GSPCB to ask 2 big companies to reduce coal handling capacity

The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) today decided to order two major companies operating at Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) to reduce their coal handling capacity by 25 per cent for failing to control air pollution caused due to coal dust.
The board meeting held here today decided to ask M/s Adani Mormugao Port Terminal Private Ltd and JSW's South West Port Ltd to reduce their coal handling capacity till they implement measures to control the air pollution caused due to coal particles in Vasco city, 35 kms away from here.
"The instructions to reduce the capacity were issued only after going through the records of air ambient monitoring station installed there. The records of the two companies found that several times the maximum permissible levels (MPL) had been exceeded," board chairman Jose Manuel Noronha told reporters after the meeting.

The data of October, 2015 revealed that the MPL was exceeded four times and in November, 2015 it crossed seven times.
The board, on December 24, had issued show-cause notice to both the companies, which are handling coal at MPT.
Adani had permission to handle 5.2 million metric tons and JSW for 7.2 million metric tons.

Noronha said the board will monitor the pollution between February and April before reviewing its decision.
He said that the fact that manufacturers, especially those
making commercial vehicles, have been building up BS-III inventory suggests that they may be trying to delay introduction of BS-IV vehicles by several months.

"In EU, the so-called end-of-series vehicles are restricted to less than 10 per cent of sales from previous year. In India, the phase-in of BS-IV standards has been taking place gradually over the past several years.
"Allowing new BS-III commercial vehicles to register beyond April 1 will lock in high emissions from these vehicles for a couple of decades. As a result, it does not seem appropriate to allow registrations of BS-III vehicles beyond April 1, 2017," said Bandivadekar.
Amit Bhatt, Director Integrated Transport, World Resource Institute, India, maintained that the Transport Ministry's notification that only vehicles complying to BS-IV emissions shall be sold and registered in India from April 1, 2017 gave almost two years to vehicle manufactures to transition to the new emissions norms.

"This was a good enough time and any inventory issue is only because of wrong planning on manufacturers' front. It is time we take environmental issues seriously," Bhatt said.