TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: With Goa getting a Chief Minister from Pernem, people are buoyed by the hope that the proposed long pending Greenfield International Airport at Mopa will materialise soon. Expectations are high after Laxmikant Parsekar, succeeded Manohar Parrikar as the Chief Minister.
A total of 81,29,455 sqm of land has already been acquired for the development of the airport and Rs 11.77 crore has been kept aside as compensation to farmers. An additional area of 381 acres is also being proposed near the airport site for commercial development.
The ruling coalition has promised to ensure that the airport is functional by 2017 and an Environment Impact Assessment study of the project has been entrusted to the Engineers India Limited, a Government of India undertaking for Rs 19.70 lakh.
Ex-Chief Minister and the present Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has been quoted as saying the concession agreement with the qualified bidder would be signed only after completion of EIA study and granting environment clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF).
The Cabinet under him had also approved the request for qualification (RFQ) document of the project to float the expression of interest last month. The Finance Department granted in-principle approval to RFQ as it was cleared by the steering committee on September 24.
As per the RFQ, the important parameters for qualification are experience in airport development, core sector, operational experience, passenger throughput and others. The applicants would be evaluated based on their experience in development of airports-basically Greenfield or Brownfield. “The applicant’s competence and capability will be established taking into account their technical capacity and financial capacity,” RFQ document reads.
Parrikar had stated that Mopa airport is the need of the hour for Goa and with the increasing passenger traffic, Goa needs two airports. Both airports including Dabolim would handle seven million passengers annually.
