PANJIM: Alleging that the proposed Mopa International Airport is nothing but a major scam in terms of money and land resources, Goans for Dabolim Only (GFDO) – the movement opposing the second airport – is contemplating challenging the greenfield project in the Supreme Court.
GFDO, which on Saturday held a two-hour long presentation based on 4000 pages of documents relating to the airport project, procured under Right to Information Act (RTI), claimed that the existing Dabolim international airport, with proposed expansion, is sufficient to handle 11.2 million passenger traffic by 2021 and that the need for Mopa may arise only in 2035. These were figures submitted by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority.
GFDO has accused the Government of Goa, AAI, Engineers India Limited (EIL) and GMR International of a scam in the proposed airport. “GFDO alleges that the Mopa airport project is nothing but a scam, that puts the State, its people and the stakeholders in jeopardy,” the protestors said.
“There is no doubt that the Mopa airport project will certainly collapse under the weight of its own inherent contradictions by the government,” GFDO convenor Fr Eremito Rebelo said.
GFDO member Edwin Pinto said the NGO is in consultation with the legal team contemplating approaching the Supreme Court to challenge the scam-ridden airport project. “There are already petitions before the judiciary – one before Supreme Court and another before the National Green Tribunal (NGT). We intend to move the Apex Court with the facts and figures exposing the scam,” he said.
In its presentation, GFDO pointed out how the steering committee of the government flouted procedures, policies, rules and decision to favour the project. It exposed how, without any justification, the committee changed the model from PPP joint venture to a lease model, leasing out land for purpose of aviation and tourism.
“The initial decision to allot the land was for 30 years with option for another 30 years extension. However, in the final agreement, this was arbitrarily changed to allotment for 40 and 20 years option,” they said.
It also exposed how the cost of the phase I project was arbitrarily changed from Rs 3000 crore to Rs 1500 crore. This was later added with the cost of the expressway, increasing the cost of phase I to Rs 1800 crore and another Rs 100 crore to a total of Rs 1900 crore.
Further, the State has nothing to earn in the form of revenue even as the concession agreement states sharing 36.99 percent profit, GFDO said that as per the final agreement, the entire liability lies upon the State and in case of termination of agreement, the entire loan amount is to be re-paid by the State along with 115 percent termination amount.
GFDO has also alleged a banking fraud by Axis Bank, which has granted a loan of Rs 1330 crore to GMR, wherein the bank failed to verify that the there are court cases pending against the loan borrower.
“It is now abundantly clear that this unviable, economically, unfeasible and unnecessary second airport will heavily consume and drain Goa’s limited community resources without providing the requisite returns to the State,” Rebelo said.
