It’s a real estate developers dream. Five star hotels,resorts, convention centers, acres of commercial and residential property. Thedraft master plan submitted by consultants to the MOPA international airport,Amman and Whitney is a perfect brochure for a property developer to flaunt forconstruction projects. It’s just that this is a plan for an airport. And herethe report states that a proper plan would need an air traffic forecast,additional land for an instrument landing system and alternate access roads.
A Louis Berger Group affiliate, Amman and Whitney had, onAugust 19, 2011, submitted a 52 page presentation of a Draft Master Plan on theMopa Airport.
What is surprising is that the Goa Government (and this includesthe previous Congress led one) which is in a hurry to push the Rs. 3500+ crore greenfieldairport project has not come up with a specific traffic forecast study.
The Draft Plan in detail outlines the different facilitiesthat would be developed in the acquired land for Mopa Airport. The plans showeight parking bays for international and nine bays for domestic flights. Largeswathes of land have gone into converting the 2061 acre expanse into creationof a robust airport city “ self-sustaining and self-containing. But the rosypictures end here.
The report mentions two options for master-plan 1 and 2 withvariants 1A and 1B. Each plan has provisioned setting up of five star and budget hotels, resorts, convention centre,exhibition ground besides acres of commercial properties. Site plan option2A actually demarcates 3 hotels, 1 resort, 2residential areas, 13 warehousing and 38 commercial plots amongst others.
Acres of land marked as forests on Mopa Plateau’s southeastern slopes will be used for developing these facilities.
What is most significant is that the report has beenprepared not taking into account air traffic forecast which is the basicelement for deciding the size and scale of the airport. Another interestinggaffe is the need for “additional land for ILS”. ILS or Instrument LandingSystem is the key factor in an Airport’s flight infrastructure and land forthis facility should have been sorted by now.
The last few pages of the report offers options of roadaccess that cut across heavily forested areas. It may be recalled that MopaAirport is coming up on a plateau whose slopes are heavily forested withmultiple perennial streams. The plan proposes setting up of sewage watertreatment plant and garbage treatment facility at a height of 160 metres above thesurrounding inhabited areas of Nagzar, Casarvarnem, Uguem.
