RAHUL BASUThe chief ministers of Goa over the last four years, Digambar Kamat and Manohar Parrikar, seem determined to develop a new airport at Mopa. The few stated rea-sons for this follows the classic FUD format - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. These include :l Dabolim airport will be saturated at three million passengers a year. We will soon have six million passengers a year. Wide bodied aircraft cannot land at Dabolim.l It is better to have a second air-port. Regional airports are doing well. It reduces travel distances.l We can create an export hub at the airport. We can also create a food processing area.l The Mopa land anyway has a bauxite mining lease on it. It is prefer-able to build an airport there instead.As I will show below, these are bo-gus. A government serious about Goa and what can be implemented, would spend its time on Dabolim and not acquire vast tracts of land needlessly for a second airport.A. Dabolim Capacity Con-

straintsLarge airports usually have multi-ple runways. A quick look at the map of Dabolim shows that there is no space for a second runway at the min-imum distance of around 1+ km. So is the single runway the constraint?The largest single-runway airport is Gatwick Airport serving London and surrounding areas. In the period January-December 2012, Gatwick served 34.2 million passengers with a single runway. Dabolim, by contrast, served only 3.5 million passengers in April 2011-March 2012. (Heres a good satellite picture of Gatwick. Note the cargo complex as well as the number of aerobridges. Also note that the airport terminals and facili-ties are concentrated on a single side of the runway with a small section on the other side.) Lets look at some comparative sta-tistics for Gatwick and Dabolim:

It is clear that 34 million is far in ex-cess of any foreseeable needs of Goa. Let us look at the possible constraints to the Dabolim capacity. Unable to handle large Code-F

aircraft (A380/747-8).The number of passengers per aircraft is quite similar between Gatwick (134 in 2011) and Dabolim (128). Hence, it is not really aircraft size that is a constraint on capacity. Further, upgradation of the runway width to 60m with shoulders, etc. should be possible given that the area immediately surrounding the runway is unused or can be moved to other locations. The new taxiway has been designed with the Code-F hori-zontal separation of 190m (although it would need widening). Other landing/take-off infra-

structure puts a constraint on number of flight movements per hour. There are many ways to increase runway capacity. This could include CAT-I ILS instead of CAT-III, or con-trol tower specifications, etc. It is hard to see why this cannot be up-graded to increase capacity. In par-ticular, the taxiway may need to be extended (through the Naval Golf Course) and High Speed or Rapid Exit Taxiways. Potentially, a taxiway needs to be built on the terminal side

of the runway.The Naval timing restrictions

constraint capacity: It is possible that in 2005, this was a significant constraint (when night operations were largely not permit-ted). However, the navy has been pro-gressively broadening the timings for civilian operations. If we examine capacity in two blocks, we have the night hours of say 10pm-6am. This would be used principally by inter-national flights, especially charters. There are no constraints on move-ments at this time. Of the remaining 16 hours that see peak domestic traf-fic (6am-10pm), around five hours are taken up by the navy. That still permits 11 hours of day time op-erations. At a conservative 20 move-ments for 11 hours for 365 days, and six movements for eight hours for 365 days, we get a total of around 98,000 movements. This should be easily achievable, and would take passen-ger throughput to around 12 million from the current 3.5 million.l Inadequate aircraft parking space / terminal capacity. The new Integrated Passenger Ter-minal at Dabolim has a 22 aircraft stands (instead of 11), and covers 61,957 sq mt. Extrapolating from Gatwick, this should be adequate to service around seven million passen-gers a year. Capacity needs beyond that, will need an expansion of both the aircraft stands as well as terminal capacity.l Lack of other infrastructure like fuel tanking, etc. This is currently constrained due to perceived land availability.l Lack of connectivity infrastruc-ture to / from the airport. Dabolim is actually a very well lo-cated airport. It is reasonably in the centre of the state (although too far west). Maximum travel time to the three extremities (North, East and South) are approximately similar. This image shows Dabolim and Mopa in context of Goa. If we did not have any airport in Goa, the ideal spot

would have been Dabolim as dis-cussed below.

a. Nearby city (so that staff have a place to live and enjoy social life). Vasco is a stones throw from Dabo-lim. There is no city close to Mopa. Mapusa is quite some distance.

