<I'd say this to Phillip and Gabriel: You are making logical and sensible arguments. But this is not about Logic or Sense. Those are (as George Pinto rightly notes) red herrings. Its all about Power and Poixe. Goans can do what they want. Ain't nothing will change. Spoils of War ....don't have a say ...unless they repeat HMV.>
Just to play the devil's advocate for a moment (speculating to the hilt!), I'd like to say that we are probably NOT being logical or sensible enough, at least not in a COLLECTIVE sense. Think about it. When did Goans really begin to give a damn about Dabolim's potential as a civilian facility? Mid-80s? After CHOGM and the charters? Or mid-90s after KRC? What were they thinking from the mid-60s till then? Sleeping like the hare in the fable? Meanwhile our friends in the Navy had sized up Vasco/Dabolim before "liberation" and gained control soon after. They probably got IA to quickly start flights for the sake of their own and other govenment folks' travels including with families and parted with a few acres for a civil enclave terminal for the purpose. In the interim, Goans contented themselves with tortuous train and bus travel to Mumbai and other places. In the 70s when wide bodied jets appeared on the scene in India , the runway at Dabolim may have been expanded to accommodate these civilian aircraft. It would have increased from 6000 feet at the start to 7000 and odd. Later it would have reached the present length of about 10,000 fee similar to Mumbai and Delhi's. This extravagant length is is really not needed for naval VTOL/STOL purposes but what the heck. No one can do anything if its use for training is tied to an aircraft carrier anchored in Vasco! Since this carrier is getting obsolete and the Sea Harriers are crashing at regular intervals depleting the squadron, they go in for another vessel with a complement of aircraft for which India is the launch customer! These war machines will hold the fort for the foreseeable future. And the cycle wll repeat. There's also a back up in the form of the Union Cabinet resolution of March 2000 which decrees the closure of the civilian enclave once Mopa is ready whenever that happens. Just a matter of time. But they are in it for the long haul, right? We woke up to the reality only a few mnths ago! In the meantime they can blow hot and cold about Seabird's air station and nobody will be the wiser. Once Dabolim is in Navy hands completely then they will go full steam ahead with the Seabird air station. Oh, a civil enclave at Dabolim may continue even after Mopa goes live but it will be for defence and VVIP use only. This is the plan for Begumpet in Hyderabad. And may hold true in Bangalore HAL too. Aam admi can take a hike to Shamshahabad, Devenahalli and Mopa! To cut a long story short, it seems to me that the Navy is using sub-surface logic in full measure while employing the shield of "holy cow" to maximum effect against our own futile attempts to reason things out. We dont seem to be able to discuss our own viewpoints on the subject leave alone converge on a stand against the Navy's/military's clear obduracy. And btw, in the U.S. there is a periodical process called Base Review and Closure (BRAC) which makes detailed assessments of a base's military value and its economic importance (as a base) to its host site to make suitable adjustments. One was completed fairly recently I think. Here however the military seems completely impervious to the explosive growth in civil aviation and low cost air travel and is paralysed like a deer caught in headlights about how to cope in an agile and enlightened way.
