TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: As the State government threatens to begin the tendering process for the Mopa airport while the issue is hanging fire, former MP John Fernandes, a former member of the parliamentary committee on civil aviation, has pointed out that the manner in which the Mopa plan is sought to be hurried through “reeks of a scam, where huge amount of money is waiting to be given to politicians as kickbacks, as land is made available for a song.”
Fernandes, in a press communiqué, has likened this exercise of constructing Mopa airport to that of the 1990s Enron power project at Dabhol, Thane, where some Rs 64 crore bribes were allegedly paid in the guise of ‘educating’ people.
The former MP also argued that the Navy had made assurances before the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Transport (of which he was a member) and to the Parliamentary Coast Guard Committee (of which he was chairman) that it still has two road points crossing the runway for vehicular traffic ~ which is apparently banned under DGCA rules and under ICAO laws.
“A major flaw in the international airport is the absence of a taxiway on the civilian side of the runaway. It is akin to a huge building without a staircase,” Fernandes argued, adding that the Navy should be compelled to reach their installation on the other side of the runway by going around the runway and not across it.
“This… will ultimately facilitate the taxiway coming up towards the civil enclave of the runway… which has presently punctured the runway at the centre, which is not permissible under the DGCA rules,” he said.
