Dabholim Airport Will Continue To Be Operational Even After Mopa International Airport Is Commissioned: Goa CM Pramod Sawant

The Goa international airport at Dabolim in South Goa will continue to remain operational even after the commissioning of the Mopa international greenfield airport in North Goa, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Monday (July 11) during a discussion in the state assembly.

CM Sawant said that dual airports would be required in Goa to develop tourism in the state.

Assuring the assembly members that the state government never had any intention to decommission Dabolim airport, CM Sawant highlighted that the union government has spent over Rs.850 crore on the expansion and upgradation work of the Dabolim airport in the past four to five years.

Pointing out that the Dabolim airport operates as a civil enclave in a military airbase and hence remains closed for civilian flights for five hours every day, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sawant said that this had been a significant constraint on expanding the flight operations at the airport, which currently caters to flights from only 18 countries.

“Flight operators from many more countries are asking permissions to land in Goa,” he disclosed, pointing out, “Currently, the Dabolim airport per day facilitates 70 flights on an average.”

The CM said that many countries had approached the government to sign agreements with Goa to land their flights in the state, which would be possible only after commissioning the new airport at Mopa.

“Once the flight operations starts at the Mopa airport sometime after August 15, 2022, the number of flights landing at the new airport would be 150,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the greenfield Mopa airport in the next couple of months.

Nearly 98% of work on the Mopa Greenfield Airport is complete and the airport plans to start functioning in a full-fledged manner from September 1, 2022.

GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL), a subsidiary of GMR Airports Limited (GAL), is developing a Greenfield Airport at Mopa in North Goa. This project is being executed on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, via Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis. GGIAL will operate the airport by GMR for a period of 40 years, extendable by 20 years, as per broad lease agreements.

While the original estimate for constructing the airport was Rs 1,900 crore, it was later revised to Rs 2,615 crore due to the cost escalation and time overrun caused by environment-related litigations. The Covid-19 pandemic also disrupted the project completion schedule by over 90 days.