Team Herald
VASCO: The Deputy Collector and Sub Divisional Magistrate Mormugao, Mahadev Araundekar, on Friday, said that since Zuari Agro Chemicals Limited (ZACL) has all valid approvals and required permissions for transporting ammonia till December 2018, and hence at his level ammonia tankers cannot be stopped from plying.
According to Araundekar, following directions from Collector South Goa Anjali Sehrawat a team under his supervision along with officials of Collector South Goa, Mormugao Mamlatdar Satish Prabhu and a senior officials from factories and boilers department recently held a surprise visit to Zuarinagar-Sancoale based Fertilizer plant owned by Zuari Agro Chemicals Limited (ZACL) and checked all documents pertaining to transportation of ammonia. The officials of factory and boilers department also physically checked the tankers being used for transporting ammonia and recommended that tankers are safe for transportation.
“In fact we had gone prepared to ZACL with sealing materials so that if ZACL is found not having proper approvals or its tanker is not as per specification then at least we could seal the tankers but when we verified all documents pertaining to the tankers used for transporting ammonia from MPT to ZACL plant we found that ZACL has got all approved documents valid till December 2018,” Araundekar said.
He further added that “In fact even ZACL officials are shocked about the incident where ammonia tanker started leaking soon after it got overturned due to a mishap at Chicalim in January this year. As per ZACL officials they transport ammonia using a capsule shape specially designed tanker that has all required protection. Since Chicalim incident was a rare one.”
