--------------------------------- Goa Gears Up To Partly Use Proposed Intl Airport By 2007 RAJEEV JAYASWAL
The Financial Express NEW DELHI, DEC 25: Even as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is preparing a detailed feasibility report on the proposed international airport at Mopa in Goa, the state government is likely to complete the process of land acquisition with a view to "partly operationalise" the airport by 2007. "The formalities of land acquisition is likely to be completed in the next two weeks time. Then the project will be put on time chart and progress on the project will be monitored by higher authorities," a senior Goa government official has told FE. "The government plans to make the airport partly operational in the next three years, which includes the main runway and five aerobridges," he added. The state is working on modalities to invite investments from private parties on the project. "The joint venture route is likely to be the most viable option and a decision in this regard will be announced soon," he said. According to sources, the state government is planning to rope in private parties or a consortium with majority of 74 per cent equity stake, balance 26 per cent equity is likely to be equally divided between the state and the Airport Authority of India (AAI). Mopa, located in Pernem taluka, is selected as a suitable site over over Quepem and Ponda for having vast virgin land. The Central government has already approved the site. Meanwhile, Goa has become a hot-spot for foreign tourists who are landing at Dabolin airport in charter flights. "We have received 600 charter flights this year (1.7 lakh tourists), a 60 per cent jump from the last year. This has happened because this year Goa (Dabolin) airport remained open for 18 hours a day for civilian use," Goa tourism director N Suryanarayana told FE. Dabolin airport is owned by the Indian Navy (Ministry of Defence). "The proposed Mopa international airport will give tremendous boost to the tourism industry of the region," he said. Due to increased number of scheduled flights and four additional trains through Konkan Railway, Goa has witnessed the highest number of tourist inflow this year. "We have 1.7 lakh foreign tourists through charters and another 2 lakh foreign individual tourists (FITs) besides 17.5 lakh domestic travellers," he said. The state had received 16 lakh tourists in 2002. "Still a few days left to close the year, the tourists arrival in Goa is likely to cross the two million mark in 2003," Mr Suryanarayana said. Out of the total overseas inflow in 2003, the highest 1.2 lakh came from the United Kingdom, followed by Russia (45,000), Germany (28,000) and the rest from Scandinavian, Gulf and South-East Asian countries, he added. The state has launched an aggressive campaign marketing Goa as a destination -- for 365 days. ---------------- A church and an airport... Over the past week, two stories relating to the Navy's interaction with the civilian world came up for discussion in the news columns. For the most, the Navy has been a fairly good neighbour for Goa, apart from minor irritants and misunderstanding with the local population. But, like a good neighbour, it also needs to appreciate that neighbourhood interests sometimes vary, that divergent concerns need to be taken care of to build healthy neighbourliness, and that issues need to be seen from the perspective of others sometimes to make for a sustainable relationship. The first issue to come up was over the church feast at Anjediva. One section of public opinion in Goa is upset with the Navy not allowing free -- or even reasonably controlled -- access to celebrate the feast at the Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Brotas at Anjediva. It is argued that that the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama visited the site in 1498, and Alfonso de Albuquerque captured Goa from this Island first in March 1510 and later in November 1510. 'Sea Bird', the Naval base coming up outside Karwar, had intimated in July 2002 that "visits (to the island and its church) would be stopped since May 2003 due to construction of the north breakwater". Yet, a section of Catholic public opinion took up this issue, and argued to make a case that the Navy was not keeping up to its commitments on keeping the places of worship open. We do know that even today -- or, maybe, more so today -- religious shrines make for very contentious and emotive issues in post-colonial issues. Elections have been fought on these issues, and parties have come to power on them. They've fuelled the public imagination for years together. Take the case of Ayodhya. In this context, the approach of the Catholic Church of Goa to take a low-key approach on this issue is more than welcome. While some of those who feel strongly about this case have criticised the Church for "not doing enough", the last thing that is needed in today's climate of religious intolerance is more bitter disputes about monuments and emotions, that end up with all of us feeling discriminated-against. On the one hand, an argument has come up that Anjediva is the first place where Christianity was planted in Asia. Do we see Christianity merely in terms of monuments of stone and geographical locations? If that were so, it would be rather narrow view of a man who walked this planet with a grand vision some two millenia ago. Secondly, even as the Church in Goa makes serious attempts to distance itself from it's one-time, Portuguese-inspired links with colonialism, do we really want to turn the clock backward? If so, it would be only playing into the hands of those trying to make the case that the Church hasn't changed and evolved in the past four decades. Having said this, it does not mean that Anjediva