PANJIM, FEB 4
It appears that the Dabolim airport expansion plans are moving at snail’s pace with Rs 497.05 crore yet to be sanctioned for various works.
In a written reply to the House, the chief minister has disclosed that only Rs 9.25 crore which was sanctioned has been spent for the apron expansion. This work was completed in November 2008 adding three additional parking bays to the existing six bays.
It was disclosed that estimated cost of Rs 497.05 crore would be required for construction of a new integrated terminal building, parallel taxi track and allied aviation facilities.
The new integrated terminal building would have a landing capacity of 3,500 passengers per hour besides state of the art facilities like on-line baggage scanning systems, direct boarding aero-bridges and hydrant systems for refueling for aircrafts.
The parallel taxi track is proposed for an entire length of the runway of around 4 kilometers and would help in alleviating the congestion and increasing the aircraft capacity.
The plan envisages completion of all development works in two years time from the date of commencement.
The estimates along with the consultant’s report have been forwarded to the Airport Authority of India a year ago.
Since then the state government has been pressing with t he Union Ministry of civil aviation and the union minister for Finance to clear the project so as to enable the work to commence at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Mauvin Godinho said there appears to be a conspiracy on reducing the amount from Rs 500 crore to Rs 320 crore for expansion of Dabolim airport. Expansion of Dabolim airport is being blocked to some extent by the Centre to allow Mopa airport to come up, Godinho said. Is it not to help Mopa? he asked. Stating that he is not against Mopa, he said two airports can survive in a state like Goa.
