem village.
Records further indicate that expenditure incurred on Land Acquisition Award is to the tune of Rs 54.98 crore, while expenditure incurred on consultants is Rs 18.24 crore. The total expenditure comes to Rs 73.22 crore.
The airport, spread over 79 lakh sq mtrs has completed the Request for Qualification (RFQ) process. The Request for Proposal (RFP) has been issued to four shortlisted bidders and the last date for submission for financial bid is May 16, 2016. The first phase of the airport is expected to be commissioned in 2019.
