Proposed Mopa Replacement Airport. Goa is moving forward as the central Government has proposed a new state of the art airport at Mopa in Pernem.
The present Dabolim airport built around 1953 was just a simple airstrip and its main purpose due to the economic blocade with India and Portugal. After independence it was upgraded to enable large capacity flights to land in Goa, but its status is nowhere near the international airports in other parts of South East Asia including Singapore, Kuala-Lumpur, Hong Kong, Manila, Taiwan and so forth. The terminal building in Hong Kong International airport is 1.27 kilometres long, and has international airline counters from A to Z, over 200 immigration counters, 14 belt conveyors for luggage handling, 60 link bridges for the planes to land at the airport, a 5 star airport hotel, cargo handling, crew hotel, and two runways 3.8 kilometres long. International airlines also need maintenace and there are two large maintenace hangers, and the best restaurants and shopping arcades are in the terminal building. The total area of Hong Kong is 1068 sq. Kilometres. Judging from the above facts Mopa replacement airport can provide employment to a few thousand Goans during construction and when the airport comes into service. The ground transportation including trains, buses etc are essential as passengers cannot be late for their flights. The boom for tourism will be excellent for Goa. There is always a political touch for most of these projects, but we are in a world of free enterprise and healthy competion it will enable the consumer to get better value for their money and should only improve the service industry. Tom de Sousa in Hong Kong.