‘Goa waterways cannot handle more iron ore traffic’

PANAJI - Goa’s waterways do not have the capacity to handle any increase in iron ore traffic, a top port official said Saturday.

Chairman of the Goa-based Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) Praveen Agarwal was responding to questions on whether the MPT, Goa’s only major port, would be in a position to handle the projected 100 million tonnes of iron ore, in wake of 100 more mines being cleared by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), which is likely to nearly double the state’s mining output.

“We (MPT) will be able to handle it, but I do not know if the waterways of Goa will be able to handle the increase,” Agarwal said. “Increased capacity of mines will not result in increase in transport output,” he said.

The millions of tonnes of iron and manganese ore that Goa extracts from its open cast mines located in the forested hinterland, is currently transported to large ore-export ships by indigenously built barges through a network of two rivers, Mandovi and Zuari, which stretch from the mining heartland to Mormugao.

Once at the port, the ore is transferred from the barges to larger vessels which carry the ore to countries like China, Japan, South Koera and Romania which are major importers of Goa’s low grade iron ore.

“The (river) barges this year carried 54 million tonnes of ore as compared to 44 million tonnes last year. I have doubts whether it can carry any more. The waterways themselves have reached saturation point,” Agarwal said.

Goa presently has nearly 110 operational mines which exported nearly 40 tonnes of ore in the last financial year, according to state government figures. With the MoEF’s granting clearance to 100 more mines in Goa, the number of operational mines is likely to double.

According to the opposition, nearly 18 percent of the Rs.6,000 crore mining industry comprised of illegally extracted ore. Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar has repeatedly alleged that Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and several cabinet ministers were sheltering the multi-crore illegal mining industry.