Blast-like sounds due to Navy's Mig planes: Goa CM

"There is no need to panic. The Indian Navy has conveyed to the chief secretary that the loud sound was due to Mig plane trials off Goa coast," state chief minister Digamber Kamat said on Tuesday evening.

The state witnessed panicky moments on February 11 when three blast-like sounds were heard by people in Canacona taluka. The similar sound recurred in north Goa's Pernem taluka on Tuesday afternoon, triggering suspicion of a bomb blast.

The chief minister said the state has told the Indian Navy to hold the exercises a little off the coast so that the residents of coastal areas are not baffled with the loud blast-like sounds.

The Navy is inducting Mig 29K fighter jets which will operate from Goa base and would be attached to Gorshkov.

Sources said these jets procured from Russia were brought down to Goa in a knocked down condition in a transport plane and were re-assembled at INS Hansa, a naval base.
After induction, the fighter jets would be operated temporarily from the shore-based facility at INS Hansa till the actual delivery of Gorshkov, rechristened as INS Vikramaditya, slated for 2012, the sources said.