Team Herald
This was decided at the meeting of the Mopa airport steering committee, headed by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, on June 15. The meeting also resolved to commence work of the airport at the earliest.
Sources said the government has already short-listed five bidders for the ‘Request For Qualification’ (RFQ) for the development of the airport in terms of design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. “Government is currently awaiting Environment Clearance (EC) for the project from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF),” sources said.
The process for drafting ‘Request for Proposal’ (RFP) has been initiated, after which the financial bids will be opened. “Latest by December, the tender will be floated. Government has set a deadline of 2018-19 to make the first phase of airport operational,” sources said.
As per the RFQ document, the airport – which is being constructed on a public-private-partnership – will be developed in four phases. Phase-I is expected to be completed by 2020 and will cater to 4.4 million passengers while Phase II is likely to be ready by 2025 and this will handle 5.8 million passengers.
Government has already acquired 81,29,455 sq mtrs of land for development of the airport. It has also decided to provide compensation four times the present value to the farmers, who lost their land due to the proposed airport.
The proposed airport is facing strong opposition from farmers in Pernem taluka and from South Goa, who fear that with the new airport coming up, the existing Dabolim international airport would be closed down.