b. Roads: NH4B passes next to

the airport, giving rapid access to Ponda and the hinterland. NH4B also meets NH17 a short dis-tance from the airport. As soon as NH17 is broadened to a 4 lane divided highway (which Mopa also requires), there will be speedy access to most parts of Goa.

c. Rail: The Vasco - Madgaon rail-way line passes adjacent to the air-port. It would be easy to add direct access to a station from the airport terminal. In the medium term, Goa may consider rapid transit lines radi-ating from Dabolim towards Colem, Canacona and Pernem. This will be assisted greatly if the railway loop between Cansaulim and Verna fructi-fies. d. Water: Mormugao harbour is very close to Dabolim, with good road and rail access between the two. It is feasible to consider rapid transit be-tween the harbour and the airport, and a series of high-speed ferries from Mormugao onwards to Dona Paula/Panjim, to Aguada and to the Malim jetty at the base of the Man-dovi bridge headed onto NH17 north. e. Fuel, power, water: Airports need large amounts of avi-ation fuel, as well as energy for pow-ering its services. Dabolim can eas-ily be supplied aviation fuel through Mormugao / Indian Oil Tanking. Sim-ilarly, with the new GAIL pipeline to Zuari, a highly efficient fuel source is available for powering airport opera-tions. Water is also more easily avail-able as the catchment areas of Goa are accessible to Dabolim (whereas for Mopa, these are in Maharashtra).On reviewing the above, it is clear that land availability for parking / terminals / other infrastructure is the only constraint to the expansion of Dabolim to cover all foreseeable needs (unless there is some other over-riding technical hard constraint.)B.Airports in the Re-

gionA quick look at the ex-isting airports shows that apart from Dabolim, the closest airports with a reasonable frequency of scheduled flights are Pune and Mumbai to the north, and Bangalore, Mangalore and Mysore to the south. On the east, the nearest airport would be Hyderabad. Consequently, Dabolim presently serves a huge hinterland, extend-ing from as far away as Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Bel-gaum, Dharwad, Hubli, Go-karn, Ankola and Karwar. This large hinterland has a very significant popula-tion and air traffic can be expected to grow rapidly.Existing airports being upgraded

and reactivatedBelgaum Airport has restarted handling only ATR-72 aircraft due to constraints in its apron space. This is being upgraded to handle 737s. The Government of Karnataka has proposed making Belgaum the sec-ond capital of the State of Karnataka. In this light, it is fair to assume that Belgaum airport will be developed significantly in fu-ture. Belgaum has at least four major road routes into Goa - via Anmod Ghat, via Chor-la Ghat, via Dodamarg and via Amboli Ghat. Consequently, it is easy to envisage road upgradations that would permit easy access to multiple lo-cations in Goa from Belgaum airport. Cer-tainly, passenger traf-fic through Dabolim bound for Belgaum would be diverted to the upgraded airport.Hubli Airport is also being upgraded to be able to serve Boeing 737s and A-320s. Pas-senger traffic through Dabolim bound for Hubli-Dharwad and its region would be diverted to the up-graded airport. The road connections from Hubli into Goa are presently of rather poor quality. Proposed airports (under con-

struction)

n Sindhudurg Airport (at Chipi-Parule) is far ahead of Mopa. IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd is developing the airport under a PPP model. They have incorporated IRB Sindhudurg Airport Pvt Ltd, have received environmental clearances, have acquired the land (271 hectares) and have commenced construction with a project cost of Rs 571 crore. It is scheduled to be completed before the 2014 elections. It is planned to have a runway length of 3170 metres, long enough for even 747s. This area will obviously serve Sindhudurg Dis-trict of Maharashtra, including tourist spots of Malvan/Sindhudurg, Sawa-ntwadi, Amboli, as well as potentially parts of Pernem Taluka in Goa. Since construction has started, we should assign a high probability to the com-pletion of this airport.n Karwar Airport is currently planned to be a small facility of 52 hectares with an airstrip serving he-licopters and Dornier-228. This would require a runway of at most 1,000 metres. Since this is an integral part of Project Seabird, it has a high prob-ability of fructifying. Further, the Karnataka Government has proposed a civilian enclave, which would entail acquisition of a further 75 hectares for a cost of Rs 20 crore (2007 fig-ures). This would permit a runway of 2,500 metres which would allow A-320 and Boeing 737s to operate. The catchment area of this airport would be Karwar, Ankola, Gokarn, and Cana-cona taluka of Goa (being closer than Dabolim, let alone Mopa). The process of land acquisition for the civil enclave doesnt seem to have started. Howev-er, given the low costs of expansion to a serviceable civilian airport, and the likely development of the area due to Project Seabird and the lack of other airports along the Karnataka coast except Mangalore far to the south, we should assume a reasonable probabil-ity of it fructifying.

