Today's (July 29) HERALD had a front page report titled "IFFI Decision by August 2". It seems this is on the agenda of a "crucial" meeting of the Planning Commision on August 1 which a delegation led by the Goa CM will be attending.
Other notable issues are 1) the new expressway between Patradevi and Pollem or 4-laning of NH-17, 2) the airport at Mopa and 3) the Convention Centre. It is anticipated that "the Centre would sanction substantial funds to Goa for development". The State Government must get its priorities right for this meeting. Top priority has to be given to relieving the bottleneck at Dabolim. The State must ensure that the military begins active planning and construction and expeditious operation of an airfield at Seabird. This facility should enable the discontinuation of jet trainer, helicopter, Sea Harrier and MIG-29K training flights at Dabolim to free prime runway time for civilian flights. There should be no problem of reccy and transport flights at Dabolim although the former should be mainly at night. Perhaps Mopa can be used for daytime reccy flights on a non-exclusive basis. Dabolim should be under an effective joint use agreement between the civilian and military authorities if necessary. The model for this could be the one between Honolulu International Airport (HIA) and Hickam Air Base. We need not go into the other issues for the tme being. Except that we would strongly urge the Goa government to adopt a wholisitic, integral "citistate" view for state development purposes especially in the case of networked infrastructure like roads, electricity, pipelines, sewerage, telecom etc. Goa has to be developed as a "virtual" A class city for 4 million people -- 1.5 million resident and 2.5 million visitors (including 0.5 m foreign visitors). Goa should be eligible for special National Urban Renewal Fund status etc. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
