Colva forum opposes airport at Mopa
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, MAY 2
Objecting to the building of a new airport at Mopa, the Colva Civic and Consumer Forum have demanded that the government upgrade the Dabolim airport with a less budge and save money which would have been spent on the proposed airport.
Secretary Judith Almeids said the people feel cheated since as per international aviation law, no two airports can operate within a distance of 150 nautical miles and distance between Mopa and Dabolim is hardly 30 nautical miles, adding that this would result in the closure of the Dabolim airport.
“Lot of people from and around our place use this airport frequently to travel abroad to their work destination and will be affected as they will have to travel to the other end of Goa. Also Colva being a tourist destination, local economy will suffer once Dabolim airport is closed.
Airports should be centrally located so as to benefit all the residents, also building a new airport at one end of Goa bordering Maharashtra proves that it is being done by people having vested interest, also it is understood that one private party is going to build the same under BOOT system also proves how much Government commitment is involved in the said project. The same company was in limelight for wrong reasons sometime back for charging passenger each time he or she flies as user development fee at the Delhi airport which is ridiculous”, she added.
