This government let the process to lapse. If the Chipi airport is constructed before the Mopa project, all of north Goa's tourism would be diverted to Maharashtra,' said Parsekar, adding that it would cause a major dent in the state's revenue.

In 2004, the state government had identified 10 million sq metres land at the Mopa plateau in north Goa for construction of an airport, in addition to the Dabolim international airport located in south Goa. The Mopa airport was envisioned as a facilitator of tourism for the relatively unexplored coastal stretch in north Goa.

Incidentally, the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), a semi-government body contracted to oversee the development of the Chipi greenfield airport, in its project report states that the objective of the new airport in Sindhudurg was to develop the region as a tourism district and to 'exploit the proximity to Goa and capture sizeable tourist traffic coming to visit Konkan and north Goa'.