Greenfield International Airport At Mopa In Goa To Be Ready By This October

The greenfield airport under construction at Mopa in Goa is expected to be completed in October this year, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate it.

"Inauguration of Mopa International Airport may have been delayed. But we are completing the work by October 23 and will inaugurate it at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said.

"International airlines want to sign an agreement with Goa. After Mopa is operational 150 flights may land in Goa," Sawant said, reports The Economic Times.

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 a Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis. GGIAL will operate the airport by GMR for 40 years, extendable by 20 years, 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.

In its first phase, the airport is expected to cater to 4.5 million passengers; at the end of the fourth phase, its passenger handling capacity is expected to be 13 million.

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 in July.

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.

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