TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The Union Civil Aviation Minister Ganapati Raju Thursday directed his ministry officials to visit Goa in the next two weeks and issued directions to issue necessary instructions for providing additional parking space for aircrafts at Dabolim airport, officials said.
A tri-party agreement between government of Goa, MPT and the NHAI would also be signed when the Union Minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari visits Goa on November 2.
Port connectivity has also been cleared in principle.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar met Raju and spoke about the non-availability of space to park aircrafts. He requested that the Navy be asked to provide additional space to park more aircrafts upgrading the International Airport. The civil aviation policy was also discussed.
Parrikar said that the State needs more parking space as companies such as Air Asia want to make Goa as their operating hub. They are ready to start two flights from Goa in the morning. Parrikar said that non-availability of space has also reduced the capacity of the airport thus affecting its functioning.
The chief minister called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and appraised him about the various issues that he was taking up with various ministers.
He held meetings with Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad where electronic clusters were discussed.
The chief minister also met HRD Minister Smriti Irani and discussions were held on setting up of IITs in Goa. At a discussion with Nirmala Sitaraman, union minister for Commerce and Industry, Panjim Port related issues were discussed and port connectivity cleared in principle.
