VASCO: The Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat on Friday launched the much awaited work on the integrated domestic and international terminal building at the Dabolim airport.

With this, the controversy over the delay in project work has come to an end. The project work is estimated to cost Rs 335 crore and will be completed in next 24 months.

The Deputy Speaker, Mr Mauvin Godinho, Minister for Irrigation, Mr Philip Neri Rodrigues, airport director, Mr D Paul Manickam, North Goa Collector, Mr Mihir Vardhan besides many other officials of Airport Authority of India and Central Industrial Security Force were present on the occasion.

While addressing the media, Mr Kamat expressed happiness over the commencement of work after a long wait.

He said that despite the foundation stone for the project been laid during the last year at the hands of Union Aviation Minister, Mr Praful Patel, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the project work failed to get underway due various reasons.

He stated that now the project work has been re-tendered and the contractor to whom the work has been assigned is well experienced.

The Chief Minister further said that the Dabolim airport in South Goa will become a full-fledged international airport in the coming years due to its expansion plan and various other facilities for the passengers.

He also said that with the new constituency Dabolim coming into existence and the airport being up-graded to become an international airport, a full-fledged police station will be sanctioned, exclusively for Dabolim in the days to come.  

"The new domestic and international terminal will be built on an area of 63,000 sq mt. The project building, having basement, will have three storeys where it could be possible to accommodate 2,750 passengers at a time (per hour)," he added.

He further said that there will be in all 11 aerobridge boarding gates available in the integrated building wherein four will be constructed in first phase and the remaining seven will be constructed in a phased manner.

It was also informed that there will be 11 aircraft parking stands (bays) at the new terminal.

The other salient features of the integrated building include in-line baggage system, elegant steel and glass structure, sufficient check-in counters, multi-level car parking, besides there will be other associated works like parallel taxi track for increasing runway capacity and development of additional parking area to be shortly taken up by the AAI.

The additional facilities for the airport could cost, additional Rs 250 crore.

The Chief Minister informed that the AAI and the state government are jointly planning to have a flyover in order to avoid congestion at the airport and the design of the flyover will be drawn up by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

The Deputy Speaker, Mr Mauvin Godinho, while speaking on the occasion, termed the launching of the work on the integrated building project of the Dabolim airport as an historical occasion.

He also stressed the need of a flyover in order to streamline the traffic at the airport. Mr Godinho expressed gratitude to the Indian Navy and to the Defence Minister, Mr A K Antony for the project.