should not be a wider issue for Goa as a whole. The entire transfer of the island to the Navy, by the Ravi Naik Congress government, brought to power by defections, itself comes under a big question-mark. Did our politicians who presided over this handing over take Goa's interests adequately into consideration? Can our politicians at all rise to the level of statesmen, or is this asking for simply too much? Was the transfer legally done, as some have asked? Should the island have been given over to the Navy without a deal that would in some way at least benefit Goa? (Of course, the Navy is there to work in the interests of the entire country, but fed as it is with lavish finances of the tax-payer, it needs to take care that the interests of all parts of the country are adequately taken into account while implementing its plans). More important to Goa today is the issue of Naval control of Goa's lone Dabolim airport. Officers manning the airport explain how this hampers this. Industry and trade quarters are quick to argue how the blocked slots on certain days of the week (apart from other restrictions) hamper the entry of regular flights, leading to the bottle-necking of landings and departures around the afternoons. Goa's government has gone on record on April 30, 2003 agreeing with Cortalim MLA Matanhy Saldanha that the Navy "had illegally occupied the buildings, areas and even Airport in the state". Goa government told the local legislator that the matter of "taking possession" is "under consideration". But on December 23, 2003, a Rajya Sabha answer lists Goa as one of the airports used by civilians currently controlled by the Defence authorities. It also says unambiguously that the ownership of Goa's Dabolim airport "is with the Ministry of Defence (Navy)" and that "there is no such proposal or representation" received by the Centre for handing over the airport to the civilian authorities. This is a serious matter. What the State says doesn't tally with what the Centre says. Where does the truth lie? Everyone in Goa has a right to know. This is not just an emotive issue about control of an airport. For Goa, it means a bottling of the state's growth potential (Mopa is still a mirage), depriving a state of its important communication infrastructure in terms of air-links, and an additional taxation burden on an already overtaxed populace. Way back in August 1999, Matanhy Saldanha who was still then a humble school-teacher and unlucky politician not knowing where fate would take him, spearheaded a campaign. Voiced by an organisation calling itself the Citizens' Committee for the Protection of National Interests and Civilian Rights, it made a detailed case to explain why the post-Liberation takeover of the Dabolim airport by the Navy happened due to the misunderstanding of the legal position, and the subsequent silence of Goa's authorities on this issue. If the detailed 10-page note was inaccurate or untrue, we're all being unfair to the Navy. If not, our politicians have the responsibility of ensuring that justice is done to our state. ---- Rudy's Goa bill Union civil aviation minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy is in the news, as is his Goa hotel bill which he was allegedly trying to palm off to the Airports Authority of India. 'The Indian Express', a paper which has been repeatedly reminding Indian journalism that the media has to go beyond public relations, broke the story on Sunday. It said that the minister, his wife and sister-in-law had stayed four nights and five days at a luxury hotel in our state, at the rate of Rs 64,000 per day. The total bill was for Rs 269,200, said the Indian Express, and claimed to have a copy of it made out in Rudy's name and with an instruction "Bill to Airport Authority of India". The paper also alleged that Rudy had got the AAI to pick up the tab for miscellaneous other personal expenses -- including installing a new toilet in his residence, furniture in his office and stationery for his home. The next day, we all saw Rudy quickly arguing that he would be paying the bill "out of his own pocket". His aides arguing that "There is no public money involved". Rudy was quoted by journalists as arguing that no payment had been made, and he "did not ask" the Airports Authority of India to pay his bill. As he put it: "I was only waiting for the hotel to reduce the bill that was inflated on account of the New Year." To claim that he was on 'official work' during a personal visit is disingenuous. Likewise, to promptly pay the outstanding bill from his "own pocket", after the scam broke showing the attempt to get the AAI to pay it, if anything, only confirms what the Indian Express was saying. For Goa, the un-kindest cut perhaps was to cash in on the problem of long-time over-congestion and Navy-induced bottlenecks at the Dabolim airport. In the same manner, for politicians to expect themselves to be immune from the peak-season hike in rates only betrays the differing standards our rulers expect for themselves and the rest. Thanks to papers like the Indian Express, the expose of an issue such as this raises important questions about the functioning of our system of parliamentary democracy in today's India. Our politicians have ceased to be representatives of the people. They've instead come to become a class of neo-maharajas. Gone dare the days of the 1970s and earlier, when politicians felt embarrassed to make an undue show of wealth and affluence. Gone are the days of seeing them moving around in made-in-India Ambassador cars, and putting up in modest Circuit Houses. Today, politicians expect five-star luxury, even as they lead the destiny of a country which still has large sections of its population living in starvation, poverty and illiteracy. Leave aside