Mopa came like a Christmas-New Year present, all wrapped up in colourful paper, ribbons, gift wrapping and all. But, on opening it, there seems to also be a surprising price tag. Just a few days into the launch of the brand new airport, cyberspace is flooded with complaints about how costly it is already proving to be.
Leave aside the entire debate about Goa creating superfluous and barely-used infrastructure for itself. A legislative assembly that is huge and gigantic, but meets for hardly a few days in the year. A new secretariat complex that doesn't improve the efficiency of the bureaucracy. Three bridges over the Mandovi, and still congestion nearby at Porvorim. A sprawling Goa Medical College (in the 1990s), that has been still struggling to provide out-patient services and checkups to the small State, or even keep its toilets remotely clean.
In Mopa's case, the mismatch became quickly apparent. Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte called it "teething troubles", and promised to sort it out in "eight days". But is it only that? Or, does the intent become obvious, of the State and its private partners fleecing customers and squeezing the most they can out of them?
As expected, the greenfield airport was launched, as planned, according to its latest deadline, in December, amidst much fanfare. When there is the political will to complete a project, Modern India will move hell and high water to see that it comes through. How it does so, and at what cost, is another matter though.
But even if the airport got ready in time for a Modi inauguration, the shock quickly hit home. One scanned bill for a taxi, shared widely in cyberspace, showed that a Mopa-Benaulim taxi ride would cause damages of over Rs4000 to the passenger! (Rs 3227.14 as the "fare charge", Rs 484.07 as the service charge, Rs 160 as airport charges. GST at between 5-15% for the above services. All this added up to Rs 4148.50 for a Mopa-Benaulim car ride. Almost the same as a plane ticket from Mumbai or Bengaluru or some other nearby city to Goa!)
Added to that, there was another scanned image doing the rounds in cyberspace. Five minutes of entry into the New Goa Manohar International Airport cost a shocking Rs 1,000.
Then, on the political front, the activist Shankar Polgi took objection to Kadamba charging Rs 500 for a Mopa-Margao electric air conditioned bus trip. He pointed out that the same service cost just Rs 50, when covering the Panjim-Margao distance. Of course, these electric bus services are being hired out at a very costly rate, and doesn't come cheap for Kadamba. There's another story there.
Maybe even the Rs 500 fare would be justified if there were regular and frequent trips connecting Mopa to the main cities of Goa. However, one cannot be sure about that.
Media comments often blame the taxi drivers for the transport mess in Goa. But the problem is deeper than that. Since the late 1960s, the transport lobby was a powerful one, which made and unmade and supported State governments. In those days, bus "permits" and the like were considered to be the "money rakers" for politicians in power and their friends.
The Shashikala Government was accused of being close to the "bus lobby". That might be the reason why her political opponents hit out against them, through the student-led bus fare concession protests.
Since then, government after government has made little to no effort to build public transport in the State. One exception was the attempts by the early Rane governments to build Kadamba, after first coming to power in 1980. But that too soon came unstuck, ruined by mismanagement and a lack of long-term vision.
By keeping its public transport system in a state of decay and disuse, Goa is doing a great disservice to its people. Their potential is stymied, and their growth is restricted.
It's not only an issue of transport but other forms of non-concrete infrastructure which really affect people's lives. Health services, education, life-long learning facilities, night schools, facilities for dropouts, easy-of-entry into higher education facilities, and even augmenting our youth with better skills and knowledge for migration.
Often, critics are told that they "oppose everything". Someone was arguing that, if anything, Mopa is an example of a project which works. Two issues come up here.
Firstly, we don't know what the real price is finally going to be. Are we seeing a trailer of what is to come? In ecological terms, the impact is to be seen.
Secondly, we are still to understand what's happening at places like Joshimath, the sinking town, in Uttarkhand, and what "development" has done to the region. Our political class (apart from exceptions like the late Matanhy Saldanha) has been unwilling to debate the Dabolim airport, who should be controlling it, whether tiny Goa needs two airports, and how Mopa serves Maharashtra or Goa. That some politicians have invested hugely in real estate near the new airport is not good enough reason to justify the same.
Those who question Mopa, or even debated aspects of it, have been castigated, even though questions are very much needed. Nearly thirty years back, another huge "developmental" project was launched with much fanfare.
Yet today, we forget the Konkan Railway... just check the promises this project's planners then made (on the speed of trains, number of trains, Build-Operate-Transfer concept, merger after repaying all loans, reduction of pollution in Goa, etc). Most have come to nought.
As politicians, including the Opposition, fail to take up such issues, it is upto the citizen to be concerned.
