Navy should not make Goa Govt beg for Dabolim land: Naik
THE HINDU: Saturday, October 27, 2007 : 1405 Hrs Panaji (PTI): Indian Navy should not make state government and Airport Authority of India go with a begging bowl before them for land to expand Dabolim airport in south Goa district, a Congress MP said here. "The land actually belongs to the Government of Goa and the Indian Navy has not produced any deed of transfer of it when it was taken over during Goa liberation in 1961," Rajya Sabha member Shantaram Naik, who is member of state committee looking into feasibility of new airport in Goa, said on Saturday. With serious doubts being raised on proposed international airport at Mopa in north Goa, the state government is following up their plans of Dabolim airport expansion which can accommodate more traffic. After an intense agitation opposing Mopa airport in the state, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had constituted a committee headed by state Chief Minister to decide on the issue. Naik, a member of the committee, demanded that Dabolim airport should have a bigger Integrated Passenger Terminus than the one planned which can cater to not more 1,000 passengers per day. Daily traffic at the airport being around 4,000, Dabolim should have a passenger terminus for catering to at least 3000 passengers, if on account of constraint of land availability a bigger terminus cannot be constructed, the MP said. Naik said that in reply to an unstarred question asked by him in the Rajya Sabha, the Defence Minister had replied that post liberation of Goa in 1961, Dabolim Airport was handed over to the Ministry of Defence by an order of the then Military Governor. "The Ministry of Defence has, accordingly, title of 1,687.51 acres of land in Dabolim Airport since April 9, 1962, he noted. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200710271422.htm Sanny de Quepem <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