what the 'India is shining' image would like us to believe. Beyond the immediate issues the Rudy episode throws up, a question that someone raised: even if politicians are actually paying from their own pockets, where are they getting this money from? Should they be spending such lavishly, given that their official earnings from politics would not allow them to honestly live it up in this fashion? Voters have the right to ask where all the money for such over-spending comes from. For Goa, this debate has an added dimension. Being a state which hosts a large number of so-called "VVIPs" from across the country and even the globe, the debate ought to be given more importance to a state like ours. Official statistics say that between December 2000 and March 2003, as many as 706 -- that's right, seven hundred and six -- VVIPs and dignatories visited this small state. Right from then Presidents like K R Narayanan, ex-Presidents like R Venkatraman, Prime Minister Vajpayee, ex-Prime Ministers like Deve Gowda and P V Narasimha Rao, Sonia Gandhi, Presidents of little heard-of republics like Tajikstan, Nepal's King and Queen, Central and State politicians, ministers, bureaucrats, judges and more. In some cases, nearly 1.6 lakh rupees were spend just towards banquets hosted by Goa and gifts presented to the dignatory and his "entourage". Surely such a drain on the already over-burdened exchequer needs both transparency and accountability. VVIPs come to Goa, enjoy the local hospitality, snatch the headlines for awhile -- whatever happened to the Prime Minister's promise of Rs 300 crores for Goa during his earlier Xmas-New Year visit? -- and then all is forgotten. The Rajiv Pratap Rudy episode, even though it may not involve crores of rupees, only reminds us of the need for probity in public life. We need not just stop at the issue at who's picking up the tabs for maharaja-style hospitality for the 'representatives of the people'. We need to extend the debate to demanding the right to know precise details of how the state and the men running it allocate and spend money meant to be used for the common good. This will give us a better understanding of corruption at the grand-scale and how it works. Didn't the BJP itself in Goa, before coming to power, promise that the assets of its politicians here would become public knowledge? We are still in the dark about this. While Rudy is in the news, it would at least tangentially beneficial to Goa if the issue he used as his fig-leaf of an excuse -- Dabolim airport's congestion -- got the attention it deserved. It's solution is long overdue. As of now, we've only seen Centre and State passing the buck, and neither doing anything concrete. -- Airport: don't blame the Navy Commander NV Kesari Apropos your editorial Rudy's Goa Bill (Herald, Feb 12) in which a mention has been made about "Navy-induced bottlenecks" at the Goa airport. This term is grossly incorrect and misleading. The issue of air-traffic at Dabolim and its handling has been sensationalised by your newspaper for the past three years or so, without taking into account the actual facts. To accommodate increased air-traffic and for the promotion of tourism in Goa, the Indian Navy started round-the-clock operations instead of restricting the same between sunrise to sunset. The airport and air-traffic services controlled and owned by the Navy have been fully-geared up and manned for this 24-hour operation. Accordingly, Naval Air Station Dabolim commenced 24 hour operations with effect from September 1, 2003 and the same has been promulgated vide NOTAM A0847/03 dated August 31, 2003. However,the hours of operation of the civil enclave, which is manned by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) continues to remain from 0600 to 1800 IST as per their orders. Since September 1, 2003, the period between sunset and sunrise has not been utilised by many of the airlines, except delayed flights. There are 112 domestic and 28 international chartered flights operating from the airfield per week. Additionally, on an average, 15-20 private-owned aircraft operate from Dabolim. Except between 0830-1300 hrs from Monday to Thursday, which has been reserved for military training flying, the remaining period is available for civil air operations without any restriction. Therefore, it the above period is utilised by segregating the flight-timings to cover the entire period, there will not be any congestion of traffic. An area of 14.994 acres was transferred to the Airports Authority of India in 1966 vide GoI Ministry of Defence letter No WK 0997/NHQ/6119/D(N-11) dated June 22, 1966. Considering the increase in traffic from Dabolim, the Indian Navy had given the additional land in stages, totalling to 10.5021 acres. Thus, a total of 25.696 acres of land has been given by the Navy to the Airports Authority of India for airlines operations for the benefit of the people of Goa. It can thus be appreciated that traffic bottle-necks and congestion as perceived has nothing to do with the Indian Navy. On the contrary, the Navy has been more than cooperative and accommodating in providing the flexibility of operation of the airfield 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The details of civil, domestic, international and chartered flights for the last seven years operating from the Dabolim airfield is given below: Details of domestic and international flights Period Domestic International Total 1996-97 5780 1082 6862 1997-98 5804 1110 6914 1998-99 5690 1084 6774 1999-00 6408 1176 7584 2000-01 6494 1463 7957 2001-02 6512 0838 7350 2002-03 7582 1014 8596 2003-date 8444 818 N V Kesari is the PRO to the Flag Officer Commanding. He can be contacted on phone 513950 extension 2004. ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
