PANJIM: Plans for the expansion of Dabolim airport have again flown into rough weather with the navy informing the Airports Authority of India (AAI) that it will not hand over the 12.52 acres it had promised earlier.
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| Dabolim Airpo |
Although both AAI and navy officials have refused to comment on the issue, documents with TOI show that a meeting held in New Delhi on August 4 rejected the minutes of a meeting held in Goa on April 6 in which navy officials had agreed to the land transfer.
AAI was planning facilities for aircraft parking, a parallel taxi track and ramp equipment parking place apart from a multi-level car park on this 12.52 acres. At the August 4 meeting—which took place at the office of the chief of naval staff and was attended, among others, by navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma and AAI chairman V P Agarwal—the navy declined to part with the land stating that Dabolim is a premier naval air station which has assets equivalent to two Indian Air Force (lAF) air bases.
Deputy chief of the naval staff Vice Admiral R K Dhowan informed the AAI chairman that "IN (Indian Navy) had not agreed to hand over additional 12.52 acres of naval land to AAI at Dabolim".
This is a major shift from the position the navy had taken at the April 6 meeting.
The minutes of that meeting—held under the chairmanship of Goa governor SS Sidhu and atttended by state government, AAI and navy officials—say, "...regarding the additional requirement of land in view of construction of parallel taxi track, it was decided that whatever land was available on the western side excluding IOC dump and land on the eastern side, as has been projected in the site plan circulated by the airport director, would be transferred by navy to the AAI".
"The total land requirement as projected by the AAI in the site plan comes to about 12.52 acres. The modalities for transfer and adjustment on the ground will be determined by the navy and the AAI so that the final approval is sought from the ministry of defence immediately," it said. (TOI)
8 comments:
How can the Navy occupy the Dabolim Airport land and refuse parting with it when needed for the Air port expansion? The Land has never been purchased by the Navy but simply occupied by it after the liberation!
The Navy could be persuaded to go to Mopa or Karwar and make the expansion of the Dabolim a reality! Our Hon. MPs could take up this case with the Higher Authorities and the Def. Minister!
The Indian Navy should be made to vacate the illegal occupation of Dabolim airport. Dabolim is a civilian airport and the navy should vacate ASAP. There are larger bases in the neighbouring states. Will our Goan politicians make a stand on this matter? Are they for or against the welfare of the Goans?
vishwas: The navy should not be persuaded, but told to move out of Dabolim by the Goan Government. If they refuse they are dictating the democratic Government. Why does Goa need that many army and navy personal in Goa?
When the Dabolim Civilian Airport was taken over by the Navy from Goa, they acquired our huge tracts of land including fields that were cultivated by my parents and grand-parents for many generations before and from many Goan families, including Communidade lands and many were left with no source of income and became paupers overnight. This was forcibly taken for a pittance and the Navy never paid a proper compensation for the same to this day. This case needs to be opened up and justice needs to be done.
Today they continue in their arrogance to bully Goa and Goans! In their greed they want to acquire more land and even our islands so that they can have all these Navy Personnel have holiday homes, Kitty clubs, grounds forNavy Balls, Golf courses , tennis and squash courts, Health clubs, Spas and Massage Centres.
This Navy couldn't protect our Coastal line from the rogue ships dumping waste into the Seas. Their performance in Goa has been pathetic why do their navy helicopters keeep crashing? There is strong evidence that their safety standards are pathetic and the human factor too is suspect because of their sub-standard skills as well as many of them known to be operating on illegal substances.
They now want to see the Mopa airport go through so that they can then keep the prime Dabolim airport for their own use along with all our land that was acquired!
E. Pereira as a teenager I played hockey with INS Hansa. But as maturity grew in me and continued research from many in the that area of Dabolim I came to understand that the Navy has illegally occupied the Civilian Airport. My sympathy lies to you and others who lost their loss of income due to their occupation. Goa was liberated for destruction and to be occupied by defence personal together with shanty towns. Our ministers are not for the Goan Cause, a few extra crumbs and they change sides overnight. We need to voice ourselves more strongly.
Yes, and they still wanted to grab more land now on the pretext of Country’s safety. What has Goa got to do with the Country’s safety? Send these Navy personnel to some border posts to guard country’s safety. Goa was so peaceful. See what these rogues have turned it into.
It is obvious this Navy is on a 'power' trip! They want to take what they want and want more and more. How can a small state like Goa accommodate such a large military operation? These people need to spend more time training so that they don't look like fools like during the Mumbai attacks, instead of always trying to grab more and more of our land. Not only do they get big fat salaries to do nothing, they want more and more of our Goa to build their big homes on our beaches. The 40 chors will never do the right thing and ask them to move elsewhere. We are too small a state to accommodate such a huge military operation. Please free us and move somewhere else.
Navy under the pretext of security wants to get all of Goas' prime sea land whether Dabolim, Vasco and adjoining areas. they even were extending their hold on the coastal line.
What E.Pereira said is true my grand-father was from Vasco-da-Gama and he never recovered from the shock after his fields were acquired by the Navy and he died of a heart attack soon after. My mother and her sisters had a very difficult time as they were all young and my grand-mother had to go to Bombay to work as a Nanny leaving them in the care of the nuns.
The Navy in Goa is on a holiday to enjoy themselves. They want the airport to be moved to Mopa so that they can keep prime land for their fun and frolic!
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