This map give a good perspective on existing and proposed airports in the vicinity of Goa. The four new air-ports form a ring around Dabolim, between 70 and 120 km apart. They are all designed to serve Code-C air-craft, i.e., 737s/A320s and smaller. This is the overwhelming majority of all domestic air traffic. Hence, it is clear that with these new airports, Dabolim will lose its hinterland out-side Goa (except for international traffic).C. Goas optionsThe two-airport option is stupid. It is obvious that with four new air-ports coming up within around 100 km, it is difficult to justify a sixth airport in the vicinity. The air traffic is simply not there, especially since there is adequate land around each of Sindhudurg, Belgaum, Hubli and Kar-war airports for further expansion to support wide-bodied aircraft. Per-sonally, I think it is impossible to ar-range any project financing for Mopa, given the greenfield nature of the airport, the new airports coming up around, and the continuation of oper-ations at Dabolim. It is impossible to justify Mopa simply on 1,000 charter flights a year, or even 5,000 charter flights (assuming a huge expansion of international flights). Further, the ICAO Report in 2007 clearly states that the two-airport option is a poor second-best option compared to a single airport option. We also need to learn from the expe-rience in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, where two-airport options were considered but finally only a single-airport option was viable.Single airport option

Therefore, Goa has the following single-airport options before it:l Continue to develop Dabolim. The key constraint here seem to be the availability of land for aircraft stands and terminal buildings, and related facilities. We will examine this later. Note that the total area of Dabolim airport (576 hectares) is not very different from that of Gatwick (674 hectares). The constraint is the land availability for civilian use.l Develop only Mopa and close down Dabolim. This has presently been ruled out by the chief minister. However, since a two-airport strategy is completely unfeasible, we need to examine this strategy. In general, a new airport in the present situation would also not be financeable. However, if the State government is willing to provide large scale financial support (viabil-ity-gap financing), then any project can be made financially viable. Mopa negativesMopa suffers from a number of neg-ative features compared to Dabolim.

To enumerate a few :l It is not centrally located. Mopa is located at one extreme end of Goa. While it will ben-efit people from Per-nem, Bardez, Bicholim and Sattari talukas, it will increase the travel time and travel cost for all others. For people of Sangeum, Quepem and Canacona talukas, this will be a disaster.l Poor road connec-tivity. A new road needs to be constructed till NH17. However, it re-mains a great distance from NH4A/4B and from the main indus-trial estates of Goa.l Poor rail connectiv-ity. While the Konkan railway is not too far, it is on the plains and not on the plateau. Building a spur line would cost considerable amounts.

l No water connectivity. Mopa is distant from any port.l No town to support the thou-sands of people working at the air-port. Whole new townships will be needed for Mopa in the Pernem ta-luka.l No easy access to water. One of the key justifications for Mopa has been the possibility of creating a food processing zone. However, a look at the map of Goa and its surrounding areas will show few water sources near Mopa that are within Goa. The Chapora river is already tapped at Til-lari. The Tiracol river is still available, but as it essentially forms the border with Maharashtra, any large scale ex-traction of water will require intense discussions with Maharashtra.l Risk of clearances, public pro-tests, etc that can delay or block completion. Like Dabolim, Mopa is built on a plateau (also called sadas). Unlike Dabolim, Mopa is a greenfield project on a sada with no develop-ment. It is well known in environmen-tal circles that the sadas have higher biodiversity than even the Western Ghats. Consequently, we must as-sume in a State like Goa that there are significant risks of not receiving the plethora of required environmental clearances as would be needed for a large scale development on Mopa pla-teau.As is obvious, Mopa can be justi-fied only if there is absolutely no way Dabolim cannot be scaled up. This requires the identification of land at Dabolim.D. Additional space for Dabo-

