The decision of the Goa State Pollution Control Board to revoke the consent to operate granted to South West Port Ltd for exceeding limits of coal handling at its berths at Mormugao Port should send out a strong signal both to the Mormugao Port authorities as well as the private partners operating at the port -- Vedanta and Jindal.
What's significant to note is that South West Port Ltd, a subsidiary of JSW Infrastructure which exists solely as a port hub for JSW's steel plants in North Karnataka, has not offered to contest that it handled more coal than it was permitted to, but instead chose to point to the fact that pollution levels in Vasco da Gama were not significantly higher than what they were when the quantities were within limits, speaks volumes.
This can only mean that both the management of South West Port Ltd and Mormugao Port Trust knew that coal was being handled in excessive quantities and yet did nothing about it. They saw no problem in willfully violating the terms and conditions on which they were granted consent to operate.
SWPL management should have realised it was treading on thin ice when back in 2016 the Goa State Pollution Board in its meeting on January 28, 2016 asked the MPT to reduce their coal handling capacities by 25% to only 4.125 MMT per annum. Rather than heed the advice, SWPL went ahead and handled 10.112 MMT of coal in the subsequent year.
The violations quite literally left the Pollution Board with no option but to revoke the permission. And while investments and businesses are important, any other decision from the Goa State Pollution Control Board would have seen the Board being a paper tiger or as a body afraid to act against powerful business interests.
To the credit of the GSPCB, it has stood its ground when it has mattered most, a trait that is sorely lacking among regulators today and should by no means be taken for granted.
One must also remember that if it were not for the issues raised at various platforms, the issue would not have become as big as it has and would, in all likelihood, have been brushed under the carpet. What's worse, coal expansion too would have been taken forward at full throttle unmindful of the concerns of the local public if alarm bells were not raised.
While the decision will bring relief to the residents of Vasco da Gama, one must keep in mind that the halt will only be temporary. Sooner or later coal handling will resume. It will be up to Goans to ensure that once it resumes it is not harming the air quality for the city-based port. Moving coal completely out of Vasco da Gama will in the short term at least, only be a
pipe dream.
