2nd int’l airport at Goa

Possibly learning from the Hyderabad and Bangalore fiascos when old airports had to be shut down once new ones opened, the government on Thursday cleared two airports for Goa. While clearing a greenfield international airport for Goa at Mopa, it allowed the existing Dabolim airport to continue having commercial operations. Effectively, it reverses the NDA’s March 2000 decision of closing down Dabolim when Mopa opens. Till now, the government had not permitted new airports within 150 km of an existing one. When asked, I&B minister Ambika Soni said: “There is no blanket change in the government’s airport policy”. The government’s decision to review its policy on allowing the Mopa airport also paves the way for at least three more at Navi Mumbai, Kerala’s Kannur and Greater Noida (as a second airport to IGI.) Just like Hyderabad and Bangalore, the government had received a number of representations against the closure of existing airport in Goa. “In January, 2006, the government constituted a committee headed by Goa CM to look into it. It got a fresh study done by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which showed that it was possible to operate both the airports.