Private consortia to be identified for Mopa Intl airport: CS

Panaji, July 17 (UNI) Goa Government will float global tenders to identify a suitable consortium to build the international airport at Mopa in North Goa after the Union Civil Aviation Minsitry gave its formal approval to the proposal, Goa Chief Secretary J P Singh said here today.

Talking to newsmen here he said the government had contacted two partners, including one from Portugal for the airport project.

They were willing to take up the project if they were given control to manage the traffic at the existing Dabolim airport along with Mopa.

''They may know how best to operate the aircraft so that both become viable. The air traffic control tower at Dabolim airport would however be controlled by the Indian Navy for strategic reasons,'' he said.

The process of acquiring about 2,000 acres of land for the Mopa airport is being speeded up, he said, adding that the airport would be one of the best examples of public private partnership with the state government giving the land as its 13 per cent equity contribution.

The shortlisted private developer had to share 74 per cent of the equity and the Airport Authority of India 13 per cent as was in the case of greenfield airports like the one at Samshabad near Hyderabad and the other at Bangalore.

The government would also take the expert guidance of new Governor S S Sidhu, to be sworn in on July 21, for finalising the details of the project, he added.

It might be recalled that Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, who was heading a high-level committee on Mopa airport, had recently submitted its recommendations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The centre had also recently removed the clause in favour of greenfield airports that no new airport should be built within 150 km radius of the existing airport.

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