PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa directed the Margao Municipal Council to make the bio-methanation plant at Sonsodo operational within 15 days after the Court was told that despite earlier assurances the plant was not yet operational.
The High Court in its order dated December 5, 2023 had directed the MMC to make the plant operational within 15 days, however on Wednesday, the Council informed the High Court that the plant was not yet operational due to “some difficulties.”
Ultimately, however, counsel for the MMC told the Court that “they will make necessary payments towards obtaining consent to operate today itself.”
“We direct the MMC to now make this bio-methanation plant operational within 15 days, after obtaining necessary consent to operate from the GSPCB,” the High Court said.
Regarding remediation of the municipal solid waste, the Advocate General told the High Court that about 1500 cubic metres of waste is already remediated and that “the work is going on as per the time scheduled provided to the contractor.”
As regards the construction of a retaining wall the authorities offered a new deadline of March 7 to the High Court having failed to honour the earlier deadline.
The authorities also informed the High Court that with regards to the sanitary waste that is dumped at the site a contractor has been engaged to remove this waste and transfer it to Kundaim hazardous waste management site and that the frequency of such transfer is now being increased “so that there is no much accumulation of sanitary waste at the site.”
The MMC should take necessary steps for stacking this waste, so that there are no health issues before the same is transferred to the Kundaim site.
With regards the legacy waste, the High Court was informed that only about 15,000 cubic metres is left at the site.
