April 21, 2018 OPEN LETTER FROM GFDO TO SURESH PRABHU, UNION MINISTER FOR CIVIL AVIATION, COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
Dear Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Your statements during your recent visit to Goa as Union Civil Aviation Minister & Union Minister for Commerce & Industry only served to confirm the underlying fear in the minds of Goans – that the inept Goa State Government finds itself even more ineffective and ill equipped to deal with policy and governance in the absence of a Chief Minister. You are surely aware that the Union Government and your Ministry have no involvement whatsoever in the proposed Mopa Airport project, which has been sparked off and set in motion by the Goa State Government through an Agreement signed by it with the project developer namely GMR. It is therefore perplexing why the Union Civil Aviation Minister should feel the need to make Mopa airport “a blueprint of Goa’s all round development” and make it “responsible for growth of the state in various sectors” whilst pushing and promoting the viability of this allegedly unfeasible private sector Mopa Airport project against the interests of his own Government run airport of Dabolim. Surely the Union Aviation Ministry is aware that expert reports have clearly opined that two airports are economically unviable given Goa’s present and future air traffic projections! In the interest of transparency therefore, it is only fair that the figures substantiating your claim that “Dabolim Airport will never close down for civil flights once Mopa Airport is commissioned” be made public, since the figures in our possession convey a totally different narrative. In fact the expert reports of ICAO and ADPi have clearly stated that one airport is the best solution for Goa. As Union Civil Aviation Minister, your extraordinarily active and inexplicable interest in the success and development of the private sector Mopa Airport even at the cost of your own Ministry of Civil Aviation run airport of Dabolim needs to be clarified. As Minister of Civil Aviation, you will be probably aware that there are a number of government airports being set up or upgraded in the vicinity. Your confidence in turning Mopa into a cargo hub is also perplexing, since GMR’s Master Plan Survey report itself asserts that “current cargo operators stated that they are satisfied with cargo facilities at Dabolim Airport, except for customs, which is located in Panaji, and have no desire to move”. In fact, most of your plans appear to be built on a shaky foundation. You speak of transporting the local produce of Goan farmers to international markets, even as the State Government is urbanizing Goa and concretising the fields at breakneck speed and Goa itself is presently in the situation of having to import farm produce from neighbouring states for its own local consumption. Regarding your assurance that the private sector Mopa Airport will provide jobs for Goans, we draw your attention to the fact that the State Government has no locus standing to compel the project developer to do so since it has failed to put in any clause in the Concessionaire Agreement making it mandatory for Goans to be employed. In fact a recent news report highlighted the fact that private companies set up in Goa, were attending recruitment fairs in Sawantwadi, in your home state of Maharashtra. This will surely be the case with Mopa Airport as well. In an endeavor to showcase Goa as an ideal location for start ups, you have said “In the month of November this year, we will have a global event on startups, wherein all the startup community of the world will be invited to Goa”. Without casting any doubts on your good intentions, the people of Goa might first be interested in knowing what happened to the “international level event” supposed to be hosted in Goa by the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry in February 2018, to attract investments in “environment friendly sectors” as promised by you on your visit to the State in October 2017. The Ministry of Aviation is the second transportation portfolio held by you after your stint as Railway Minister. It will be recalled that you began your tenure as Union Railway Minister by stating that your priorities were “rail safety” and “customer service”. Ironically that period was characterized by a spate of accidents that called into serious question the safety standards of the Indian Railways. In fact, a Huffpost India story assessed loss of life at around 238 persons in “consequential train accidents” during your tenure in the year 2016-17, with 193 deaths resulting from derailments alone, the highest ever number of deaths from such a cause in 17 years! The Aviation industry is a complex one. Unfortunately, most of your ambitious plans and visions for Mopa Airport and Goa do not appear to be supported by hard facts, figures, data and ground realities, giving rise to the suspicion that perhaps your claim of endeavouring to boost tourism in Goa through Mopa Airport conceals the unstated objective of growing the tourism industry in Sindhudurg, in your home state of Maharashtra, by riding on the back of ‘BRAND GOA’, at heavy and irreversible cost to the Goan environment and economy. For GOANS FOR DABOLIM ONLY Eremito Rebelo Convenor
