The GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL), a subsidiary company of GMR Airports Limited (GAL) that runs the new Goa International airport in north Goa, has posted a cumulative loss of around ₹500 crore in its first two years of operation, the state government told the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
In a reply to a question posed by Opposition legislators, who sought to know of profit earned and losses incurred, if any, by the Mopa Airport, the state government informed that GGIAL posted a loss of ₹148.3 crore between 2022 and 2023 and a loss of ₹363.3 crore between 2023 and 2024, a cumulative loss of ₹511.6 crore over two consecutive financial years.
The airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 7, 2022, and began domestic operations on January 7, 2023, and international operations in July later that year.
A controversy had erupted when the Goa government announced it was amending the terms of the agreement with GMR to allow it a further 180 days to begin paying the promised 36.99% revenue share, which the Opposition said was a case of corruption.
GMR Airports won the bid to build Goa’s second international airport by bidding that it would share 36.99% of its annual revenue with the Goa government, the highest among competing firms.
The Goa government, however, defended the decision saying the relaxation was on account of the pandemic which was part of the ‘force majeure’ clause of the concession agreement between the Goa government and GMR Airports.
The government has extended the date of payment of revenue share to the government from the Concessionaire of the Manohar International Airport at Mopa to December 7, 2024.
In his reply, Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant, who is the minister for the state government’s civil aviation department, said that the original completion date for Phase I of the airport, as per the contract, shall be on the1,095th day from the Appointed Date (4/9/2017) that is on 03/09/2020.
“The payment of concession fee/revenue to the government was to have commenced from 6th year of the occurrence of Appointed Date i.e. w.e.f. 04/09/2022. However, on account of stay orders from the courts and the Covid-19 pandemic impact, a force majeure act, there was a delay of 851 days for the completion of Phase I of the airport. Since as per the provisions of Clause 8 of Schedule-G of the Concession Agreement, the government has accorded extension of the Project Milestones and the scheduled completion date, the date of payment of concession fee/revenue share to the government has accordingly been extended by the government with the approval of the Cabinet on 7th December 2024,” chief minister Prmod Sawant said.