lim expansion

The first place to look for addi-tional land for Dabolim is to encour-age Karnataka / AAI / Indian Navy to expand capacity at their new Karwar airport. It may be possible to shift some of the aircraft (ideally the fight-ers, but possibly the Ilyushin IL-38s) to Karwar. A proactive Goa Govern-ment can even finance purchase the land for the runway expansion and the expansion of the Naval enclave, as it will surely be cheaper land than close to Dabolim. A quick look at the map of Dabo-lim and its surrounding areas shows that while a good chunk of land is reserved by the Navy for its opera-tions, another very significant parcel of land, possibly much larger, is oc-cupied by the Naval staff residences and associated facilities. In the past, discussions with the Navy around expansion of the civil enclave has been around land swaps. Let us look at this map closely for some solu-tions. In it, I have marked out areas in navy blue that can be used to ex-pand the civil enclave in the airport. In green, I have marked out areas in the vicinity which seem to be unde-veloped or lightly developed. Surely

some of these areas can be used for a land swap with the navy? There is actually sufficient land to also build the conferencing centre (which Goa desperately requires), as well as the food processing hub.

A determined politician would make this possible. After all, skill in politics is to pull of complex deals like this.E. Other ConsiderationsLastly, our government has been claiming with regards to the buf-fer zone around wild life sanctuar-ies that the State has very little land for development. In this situation, it would surely be wise to reserve Mopa for other development, such as an institutional zone reserved for universities and related research institutions, industries and their an-cillaries. Areas of concentration for these universities could include tour-ism (including heritage management and conservation), pharmaceuticals, ecology, and fine and performing arts (music, art, architecture, drama, fashion, design etc). Surely, if the State government can return land to a son of our soil, by not having an additional airport, we will surely reduce the land acquired from many sons of our soil. That is in the public interest.F. Our politicians are not stu-

pid, why are they still pushing for Mopa ?One possible explanation is that the situation in 2005, when the first feasibility study for Mopa was done, was very different. There were sig-nificant constraints on Dabolim ca-pacity - no night flights, and a large chunk of time blocked during day-light hours. Further, none of the four projects, i.e., Sindhudurg, Belgaum, Hubli or Karwar airports, were being considered. Since then, we are suffer-ing from some sort of endowment ef-fect, where it is no longer feasible to change its stance.

The writer is a start-up consultant based in Goa. A link to more details in this article is available at http://

moreseriously.blogspot.in/2013/02/dabolim-and-mopa.html

G O A S U N D A Y , F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 3g g

The first place to look for additional land for Dabolim is to encourage Karnataka / AAI / Indian Navy to expand capacity at their new Karwar airport

The two-airport option is stupid. With four new airports coming up within around 100 km, it is difficult to justify a sixth airport in the vicinity 3

ONE OF THE KEY JUSTIFICATIONS FOR MOPA HAS BEEN THE POSSIBILITY OF CREATING A FOOD PROCESSING ZONE. HOWEVER, A LOOK AT THE MAP OF GOA AND ITS SURROUNDING AREAS WILL SHOW FEW WATER SOURCES NEAR MOPA THAT ARE WITHIN GOA.

GATWICK DABOLIMPASSENGERS 34.2 MN 3.5 MNCARGO TONNAGE 88,111 6,170FLIGHT MOVEMENTS 251,067 27,430RUNWAY LENGTH 3,316 M X 45M 3,458 M X 45 MCERTIFIED FOR AIRCRAFT

CODE-F (ALL INCLUDING 747-8 AND A380)

CODE-E (ALL UP TO 747-400)

ILS CAT-III CAT-IAIRCRAFT STANDS 115 11TERMINAL SPACE 258,000 SQ MTR 15,987 SQ MTRCHECK IN COUNTERS 348 37AREA 674 HECTARES 576 HECTARESOPERATIONAL 168 RS (24X7) 145.5 HOURS (24X7

EXCEPT MON-FRI 8:30 AM-1PM RESERVED FOR NAVY

MOPA v/s DABOLIMCan Goa sustain two airports? If Mopa does come up, will Dabolim eventually have to shut down? And is Dabolim really inadequate for Goas expanding tourism requirements? As the debate gets more contentious, this article, by a consultant, examines and analyses all these issues dispassionately to make a case for why Goa should go with only one airport the current one at Dabolim