Panaji: The state government's hopes of throwing open the Mopa Greenfield airport by late 2016 or early 2017, may not happen as no work can start on the project unless the environment impact assessment (EIA) is completed, a process that will take not less than a year.
Sources said any agency will require at least a year to conduct a "thorough environment impact study" as it needs to be an all-season study, as per Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) guidelines. This would mean that an agency beginning work this monsoon will complete it next summer, sources said.
After the report is submitted, a public hearing will have to be conducted, the source added.
Sources said that in such a situation, it would be around June 2014 that a work order could be issued at the earliest. Chief secretary B Vijayan said no work order is possible to be issued without conducting an EIA and admitted that an EIA would take around year.
17/05/13 Times of India
