Goa airport for 24
hours likely
Sandesh Prabhudesai
8 November 2001
The Dabolim airport, owned by the naval authorities,
would be now kept open round-the-clock for civilian traffic.
As no other air base is available in the
tourist state, Goa has been using the naval airport partially
for the civilian traffic, right from the beginning. However,
the navy had imposed time restrictions for its utilisation
as the airport is also used for their daily practices.
According to state chief secretary Baleshwar
Rai, a decision to throw open the airport for 24 hour landing
has been taken at a joint meeting of the defence, civil aviation
and tourism, convened by the PMO, recently in Delhi.
He expects the formalities to be completed
within a week, after which its actual implementation may begin.
A demand in this regard has been pending
for several years as the Dabolim airport is being used for
civilian traffic only between 7 am to 6 pm.
Goa normally receives around 13 to 16 flights
every day flying to Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, including
few flights coming from Kuwait, Sharjah and Muscat twice a
week.
However, the traffic increases from mid-October,
as the tourism season begins, with charters from several western
countries flying down to Goa. On an average, 13 to 20 flights
land here in the morning slot from Friday to Sunday, with
maximum number of charters arriving here on Fridays.
Though the number of charters has gone down
tremendously with the US-Afghan war, the flights are still
coming in, while there is also demand for night landing from
different countries.
"May be we have to increase our staff, but
we had adequate infrastructure to run the airport round-the-clock",
claims A K Sangal, the airport director. However, sources
at the airport disclose that the staff is inadequate even
to the run the airport within the present restricted timings.
The civil aviation ministry has also cleared
an international airport worth Rs 1200 crore for Goa, but
it may actually materialise not before five years. Till then,
if traffic increases, using the naval airport for 24 hours
is the only solution.
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