PM Modi to lay foundation stone for airport in Goa today

Panaji: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the coastal state of Goa on Sunday to lay foundation stone for two projects, namely Greenfield airport in North Goa and Tuem Electronic city.

Modi is scheduled to address a public meeting at 10 AM near here tomorrow during which he will lay foundation stone for Greenfield airport at Mopa and Tuem Electronic City, both located in northernmost taluka of Pernem.

The public function would be held at Dr Shama Prasad Mukherjee stadium in Bambolim village near here.

BJP President Amit Shah had launched the party's election campaign from the same venue on August 20 this year.

This would be 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.

This will also be his first ever public address in India after the demonetisation move.

The Prime Minister will leave the state in the afternoon to address another event in Pune.

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 said 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.