Yesterday's HERALD had a smallish boxed story headlined "Domestic status for Dabolim!" (exclamation mark in original). It is about a presentation on the state's transportation scene made by Prof Edgar Ribeiro, a member of the Regional Planning 2021 Task Force in the absence of the Task Force Chairman. In it there is this nugget: "The interim report [...] talks about Dabolim as the secondary airport - as a domestic airport - once Mopa international is commissioned."
So instead of the certain closure of Dabolim civil enclave upon the commissioning of Mopa, as per Union Cabinet 2000 Resolution, we have the slightly better prospect of a death from "natural causes" (a la Keeling et al) due to disuetude. Should such a significant matter for Goa's social economy have been glossed over like this by the media? Indubitably not. If there is one thing the latest civil aviation ministry policy on greenfield airports (like Mopa) within 150 km of another airport (like Dabolim civil enclave) emphasizes is that the interaction effects would have to be carefully considered. They are not boxes which can be moved or removed at will in a chart. In this case a mere label (international) has been detached from the Dabolim box and affixed to the one on Mopa. Why? The response is a deafening silence. This kind of casualness does not reflect well on the purported eminence of the good professor and his transportation panel. It is necessary to establish unambiguously that, by virtue of the award of "International" to Mopa courtesy Edgar Ribeiro, Dabolim does not lose the right to its present ICAO code, GOI (where "I" possibly stands for "international"). Something like this happened to Hyderabad's HYD (although by prior agreement among the parties concerned) when Begumpet closed and HIA opened recently. If not, then the cat is well and truly out of the bag and the Ribeiro panel is an accomplice in a charade against Goa. Let us consider the status of "international" flights at Dabolim in detail. The scheduled international flights are sparse (even less so now after the recent discontinuation of some flights to the Gulf). How will it matter if these practically non-existent flights are transferred to Mopa? What earthly purpose will this inconsequential transfer serve? Then there is the more pertinent matter of charter flights. These are salient because reportedly Goa accounts for the bulk of India's international charters. They amount to an ostensibly impressive number of about 700-800 a year. Even if the period is taken as 6 months' tourism season, they result in only about 4 flights per day! What kind of "international" airport would Mopa be with 1 or 2 scheduled international flights per day (at best) and about 4 charter flights per day (that too during the season)? Besides, at present the charter flights are accommodated at Dabolim on weekends and perhaps during night hours on other days. So Dabolim would go very quiet on weekends. What kind of surface connectivity issues would be posed for people from Goa (especially from the south) who want to catch (the rare) scheduled international flights out of Mopa in the north? There is the related question of what kind of competition issues (especially of the cross border "Sindhudurg" type) would be posed for South Goa hotels by charter flights operating only from Mopa? Does the Ribeiro plan have the blessings of the Hoteliers Association of South Goa (HASG)? As for domestic specialization at Dabolim, how is this aided by the continuation of slot restrictions (for military flight training) for four and a half hours every weekday morning? Low cost, short haul shuttle flights would find the hopefully completely free slot regime at Mopa much more convenient. Once surface connectivity problems are sorted out (say by 4 laning NH-17 etc) there may be a clamour for domestic flights (currently to the tune of about 40 a day) to shift too! The end-result would be that there would be nothing left for Dabolim civil enclave to do and it would quietly slip completely into military hands! Wouldn't this go against the Goa government's wish for two airports in the state, hopefully in perpetuity? Maybe Edgar Ribeiro's next task should be to prepare an obituary for Dabolim civil enclave. Its "death" will undoubtedly have to be imputed to him. One last thought: If the plan for aviation, the apex element of any transportation scheme, has been goofed up badly as is evident above, then what chance is there that the rest of the transportation plan is optimal? Maybe the whole thing should be scrapped unceremoniously and Ribeiro & Co should go back to the drawing boards. Goa needs to avoid the tag of being fooled all the time.
