‘More stringent measures imposed’ PANAJI: The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), after a meeting held on Thursday, has decided to “discharge the suspension of the consent to operate” for coal handling at the Mormugao port issued to two companies –– South West Port Ltd owned by Jindal Steel Works (JSW) and Adani. This paves way for the coal handling to resume.Coal handling operations of these two companies were temporarily suspended after complaints of pollution by Vasco residents.Thursday’s decision was taken after the findings of phase one of the study by the IIT Bombay, presented at the GSPCB meeting stated that coal handling was not the major contributor to pollution in Vasco.The ambient air quality reports of the board, taken before and after the suspension of coal handling, were also presented at the meeting. GSPCB members had also inspected the coal handling berth during this time, GSPCB chairman Ganesh Shetgaonkar said, based on which a penalty for violation of terms of the consent-to-operate is being imposed on the coal handling companies.More stringent terms have also been imposed on the companies including installing of CCTV cameras to monitor operations closely.“A presentation was made by a member from the IIT Bombay and as per phase one of their study, coal handling is not one of the major pollution contributors. Accordingly, after considering all sides, the board members decided to discharge the suspension of consent to operate issued to the two companies. Coal handling will start only after the penalty is paid,” Shetgaonkar said.The penalty has to be calculated by my team based on terms of the consent to operate. More stringent quality control measures have also been imposed,” Shetgaonkar said.Last week, GSPCB had issued a show cause notice to both the companies following complaints of coal pollution by residents of Vasco. At Thursday’s meeting, representatives of both companies were also present to respond to the show cause notice. The companies were to respond to violation of the terms of consent-to-operate issued by GSPCB and to reports of ambient air quality which showed exceeding limits of particulate matter in Vasco.

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