the goan I network
PANAJI
Goans For Dabolim Only (GFDO) has hit out at the state government by saying that it has over 4,000 pages of documents relating to the Mopa airport under the Right to Information Act (RTI) to prove that the upcoming Mopa Airport is a scam.
Avinash Tavares, member of Congress and GFDO, did a detailed presentation in front of a gathering, which comprised of tourism stakeholders, general public and also mediapersons, to explain that Mopa airport is a scam. Also present during the gathering was Fr Eremito Rebelo, convenor, GFDO.
Tavares highlighted in his presentation that Goa government does not have any indication of revenue it will get from Mopa Airport and also that Goa government does not have any equity stake in the project.
He said, “As per the aviation policy, if a greenfield airport is proposed within 150 kms of existing airport, an impact study has to be done. There are 5 airports within 150 kms of Mopa airport. Forget all the five airports, but at least for the proposed airport at Chipi (Sindhudurg) and Dabolim airport, they should have done the impact study.”
Continuing further, he said, “We put an RTI with the Ministry of Civil Aviation asking them for documents to know if they have conducted an impact study of Mopa, Dabolim and Sindhudurg airports on each other. The central government does not have any. That’s why they have stated that there’s no information available.”
If airports are too close to each other, they end up eating into each other’s business. Tavares was trying to emphasise on this point. He further said that the State government is not earning anything out of more than 300 acres of land it has given to GMR Infrastructure for city side development around Mopa airport.
“In the concession agreement (signed between Goa government and GMR Infrastructure for Mopa Airport) it is stated that once 340 acres of land is given for city side development (to GMR Infrastructure), the government need not take it back for 60 years. Even if the project is terminated, GMR gets to keep the land. In the concession agreement, it is mentioned that all revenue from city side development shall be appropriated by the concessionaire and the government is not going to earn anything from it”, he said.
Tavares also claimed that Airports Authority of India (AAI), Engineers India Ltd (EIL) and KPMG played a role in the Mopa airport scam, besides the state government.
He explained, “AAI was on the steering committee for bid evaluation (for Mopa Airport) and at the same time it also entered the fray as one of the bidders for the airport. EIL prepared the environment impact assessment (EIA) report for Mopa airport and were also technical consultants appointed to evaluate GMR Master Plan. Yet EIL was also appointed as independent engineers. KMPG was the finance consultant of GMR Infra in 2013-14, which was a conflict of interest.”
Tavares also said that there was no basis for the much touted 6-lane expressway, which will connect Mopa airport to the national highway.
He said, “This expressway was originally proposed as a 6-lane elevated flyover costing Rs 300 crore. In GMR/Axis Bank loan agreement, the cost of constructing the expressway is shown as Rs 65 crore. Initially, the government was supposed to construct the expressway. Later, it was passed over to the concessionaire during the time of bidding. However, the construction of the expressway is not included in the scope of work to be carried out by the concessionaire in the final agreement.”
