Navy changes stance on Dabolim

Panaji: Plans for the expansion of Dabolim airport have again flown into rough weather with the navy informing the Airports Authority of India (AAI) that it will not hand over the 12.52 acres it had promised earlier.
Although both AAI and navy officials have refused to comment on the issue, documents with TOI show that a meeting held in New Delhi on August 4 rejected the minutes of a meeting held in Goa on April 6 in which navy officials had agreed to the land transfer.
AAI was planning facilities for aircraft parking, a parallel taxi track and ramp equipment parking place apart from a multi-level car park on this 12.52 acres. At the August 4 meeting—which took place at the office of the chief of naval staff and was attended, among others, by navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma and AAI chairman V P Agarwal—the navy declined to part with the land stating that Dabolim is a premier naval air station which has assets equivalent to two Indian Air Force (lAF) air bases.
Deputy chief of the naval staff Vice Admiral R K Dhowan informed the AAI chairman that "IN (Indian Navy) had not agreed to hand over additional 12.52 acres of naval land to AAI at Dabolim".
This is a major shift from the position the navy had taken at the April 6 meeting.
10/10/10 Times of India

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Categories: airports Oct 2010, New Oct 2010