VASCO
At a time when efforts are being made to spruce up Dabolim airport with better facilities ahead of the tourism season, a major safety and security lapse leading to a potential disaster is lurking at the old Dabolim terminal.
Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) tankers, each carrying up to 27,000 litres of the highly inflammable liquid, use the narrow road at the old terminal several times each day and can easily collide against the stationary black-yellow taxis, posing a major threat to the entire Dabolim airport.
When the issue was raised by The Goan on Saturday, the Dabolim Airport traffic police responded swiftly by placing traffic cones as a temporary measure, but authorities admit a permanent solution is needed to prevent vehicles from parking along the road.
With about 6.8 million passengers travelling each year and an average of 130 aircraft operations a day, Dabolim Airport is one of the busiest airports in the country.
Catering to growing number of passengers, the airport's new terminal was inaugurated in December 2013. Roads around the old terminal building are being used as parking space by several vehicles, including black-yellow taxis, even though the area has not been officially allotted to these taxis.
The road at the old terminal is used several times each day by tankers carrying highly inflammable ATF from petroleum companies to refill in the aircraft at the new terminal.
These fully loaded ATF tankers can easily collide with the stationary vehicles parked on both sides of the narrow road at the old terminal.
According to sources, ATF tankers make even more trips during the tourist season with the inflow of charter flights, in addition to other civilian aircraft.
"The three petroleum companies -- HP, BP and Reliance Aviation -- have two types of tankers. During the tourism season, the smaller 16,000-litre ATF tankers make about six-eight trips, while the larger 27,000-litre tankers make about 10-12 trips, depending on the need. Each of the three companies send loaded ATF tankers on a daily basis," said the source.
The taxi operators claimed they were helpless in the matter. "Our parking lot inside the airport area has been recently taken away by the AAI and the space is now used to park AAI vehicles, while taxis have been pushed out," said Black-Yellow Taxi Operators' Union General Secretary Herculano Dourado.
"Taxis from other areas also park there, leading to double parking of vehicles. The police cannot be blamed as 100 vehicles move to and fro at all times."
"There is absolutely no space for us to park and if we get an area nearby, we can also service passengers better and avoid such potentially dangerous situations," Dourado added.
