After Kozhikode crash, Goa Opposition cautions about upcoming airport plans

In wake of the tragic accident, involving an Air India Express flight at Kerala’s Kozhikode airport, Opposition parties in Goa have advised caution vis a vis the upcoming greenfield airport at the Mopa plateau in North Goa.

While the Goa Forward party has questioned the decision of the state government last month to reduce the length of the runway, the Aam Aadmi Party in Goa has said that the upcoming airport was also based on a tabletop model, like the aviation facility at Kozhikode, which could bode risk in the future.

“Last night we had a devastating air crash in Kerala as the aircraft supposedly overshot the runway. Shockingly our @GovtofGoa has in July this year resolved to reduce the length of the runway at the proposed Mopa Airport! Goemkars can decide what is going on under present Govt!,” former Chief Minister and Goa Forward party president Vijai Sardesai tweeted on Saturday.

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In July this year, the Goa cabinet had passed a decision to reduce the length of the airport from 3,750 to 3,500 metres, in order to comply with the parameters of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Goa currently has one operational airport, which functions out of an Indian Navy base at Dabolim in South Goa. The first phase of the upcoming airport at the Mopa plateau in North Goa is expected to be operational next year, with the completion of the project delayed on account of legal tangles, following petitions filed by green activists.

18 persons died and several dozen were injured, after an Air India Express flight ferrying 190 passengers, crash-landed at the runway of the Kozhikode airport in a tragic accident earlier on Saturday.

The Aam Aadmi Party has also cautioned against the upcoming airport, claiming that like the facility at Kozhikode, where the tragic accident occurred, the new airport too was based on a tabletop model.

“Goa’s Mopa Airport is designed as a tabletop airport built on a hilly plateau like the airports at Mangalore and Kozhikode, where the limitation on runaway lengths have caused aircraft crashes that have claimed hundreds of lives,” AAP spokesperson Siddharth Karapurkar said in a statement.