PANAJI
The Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira on Wednesday asserted that there is “no much coal pollution” in and around the Vasco port town while reiterating that the State government will not grant any consent to Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) to enhance its coal handling capacity till the measures to further curb pollution is in place including dome, proposed to stack coal.
Speaking to media persons at the sidelines of an event, Sequeira said that as per his knowledge there is no much coal pollution in the area now and to further reduce the pollution, a dome structure, to stack all the coal handled, is being constructed.
M/s Jindal South West (JSW) is set to invest Rs 180 crore to construct the dome facility at MPA, which is likely to be completed within nine to ten months.
“The Union Ministry (MoEF&CC) has granted the permission to MPA (JSW) to enhance its coal handling capacity but the State government has not given its consent. We are not going to grant till the dome structure is in place. The company will have to first construct the facility, start stacking coal there and only then we will look into their request for enhancement,” the Minister said.
After over a five-year long wait, the MoEF&CC in August, last year, granted environmental and CRZ clearance to MPA’s proposed redevelopment of berth 8 and 9 and barge berth at an estimated cost of Rs 1145.36 crore. As a result, the cargo handling capacity of the berths will be increased to 19.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from existing 13 MTPA.
Currently, JSW owned South West Port Pvt Ltd (SWPL) handles 5.5 million metric tonnes of coal per annum at Berth Nos. 5A and 6A, while Adani Mormugao Port Terminal Pvt Ltd (AMPTPL) has got consent for berth No 7 to handle 5.2 million metric tonnes of coal annually.
