PM Modi lays foundation stone of Mopa greenfield airport in Goa

Zee Media Bureau

Panaji: Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Mopa greenfield airport and an electronic manufacturing cluster in Goa.

While the airport will come up at Mopa, the electronic city will be set up at Tuem, both in North Goa.

The Prime Minister addressed a public meeting at Dr Shama Prasad Mukherjee stadium in Bambolim near Panaji, and laid foundation stone for the Goa airport and the electronic city.

The first phase of the airport is expected to be commissioned in the financial year 2019-20.

The electronic city is expected to generate 25,000 jobs for the youth in the state. Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said the electronic cluster will be fully operational in next five years.

This is the Prime Minister`s first ever public address in India after the demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, and the second visit of the Prime Minister to the state in the last two months, the first one being during the BRICS summit in South Goa.Later in the day.

He will leave the state in the afternoon to address another event in Pune, Maharashtra. 

The Goa government has already signed a concessional agreement with Bengaluru based GMR Airports, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure to design, build, finance and operate the international airport for 40 years with the extension option for another 20 years.

The first phase of the airport is expected to be commissioned in the financial year 2019-20.

"The win of Mopa airport is a very significant milestone for the Group. Many of us may not realise this, but Mopa airport is the first airport to be privatised in India after over a decade with the last bid process having been completed in May 2006," Srinivas Bommidala, Chairman-Airports, GMR Group had told PTI after signing the concessional agreement last week.

"Even though Goa has been witnessing unprecedented growth over the past 3-4 years and crossed the 5 million tourist mark last year, we believe that Goa harbours a significantly higher potential and having a dedicated 24 hour operational civil airport will unlock the latent tourism potential of the state," he said.

The second project of Tuem Electronic City is expected to generate 25,000 jobs for the youth in the state.

Chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar had said that within next one year, the work of building the structure will start and in next five years, the Electronic City will be fully operational.

With ANI, PTI inputs