-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Add your name to the CLEAN GOA INITIATIVE | | | | by visiting this link and following the instructions therein | | | | http://shire.symonds.net/pipermail/goanet/2005-October/033926.html | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- While googling "Mopa airport" I came across this link:
http://www.goanews.com/30mar00.htm It is the take of media in Goa about the March 2000 Union Cabinet decision which has been much in the local news recently. So the news has not (or should not) have come as a surprise. It has not been kept a closely guarded 'state secret' all this time to be foisted on an unsuspecting public. Fast forward to August 2004. Here is another interesting link by Goanet's own Fred Noronha. http://www.travelforums.org/forums/f40/news-goa-sees-tourism-lobby-grounded- standoff-navy-airport-9574.html It provides an excellent summary of the Dabolim imbroglio centering on the Indian Navy and even refers to the Mopa proposal. But unfortunately it seems to focus only on charter flights and on the Navy's concession of round the clock airport operation and thus fails to highlight that the die is cast as far as Dabolim's impending closure is concerned! Thus while there has been a constant barrage of posts on goanet in the subsequent year and more about Dabolim, Seabird and Mopa, it is only now that we are informed that Dabolim's closure as a civil enclave is a foregone conclusion! It is only a matter of limbo-like time. This seems to speak volumes about the lack of honest information exchange in Goa and perhaps even on goanet. All the talk about leveraging collective learning etc seems just that ..."big talk"! People also say that a year's time on the internet is practically an eternity. That's what we may have lost due to hoarding of and hesitation to share available information by people who knew better. Who loses? Ultimately only the long suffering people of Goa -- most unfortunately! We have let them down. No question about that. Let's hope that something can at least be retrieved even at this late date. It might call for a miracle.
