PANAJI
A loud blast split in Dicarpale, Davorlim, before flames swallowed yet another scrapyard.
Residents said the sound resembled a bursting tyre or an exploding gas cylinder. Within moments, fire spread rapidly through the yard, which also reportedly caught fire in 2019.
The incident once again exposed a contradiction that has come to define Goa’s scrapyard crisis: fires continue to erupt with alarming regularity, while the State still has neither a relocation plan nor a regulatory framework in place.
The Dicarpale fire came barely weeks after a massive blaze ripped through a cluster of scrapyards in Zuarinagar with firefighters struggling to contain flames fuelled by densely packed scrap material. Workers had rushed back from lunch to move gas cylinders and flammable items before the fire could spread further.
Yet despite repeated fire incidents, policy discussions and assurances, the government is yet to identify and finalise land to relocate scrap yards operating dangerously close to residential settlements, roadsides and each other.
Official records accessed by The Goan show there are hundreds of unauthorised scrap yards spread across Goa. Salcete alone accounts for around 108 – the highest in the State – followed by Bardez with 66, Tiswadi with 57, Bicholim with 49, Ponda with 48 and Mormugao with 39.
Records further indicate that not a single scrapyard in Goa has obtained a fire NOC so far.
Even after the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) clarified in September 2023 that scrapyards could not legally be allotted plots in industrial estates, the government continued informing the Assembly that relocation to industrial estates was under consideration.
The GIDC had categorically stated that its Allotment Regulations do not permit allotment of plots for scrapyards inside industrial estates.
However, the officials did identify survey numbers of comunidade and government lands, even as finalisation remains in limbo amid unresolved ownership details.
The Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) has been drafting the “Goa Scrapyard and Recycling Units Policy”, to regulate registration, licensing and functioning of scrapyards, including illegal units.
But in its absence, official sources admit, there is little they can presently do.
“The GWMC currently has no mandate to act against unauthorised scrap yards because no dedicated policy exists,” the source said, adding that no separate survey has yet been conducted to assess environmental, traffic or public health impacts caused by scrapyards operating inside residential and roadside areas.
