Here is the link and full text of the material I have been referring to recently. We do not know when such detailed information will be forthcoming again as the folks involved seem to have gone into "batten down the hatches" mode of late. ------------------- http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=12031
Navy committed to welfare of Goans: Rear Admiral NT News Service Vasco, Dec 2: The Flag Officer Commanding Goa Area, Rear Admiral, AVSM NM, Sanjay Vadgaokar said that Navy being an integral part of Goa is strongly committed to welfare of Goans and despite severe shortages in trained manpower, it has opened the Dabolim airfield for 24 hours of operation since September 2003.Rear Admiral Vadgaokar was interacting with the press at INS Gomantak, as a part of Navy Week celebration organized by the Flag Officer Commanding Goa Area and Flag Officer Naval Aviation on Friday evening. "The Indian Navy is probably one of the few navies in the world which encourage civil operations from it's airfields" stated Rear Admiral Vadgaokar and further added that towards this end, on realising limitations and restrictions on the availability of parking space and civil dispersal a total of 25 acres of land had recently been handed over to the Airport Authority of India. He also stated that the navy has assets of Rs 75 crore in Goa and Rs 1,000 crore has been spent on infrastructure. He further said that Dabolim is the largest airbase of Indian Navy and is operating six different types of aircrafts. He also informed that the navy is operating 24 hours and has upgraded its system. "There is also an exclusive radar for civil operation at Dabolim airbase" stated Rear Admiral Vadgaokar. He opined that the navy is a risk-oriented profession and it's strength is about 6,000 in Goa. This also includes.(sic) It was also informed about Rs 40 crore is being spent to enhance the runway itself. It was also disclosed that the Navy has given 84 per cent of the time to civil operation. "If the civil aviations stretch their operations during night times than there would be no confusion at the Dabolim airport," added Rear Admiral Vadgaokar. He also clarified that the navy has restricted the civil operation at Dabolim airport for only four and half hours that is from 8.30 a.m morning till 1 p.m. "The Navy has gone out of it's way towards promoting civil air operations, in this regard several additional facilities have been installed to facilitate the commercial flights" said Rear Admiral Vadgaokar and further pointed out that It may be interestingly to note that other than radar, none of these additionally installed facilities are required for operations of military aircraft from Dabolim. He added that purely from the point of view of the national security on a broader canvas the navy at Goa is a backbone of Maritime Operations on the West coast of India. "It needs no elaboration that the navy and Goa are synonymous to each other, be it may the erstwhile Portuguese Navy or the Indian Navy post-liberation, the bond of trust between the navy and the people of Goa is strong and therefore very integrated" stated Rear Admiral Vadgaokar. He informed that the first Naval Detachment was established in Goa on January 1, 1962 when the office of first Naval Officer-in-Charge (Goa) was established at Headland Sada. "As the years passed by the erstwhile Portuguese Garrison which included land of Dabolim, Major Bunder Jetty, the area at Chicalim where we presently have the Naval Armament Depot, the Mangor and Alpaqures hills and all were taken over by the Government of India (since Goa was the Union Territory then)". And this entire Garrison was later handed over to Navy by the Government of India for the custody and establishment of a Naval Area. It must be mentioned that the growth of nNavy in Goa was simultaneous to growth of the Indian Navy at other places like Mumbai, Vizag, Kochi as well. Rear Admiral Vadgaokar stated that the naval base at Karwar is presently only capable of berthing of ships and submarines and not for accommodating large bodied aircraft and their operations. "There is no airfield in Karwar Naval Base" stated Rear Admiral Vadgaokar and further pointed out that a provision does exist in the blue print of the second phase of 'Project Seabird' to have a small airfield at Karwar however it's use will be limited to operations of helicopters and small aircraft primarily to maintain supply lines to the ships and submarines". Rear Admiral Vadgaokar cleared its stand saying that the topography and geographical location of Karwar does not permit operations of large bodied aircraft operations of large bodied aircraft. He said that the Navy Day is being celebrated on December 4 as the Karachi harbour was set ablaze in a daring attack launched by the Indian Navy during 1971 Indo-Pak war. "Taking this auspicious opportunity of Navy Day for this year the Headquarter Goa Naval Area has undertaken numerous activities to be closer to people of Goa" and incidentally the motto of Navy in Goa is 'Reaching to the Goans'. The Area Headquarter at Goa has organised a plethora of activities to benefit the people, to mention few of these, we had two health camps in Vasco for the needy people. The response received for these health camps was not only encouraging but it was stupendous, stated Vadgaokar. A blood donation camp was concurrently organised in Navy's hospital Jeevanti. A total of 116 bottles of blood was donated by the naval personnel. Knowing the fact that Army and Navy are both in Goa but there are no Goans in either Army or Navy in sizeable number, we did endeavour to introduce young Goans to the highest traditions of armed forces by conducting 'Know Your Navy Campaign'. in various colleges at Goa. The aim of performing aerobatic display of 'Sagar Pawan' at Miramar beach was precisely to attract the attention of younger generation towards the Armed Forces and Navy in particular. Navy's theatre Rajhans was also thrown open to public during our own film festival conducted from November 12 to 20. When questioned about the constant bird hit cases due to dumped garbage in an around the premises of Navy, the Rear Admiral Vadgaokar said that he is very alive to this problem and ensured that steps will be taken to clear the rampant garbage with the cooperation of people and the state administration. He also said that the Navy is fully prepared to threat perceptions in Goa. On this occasion Capt G M Gopakumar, Commanding Officer, INS Hansa, Commander Bhatnagar and Commander N Kesari were present. -------------- Fyi, Commander N.V. Kesari was a PRO in Goa in 2004. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Goanet supports BMX, the alumni network of Britto's, St Mary's and Xavier's -- three prominent institutions in Mapusa, Goa. Events scheduled from Dec 16 to 21, 2006 For more details visit http://www.bmxgoa.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------
