Panaji. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the first phase of the greenfield international airport at Mopa in North Goa. During this, he accused the previous governments of adopting a “vote bank approach” instead of providing facilities to the people. He said the airport would be named Manohar International Airport after former Goa chief minister (late) Manohar Parrikar.
“The airport will be named after my former colleague and former chief minister Manohar Parrikar,” Modi said. Parrikar was a senior BJP leader from Goa, who also served as the Defense Minister. Addressing a gathering on the occasion, the Prime Minister said his government’s approach has resulted in better airport infrastructure, making air travel affordable for the middle class.
“Previous governments were eyeing vote banks instead of providing public facilities for decades,” he said. Modi said, “Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had planned this airport for Goa. The government that came after him hardly did anything for this airport. After 2014, Goa got the double engine of development and we did everything at a fast pace. The Prime Minister said that before 2014 (the year he became the Prime Minister), air travel was considered a luxury as only rich people could afford to travel by air.
He said, “There was no investment in the aviation sector, due to which the potential of this sector remained unexploited. The country had only 70 airports till 2014, 70 years after independence. Modi said his government started expanding the airport network and 72 airports were built during the last 7-8 years. The Prime Minister said, “Schemes like UDAN were launched to make air travel affordable for common people.
Till 2014, six crore people used to travel by air in India annually, whose number has increased to 14 crore. Of these, one crore traveled under the UDAN scheme. Mopa Airport, located in North Goa, is the second international airport in the state. Prime Minister Modi had laid the foundation stone of the international airport at Mopa in the year 2016. Under the first phase of the airport, arrangements will be made for the movement of 44 lakh passengers every year.
