Congratulations - Philip -- your letter to Sucheta is very clear and to the point
Thanks Aloysius ----- Original Message ----- From: "Philip Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <goanet@goanet.org> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 3:17 PM Subject: [Goanet]BLINDSPOT IN MEANINGFUL AVIATION PLANNING | Ms Sucheta Dalal | Reputed Business Columnist | | Dear Ms Dalal: | | I enjoyed your column in INDIAN EXPRESS, June 19, 2005, titled "Wither | Airports?". You were right to highlight the fact that our aviation | authorities are unprepared for the monumental challenge of making our | airports uptodate, including A380-ready. This commendable stance is, | however, in stark contrast to an earlier report by others in the same paper | (on May 27) which blithely recommended that Goa go in for an A380 airport at | a greenfield site (Mopa in Goa) by 2014! Although this report made no | ripples at all, at least that I know of, it may still do incalculable harm | to Goa's already distorted aviation scene by further skewing the badly | needed efforts to improve it. In fact a careful look at the vexed problem of | Goa's aviation scenario may shed useful light on the overall national | problem of urgently updating our airport infrastructure that you have | rightly called for in your June 19 column. | | Great Wall of Goa | | What the May 27 report failed to disclose was that Goa's sole airport, | Dabolim in the south, is controlled since the early 1960s by the Navy which | places unrealistic restrictions on a tourism oriented facility in the name | of interminably training a couple of squadrons of pilots for carrier based | fighter operation using obsolescent and tricky Sea Harriers. | | As you may be aware, the Navy has recently commissioned a mammoth base | called Project Seabird at Karwar about 100 km south of Goa in Karnataka. The | ostensible purpose of this project is to decongest Mumbai harbour. However | there is no commensurate will to decongest Dabolim airport for civilian | flight purposes i.e. by shifting military flight training etc to Seabird or | even other places. The air station there is still only on paper, awaiting | financial and other high level clearances. It could become a reality in the | next phase of the project. Its another matter that the Karwar terrain is not | all that suitable for any airflield which is much more than of minimal | proportions. | | In the mean time, Dabolim has been "booked" for training pilots of MIG29Ks | which have recently been acquired along with an old Russian aircraft | carrier. These carrier based fighters are said to be the first to be ordered | by any Navy in the world. So the prospect of the Navy easing up on civilian | flight restrictions at Dabolim in the foreseeable future are quite dim. | That's why I call the military presence at Dabolim airport the Great Wall of | Goa! The only way out may be to push for joint military/civilian management | which is not unheard of abroad in places like the U.S. But where will the | push for this come from? More on this later. | | Mopa | | For the past couple of years, a proposal has been doing the rounds for a | greenfield airport at Mopa in North Goa. There is natural resistance to this | for several reasons. First, it is feared that once Mopa is ready then | civilian flghts at Dabolim will have to cease. There are several precedents | for this. This happened at the Navy air station in Kochi when the | public/private greenfield airport called CIAL came up nearby a few years | ago. The same thing is due to occur at HAL controlled Bangalore airport when | the new BIAL comes up in 2-3 years time. | | A discontinuation of civilian flights like this would always be a boon for | the military which would naturally prefer a free run at its bases. It is | another matter whether the Navy, whose essential armament is carrier based | aircraft, really needs an airport with a mammoth 11,000 foot runway which is | fit for jumbo jets (including perhaps the A380 after a suitable upgrade of | the type you described). Thus Dabolim at present, you will appreciate, is a | purely dog-in-the-manger situation. | | On the other hand, Mopa would cut into the business of South Goa hotels | which depend heavily on international chartered and scheduled domestic | flights at close-in Dabolim. There is also a strong hunch in Goa that Mopa | would only give a much needed boost to emerging competitor resorts in | southern Maharashtra. In fact the INDIAN EXPRESS article of May 27 | graphically shows links to offbeat places like Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, | Sindhudurg etc from Mopa, while ostensibly emphasising an aircraft | (A380)which is meant for hub-to-hub international travel. | | Low Cost Aviation | | Now that India has finally caught the low cost aviation bug there may be | some hope for beleaguered civil aviation at Dabolim. It is beginning to be | realised that there is a need for more functioning airports including | multiple facilities for big cities. (Note that Goa can be usefully viewed as | a "city state"). In Mumbai the AAI is bitterly regretting having parted with | Juhu airport to the BMC thirty years ago for road building purposes. There | is talk of reopening Bangalore and Hyderabad airports even when BIAL and | HIAL are operational. Even the Kochi naval airport is being eyed again for | civilian use! But all this may be wishful thinking now. | | At Pune, however, industry bigwigs have succeeded in getting the IAF to | substantially increase the watch hours (by 40% from 10 hours to 14 hours per | day) at Lohegaon airport. In stark contrast to the Navy at Dabolim, the Air | Chief has even made reassuring comments about sharing "national assets" like | airports. But at Pune the real test will come when the new Chakan airport is | promoted in a few years time. In any event, the urgent need for effective | joint use and management of military air bases is clearly underlined in the | present vexatious scenario. | | Persistent Blindspot | | In view of the foregong, it is odd that in the face of the severe | bottlenecks we are reportedly facing at our airports there is this | persistent blindspot about the fundamental source of problems there viz the | military controls which apparently account for a substantial part of the | constraints faced. As many as 25 airports have such constraints. In addition | air space restrictions by the military such as at Delhi create their own | problems for aircraft movements. All these may well be the result of "holy | cow" treatment of military matters by the civilian authoriities all along. | | Without enlightened review and response to civilian imperatives proactively | by the military itself (except where it suits its own purposes) the only | options for Indian aviation are either to burn precious fuel while waiting | for slots to open up or keep capital assets idle on the ground or go in for | costly and time consuming greenfield airport projects with their attendant | risks of humungous land scams. All this only militates against the diffusion | of low cost aviation which is the need of the hour in a big and populous | country like India with low but now rapidly growing purchasing power. | | The Policy Imperative | | There clearly seems to be an urgent need for a high level review of the | military controls in important airports like Goa and the expeditious | dismantling of flight restrictions on civilian flights subject of course to | the usual needs for sensible security safeguards) and the establishment of | procedures for effective joint use and management. | | If such a review is conducted and implemened then perhaps Seabird will get | expedited, the Navy will cut back at Dabolim, Mopa can come up (not as a pie | in the sky A380 airport but something more practical and prompt). And the | Goan economy and society would benefit immeasurably -- as would the larger | Indian scene as a whole. Any assist you may be able to render to this | worthwhile cause in your privileged position of influencing public opinion | would be much apprecated. If you need any additional information please let | me know. | | I am marking a cc to goanet.org where there is a measure of interest in this | vexed issue and a discussion has been going on about it for some time now. | | Regards, | | Phil Thomas | Goa | | _________________________________________________________________ | Having a hard time finding a job? | http://creative.mediaturf.net/creatives/timesjobs/hotmail_TOL.htm Log on to | TimesJobs.com Click Now! | |