The recent fatal accident in Curchorem once again puts the spotlight on the issue of mining trucks sharing road space with the general public in the absence of a proper mining corridor, which would negate this issue.
The proposal of a mining corridor dates back to the mid-90s, when a house committee recommended the same. But the decisions took a long time, with protests and lack of logistical support when it came to planning and mapping the corridor. Things took a positive turn in 2011 when the then Chief Minister Digambar Kamat announced that the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) would undertake the project and commence work on the first of the three phases. There was opposition to this from some areas, and morchas in Sanguem demanded the realignment of the corridor, claiming that it passed through human habitat.
In 2012, when the BJP came to power, Manohar Parrikar, who was chief minister at the time, visited the area and promised to expedite the work. But in 2012, the mining shut-down slowed everything down. The contractor stopped work and everything came to a standstill.
There have been protests for and against this mining corridor. Some organisations and people feel that the corridor will destroy a lot of forest land, especially in the second phase, and perhaps even some human habitat. Those for it feel the need to do so for many reasons, dust pollution being one of them. But the biggest reason is that there have been many accidents on the roads in and around Curchorem and the surrounding areas, which warrant the creation of a separate highway for mining trucks. In 2014, the BJP government discussed restarting the work on the corridor. But it wasn’t until the recent accident that the voices for the corridor have started getting louder.
There was and is no real opposition to the corridor; most people want it to happen on a war footing. Back then, the mining companies were for this move, even willing to shell out funds and form a corpus for the corridor. That phase one of the project will be retendered and work started means that there will be some respite soon. But there is no substance in the demands for all mining transport to be stopped until phase one is completed. One cannot shut down businesses until then.
There are three constituencies that are stakeholders in this project “ Curchorem with MLA Nilesh Cabral, Sanvordem with MLA Ganesh Gaonkar and Sanguem with MLA Subhash Phaldessai. Since all are BJP MLAs, they have the power to open doors and speed up this process. Phase two of the mining corridor has hit a few roadblocks in terms of land acquisition, which are not insurmountable problems.
The government needs to take cognisance of this matter and start work on the mining corridor immediately. At the same time, there must be some effort to enforce law and order on the roads so as to avoid accidents in the future. This corridor is pertinent to the business interests in the region as well as the interests of the people, who simply want their roads back.
