During an interview with Goan Varta Live Editor Kishor Gaonkar, former Chairperson of Pernem Pernem Municipal Council Dr Vasudev Deshprabhu said that Mopa International Airport will create a challenging situation in the state.
He claimed that Dabolim airport will likely be handed over to the Navy. “Keeping Dabolim operational for domestic traffic is not in the hands of any politician, but the control will be with the Navy itself. Currently the Dabolim airport is closed for six hours during which only Navy uses it. Why would this period not go up gradually to eight, 12 or 24 hours,” he said.
“There is also no parking place for big passenger planes, even if they land at Dabolim airport. There is no arrangement for cargo shipping. Naturally, step by step Dabolim airport will totally go under Navy’s control,” he added.
He was making a recent statement CM Pramod Sawant claiming that the Dabolim airport will continue to operate despite the Mopa airport starting its operations.
Speaking on the availability jobs to locals, Deshprabhu claims that hardly 1,500 Pernem people will get jobs at the Mopa airport. “Expecting that by 2028-30 Mopa will engage 80,000 to 1,20,000 workers in shifts, with every shift having 30,000 to 40,000 employees. From where will this work force come?” asked Deshprabhu.
“Not a single person in Pernem has been offered any training. Neither Babu Ajgaonkar, nor Dayanand Sopte, or Rajendra Arlekar have taken this seriously. The new MLAs that have come into power now, have no idea how grave the problem of workforce availability would be. Generally, for handling one plane 80 people are required, to bring aircraft and to push it back. These include cleaning staff, fuel, food and luggage handlers etc. If we estimate 1,000 planes landing at Mopa per day by 2028-30, then the scenario would be horrible,” claimed Deshprabhu.
“There would be one loaded tanker coming from Vasco to Mopa and one unloaded tanker going towards Vasco from Mopa per minute. This would result in traffic jam from the Mopa airport to new Zuari bridge. It would be difficult for public to travel from Pernem or Bardez to Panaji. The quality of the road would also be compromised,” said Deshprabhu expressing concern.
Talking about strain of local resources, Deshprabhu said that the population of Pernem taluka is less than one lakh, which is expexted to rise to 5-6 lakhs putting a further strain of sources of water.
Overall, the Mopa airport will create bigger problems which Goa and the Goans have not yet imagined, Deshprabhu concludes.
