Project Takes Off

Twenty-three years after Goa initiated the process for an international airport, the apex court gave its nod after laying down rigorous guidelines. But will these be followed?

- Debi Goenka

A greenfield airport at Mo - pa in North Goa, being developed by GMR, seems to have finally crossed all hurdles. A Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta, has given its nod for the construction of the airport and asked the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to oversee the project to ensure that there is no environmental damage.

The bench directed the concessionaire of the project to adopt a zero-carbon programme in the construction and operational phases of the airport. It said conditions imposed by the center’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) and the NGT are sufficient to protect the environment and approved the project. Incidentally, the Court had last year found fault with the environment clearance (EC) given to the project and directed the EAC to re-examine it.

Mopa village is situated in Pernem taluka in North Goa, close to the inter-state boundary with Maharashtra. The proposed airport is approximately 35 km north-east of Panaji, the capital of Goa. The site is a lateritic tabletop plateau at a height of 180 m above sea level and is surrounded by steep slopes.

As the airport at Dabolim is saturated and is a military airfield, there are restrictions on civilian airlines. In 1997, Goa government initiated a process to commission studies and project reports for a proposed international airport. The project was granted an EC by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in accordance with the procedure mandated in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of September 14, 2006.

After the Terms of Reference were issued by the EAC, the draft EIA report was submitted to the Goa Pollution Control Board, and a public hearing was conducted at the project site on February 1, 2015. On May 20, 2015, the Goa government submitted the final EIA report to the MoEFCC, seeking the grant of an EC for the project.