Mopa Airport is an under-construction greenfield airport being built at Mopa in Pernem taluka, North Goa district in the State of Goa, India. GMRGoa International Airport Limited, a special purpose vehicle, will develop the airport. The Rs. 3000 Crore airport will be built under the Build Operate Transfer model in four phases, with the first phase costing a total of Rs 1,500 crore. It was expected to be completed by financial year 2019-20, but has been delayed to 2022 due to a Supreme Court order, that impeded work on site. The concession period for the Greenfield project will be 40 years with a possible extension of another 20 years through a bid process. The airport will cater to 4.4 million passengers in the first phase and 13.1 million by the end of the fourth phase. The project will operate on hybrid till model with 30% cross subsidy and the concession offers 232 acres of land for commercial city side development for a period of 60 years.
History
Goa's current airport at Dabolim is a civil enclave operated by the Airports Authority of India at a military airfield owned by the Indian Navy. Civilian and military operations share a common runway and result in severe airside congestion. This deters long term growth of civilian traffic at the airport. The Central Government had given its in-principle approval for a second airport in the state of Goa as early as March 2000, however the project was stuck for 14 years due to land acquisition issues and local litigation. The ICAO's techno-economic feasibility report submitted in 2013, that projected air traffic of 10 million passengers at Goa by 2035, eventually established the feasibility of the Mopa project. The Goa Government issued a Request for Qualification for the project in October 2014 Five bidders, GMR Group, GVK Group, the Airports Authority of India, Essel Infra and Voluptas developers evinced interest. Essel Infra partnered with Zurich Airports, and Voluptas Developers, which belongs to the Hiranandani group tied-up with Vinci Airports, Rome, to bid for the airport project. On October 28, 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change granted environment clearance to the project. The Request for Proposal for the project were issued in January 2016, seeking bids from interested companies to construct the airport. Two of the five companies that responded to the RFQ decided not to participate in the RFP. The bids were opened in August 2016. GMR Airports Limited, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Limited won the competitive bid to develop and operate the airport. The Airports Authority of India emerged as the second highest bidder followed by the consortium of Essel Infra-Incheon. In October, GMR Airports Limited formed the SPV called GMR Goa international airport limited to raise funds for, design, construct and run the project. GMR Airports Ltd signed a concession agreement with the government of Goa on 8 November 2016. In 2016, the State Government proposed to establish an Aviation Skill Development centre in order to provide employment opportunities at the airport to local youth. The concessionaire would be required to give preference to bona-fide Goans for all jobs at the airport. This Aviation Skill Development Centre was initially to be set up by the concessionaire either at the Pernem ITI campus or any other ITI centre. However, in 2020, the location of the proposed centre was shifted to the airport premises itself. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the project on 13 November 2016. In January 2017, the Goa government declared an area within five km2 radius of the airport as 'Mopa international airport planning area' for the purpose of regulating growth near the project area. GGIAL and the Union ministry of civil aviation signed a MoU in Delhi on 31 March 2017 for necessary support from the Centre to develop the airport. GGIAL invited tenders for the Engineering, procurement, and construction contract in June 2017, which was awarded to Philippines based Megawide Construction Corporation in February 2018. The Goa government finally put its stamp on the project by enacting "The Goa Act, 2018" on 5 September 2018. Subsequently, the Union Home Ministry gave security clearance for the construction in October 2018. On 18 January 2019, the Supreme Court ordered the Goa government and GGIAL to maintain status quo on the project due to environmental impact. Construction of phase 1 of the airport was underway when the top court had given its order. The Court allowed resuming of construction work at the project site in January 2019. The state government has acquired 78.41 lakh square metres of land for the proposed airport from villages of Casarvarnem, Chandel, Varconda, Uguem and Mopa in Pernem taluka. GGIAL expects the airport to be in operation by May 2020 or earlier with a Code 'E' compliant, 3.75 kilometre long runway with Rapid Exit Taxiways. The airport will have an Integrated Passenger Terminal Building, Air-traffic control and meteorological facilities, a Cargo terminal and ancillary facilities for processing and storage, Aircraft Rescue & Fire Fighting facilities as well as Infrastructure for Aircraft Fuelling.
