The DGCA, the aviation regulatory, has granted the aerodrome licence for the new airport at Mopa in Goa, paving the way for commercial flights to begin there soon. According to a senior official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the licence for the Mopa airport, which the GMR group will operate, was issued on October 26. (DGCA).
This will be Goa's second airport; there is already one in operation in Dabolim, Marmugao city. The new airport will be located approximately 35 kilometres north of Panjim in Goa.
The Mopa airport is being built in four phases, with a total annual passenger capacity of 4.4 million in phase 1 and 5.8 million in phase 2.
Phase 3 will increase capacity to 9.4 million passengers per year, and once phase 4 is completed, total capacity will be 13.1 million passengers per year.
GMR Airports Ltd., a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, signed a concession agreement with the Goa government in November 2016 to develop and operate a greenfield international airport project in Mopa.
The project is being developed by GAL's subsidiary GMR Goa International Airport on a design, build, finance, operate, and transfer (DBFOT) basis.
The operator completed landing trials for both approaches 10 and 28 of the newly built runway in September.
At the moment, only 70 flights per day land at Dabolim airport, which is a civil enclave. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., no landing is permitted at the facility.
The number of flights landing in Goa will increase to 150 after the Mopa airport is completed, according to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in July of this year.
