PANAJI: With 98 per cent of the land required for the proposed Mopa Greenfield International Airport already in possession of the government, GMR Airports Ltd, the concessionaire for the airport, on Monday, laid the foundation stone for the proposed airport project, and performed the bhumipujan in the absence of the state government officials.
Top government sources informed that the ceremony was a private affair of the GMR corporate house.
“The owners of the company are highly religious and hence the ritual was performed,” they maintained, stating that the bhumipujan, however, marks the beginning of the airport work.
Stating that 98 per cent of the land required for the airport project is already mutated and is acquired by the government, the top government sources stated that there are some errors in the remaining 2 per cent land and the same is being corrected by checking the survey numbers of this land. The government sources also said that the May 2020 deadline maintained by the Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju for completion of phase I of the Mopa airport still stands.
“In fact, it is the outer deadline for completion of the first phase of the airport,” they noted.
Incidentally, some of the farmers, whose land was acquired for the Mopa airport project have rejected an offer for an increase in compensation, and insisted that the project be scrapped.
