On Thursday, the Supreme Court gave a green signal to the construction of Mopa International Airport in North Goa, which is 43 km away from Panjim. The SC heaved restrictions on the construction activities and requested the state government and GMR, to comply with all environmental conditions.
This construction activity will be supervised by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and it surely comes as a relief for GMR Infrastructure Ltd., which was executing this project.
Earlier, the court had stopped this venture from going forward, citing environmental reasons and now, the work will commence by 2021. This airport located in North Goa district is expected to handle almost 30 million passenger traffic when fully-operational.
What’s Happening?
The suspension of the airport construction was lifted after an environmental clearance (EC) was granted to the project on Thursday. The project had been put on hold by the top court, last year in March and they had directed the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) to revisit the decision, in light of its impact on the environment there.
The 1st phase of the airport was underway and was expected to be completed in 2020 but a petition was filed during it, alleging that thousands of trees were being illegally felled at the airport site by the developers.
The airport project has a provision for two runways now but it was initially planned that only one of the two runways, with a taxiway, was to be constructed. The second runway will be built based on the traffic flow at the proposed airport.
Knock Knock
The petition was filed by environmentalists who had challenged the airport’s construction, citing threat to the ecology of the locale and natural water channels. Construction was put at a halt, after the court issued a status quo order last year but now, the Bench of Justices, Dr. Dhananjay Y. Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta have lifted the suspension.
This new airport will surely make connectivity easier and convenient in the state and we hope, no further harmful environmental alterations are made; the world is suffering enough.
