PANAJI
The air traffic control (ATC) tower and the terminal building of the greenfield Mopa international airport are 95% complete, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Friday, adding that the first phase of the new airport could be inaugurated anytime in December or later.
Sawant visited the under construction airport on Friday evening and officials of the concessionaire guided him through the ATC tower, the runway and the Terminal building. A media party was also in tow as was Deputy Speaker Joshua D'Souza and Pernem MLA Praveen Arlekar.
However, the media was not given access to the ATC tower or the terminal building and was only given a bus ride on the nearly 3-kilometer long runway.
Sawant said the finalisation of the date for the inauguration will be done as soon as the Prime Minister's Office communicates the availability of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Mopa airport has already got an aerodrome licence from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and according to GMR some airlines have already shown keen interest to use it. In fact Oman Air has already communicated to its loyal clientele via e-mail that it will shift operations to Mopa from Dabolim in January.
Meanwhile, the row over whether Dabolim will lose out to Mopa and eventually shut down has now erupted again and the State government is in a fire-fighting mode trying to assure that both the airports will stay operational simultaneously.
