DGCA issues aerodrome licence for Goa's Mopa airport

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has given the aerodrome licence for the new airport at Mopa in Goa, paving the way for starting commercial flights soon at the airport to be operated by the GMR Group. This will be the second airport in Goa, the first being at Dabolim in Mormugao city. The new airport is around 35 km from Panjim in northern Goa. The Mopa airport is being constructed in four phases with an annual passenger capacity of 4.4 million in phase I, which will increase to 5.8 million in phase II and eventually to 13.1 million passengers per annum when phase IV is completed. GMR Airports Ltd (GAL), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, had in November 2016 signed a concession agreement with the Goa government to develop and operate greenfield international airport. GAL's subsidiary GMR Goa International Airport is developing the project, which is based on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. In September, the operator completed the landing trials for both approaches - 10 and 28 - of the newly-built runway. At present, only 70 flights land at the Dabolim airport per day, with no landing is permitted from 9 am to 2 pm. After the commissioning of the Mopa airport, the number of flights landing in Goa will go up to 150, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had said in July this year. See also: PM to inaugurate Arunachal’s first airport on October 30Land acquisition for Bihar's Darbhanga runway expansion complete