<Save Dabolim Action Committee spokesman Radharao Gracias said that both Dabolim and Mopa cannot co-exist in Goa given the international rules on Aviation and criticised both Sardinha and Faleiro for misguiding the people on the issue.>
This kind of vague citation of "international rules" is itself a blatant attempt to misguide the people of Goa. Let's hope they desist from resorting to it as it is getting a bit tiresome and unhelpful. <Congress leader Dr Wilfred Mesquita echoed similar sentiments saying that Mopa and Dabolim cannot [co-?]exist, adding that the Union government will close down Dabolim with the commissioning of Mopa airport> This has been public knowledge for 6 long years and Churchill himself drew attention to its seriousness only 6 months ago. Instead of being content to take a self serving and eventually defeatist "woe is me" stance, all efforts should have been mobilised to get the Union government decision revoked in the interim period! Even now, it is clearly an arbirary and hasty decision which is at glaring variance with the international low cost aviation scenario which has reached Indian skies in the last few years. After that, plans should have been made to upgrade Dabolim, the contours of Mopa should have been drawn based on sharing of traffic for the long term future, surface transport arterial links should have been simultaneously upgraded as per international airport development practice, institutional mechanisms created to ensure that Mopa did not put Dabolim out of business due to artificial imbalances etc. But are our (state and central) leaders up to this kind of complex planning and execution? That is the crux of Goa's aviation problem. Churchill and his backers are not helping matters at all except for trying to ensure that Dabolim does not close.
