<See this and weep>[Gabriel de Figueiredo] Try to get over the past, mate, though its not easy. And check out what's in store for Goa from what is written, directly and indirecly, about it TODAY. Here is an example from Business Standard about the bidding for the new airport in Hyderabad -- which is likely to be repeated in the case of Goa's Mopa airport:
Sunil Jain: Getting crony capitalism to fly RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS Sunil Jain / New Delhi February 18, 2008 <To begin with, the bidding itself was curious. The state government owned the land of the new airport and so carried out the bidding. [and] selected the [Hyderabad based] GMR group on [this] basis. In Delhi and Mumbai, the AAI signed the concession[s] since it, not the ministry, owned the airports. In this case [of Hyderabad], since the AAI couldn't sign, the ministry helpfully stepped in! The ministry of civil aviation, which granted the Hyderabad concession, has actually no right to do so since it doesn't even own the airport land! Since the concession was signed with the Government of India's (GOI's) Ministry of Civil Aviation, the actual negotiations took place with the GoI and, in the process of negotiating with the GoI, a host of additional concessions were added on. [The old] Airports Authority of India [Begumpet] airport, which serviced around 6 million passengers [per year] and gave AAI annual revenues of around Rs 150 crore, would be closed down. It also promised no new airport was going to be set up within 150 km of the GMR one for 25 years. **The aviation policy, on the other hand, allows such airports to be set up, with some concessions though.** Then, to help make the new concessionaire make some more money, the concession allowed charging of a User Development Fee (UDF). Needless to say, if these concessions were known earlier, others would have liked to bid as well, and perhaps a lot more than GMR, which is going to give just 4 per cent of its revenues to the AAI. On the face of it, a UDF seems fair enough and is equivalent to paying tolls to help fund an expressway. But since a UDF is based on the cost of a project, it's important to ensure this cost is not over-stated..Essentially, in sectors where cost-plus regimes are still in vogue, such as in power, there are elaborate rules/guidelines on how costs are to be determined/apportioned, but there is nothing of the sort for the UDF in the concession agreement. The concession is also silent on whether this UDF will take into account the earnings the GMR group will make from other airport-related operations.. Big deal, some will say since, under the law, only the central government has the right to grant licences for setting up new airports - so, concession or licence, they're both really the same thing. Well, not really since **a licence does not entail any obligations on the part of the licensor while a concession does**. It was under the concession, for instance, that the central government promised to shut down the existing airport, to give GMR monopoly rights and UDF - and since all these are in the concession, GMR has a legal right to them. **None of these sweeteners could have been given under a licence**.> http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?autono=314093&leftn m=4&subLeft=0&chkFlg= Replace "Hyderabad" with "Goa/ Mopa" and you have a pretty good idea of what is in store for us unless citizens are alert and get things changed (non-violently). The biggest change to be effected is to switch mindsets from a "Big Bang" approach (global hub, A380 airport, two runways, hotel, mall, expressway etc etc from Day One) to "Big oaks from little acorns grow" (safeguard land and use it for night parking, lay a 6000' air strip, run regional services including cargo, build as you go etc) to ensure Dabolim does not close, ever. Find the airport developers (Gopinath & Co, CIAL etc) who will be willing to do this for Goa and get them to bid. That is the way forward.
