Here is a letter I sent to the editor of TOI. Will update re developments if any. In the meantime pls feel free to comment on goanet. Thanks.
---------------- Let's go for BRA The call for aviation reforms (TOI, March 28 editorial), in the context of a marked upsurge in travel and tourism, is right on target. However, singling out the admittedly high ATF prices as the culprit in the situation is awfully myopic. Looming large over the civil aviation sector is the baneful influence of the defence establishment. There are severe and perhaps anachronistic military restrictions on our airports and air space. These have to be systematically addressed and efficaciously dismantled if significant progress has to be made with Indian aviation reform. For several decades in the U.S. there has been a program called Base Realignment And Closure (BRAC) whereby military and economic equilibrium is sought to be re-established as times change. In India we may at least need to embark on base re-alignment (BRA), especially of air bases, so that joint civilian and military use of such costly facilities can be initiated. At present the tendency is to evade conflict with the military by investing in greenfield airports, a very costly knee jerk reaction, fraught with corruption problems to boot. A prime candidate for BRA is that of Dabolim Airport in Goa where the Navy acts practically like a dog in the manger to restrict civilian flights when the demand for travel and tourism is very high. No worthwhile military reason is discernible in this adamant stance. There is simply no forum where airport operation issues can be thrashed out to the satisfaction of military and civilian users. BRA is needed to put the military into the proper frame of mind in an era when its security role has probably changed radically and when economic issues need to be given much greater priority. P. S. Thomas Goa --------------------------
