The country’s favoured beach destination will soon be home to a brand new airport. Greenfield Mopa Airport in North Goa is set to serve up to five million passengers per year, with flights scheduled to start landing on September 1, as per the latest updates. Here’s everything you need to know about this full-service international airport.
The chief minister of Goa, Pramod Sawant, recently stated that the much-awaited Greenfield International Airport at Mopa in North Goa would be operational from September 1. The first phase of the airport will reportedly be commissioned between August 15 and 31. Developed by GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL) in tandem with the government of Goa, Mopa will reportedly relieve traffic congestion at Goa’s only other airport in Dabolim.
Goa’s Mopa Airport will be a full-service international and domestic airport
#Goa Chief Minister #PramodSawant (@DrPramodPSawant) said that flights will start landing at Mopa airport from September 1. The inauguration date, however, is yet to be decided. pic.twitter.com/gQKT9eW5TS
— IANS (@ians_india) June 7, 2022
As per the official website of GGIAL, Mopa is set to be a full-service airport catering to domestic and international passengers, along with freight services. It’s set to develop over several different phases before being scaled up depending on the growing traffic demands.
The first phase involves the opening of a single three and a half kilometre runway, with facilities like an integrated passenger terminal building, runway, taxiways, rapid exit ways, air-traffic control, cargo terminal and ancillary, authority hangar, aircraft rescue and fire fighting, flight catering, and vehicle parking as well as reserved and emergency services. The design of the airport is such that it will allow for future widening of runway and taxiways as per requirements according to an official masterplan of the airport by the Department of Civil Aviation.
Right at the outset, the airport is slated to be equipped to handle over five million passengers per annum. This number is expected to go up to 11 million by the end of the project. The airport will officially be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2022, the 76th Independence Day, according to Mint.
#ATC tower at our #Mopa #Airport #ModiHaitoMumkinHai #AtmanirbharBharat#SwayampurnaGoa@goacm @DrPramodPSawant @BJP4Goa @GovtofGoa @ShetSadanand pic.twitter.com/AWr1HTEDlh
— Sidharth Kuncalienker (@sidkuks) June 8, 2022
Sawant further mentioned “Manpower trained by the GGIAL, as a part of an agreement with the state government, will be employed at the airport. Besides the existing manpower recruited for the project, 1,000 more recruitments will be done at the airport in the next six months,” before adding, “The state government in partnership with the GGIAL is committed to creating skilled human resources required for the facility.” Sawant remains hopeful that the new airport will generate up to two lakh jobs within the next few years as well.
Representative feature and hero image: Shutterstock
This story first appeared on Travel + Leisure India.
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