PANJIM: They aren’t going anywhere. At least not on August 29, when the licence for the first of the four casinos and “one passenger ship” as the Captain of Ports calls it, expires. On that day and from all the days that each vessel completes its license term, the vessels cease to operate, if they do not move out of River Mandovi. Herald now has the Report of the Captain of Ports of the Hydrographic Surveyor on the feasibility of moving the casino vessels to either the Aguada Bay, Chapora river or the Zuari river and have found very strong impediments to the move to any of these locations.
The Captain of Ports in his notings too has listed his own observations and has found points of difficulty in each of the locations. While a power point presentation has been made to the chief minister based on these notings on June 3, no one is wiser on how the grand announcement of moving the casinos out of the Mandovi is going to fructify.
The findings of the Hydrographic surveyors report on the feasibility of shifting the casinos to each of these river spots are as follows:
RIVER MANDOVI
Aguada bay exposed to open sea, east and west of Mandovi ruled out
nNo location available where casino vessels can be relocated round the year
nState of sea in Aguada bay region is not stable, especially in the monsoon
nVessels cannot be moved to the east of the Mandovi bridge due to vertical restriction clearance. It is completely ruled out
nThere is no such suitable area to the west of the Mandovi bridges either
RIVER ZUARI
Cortalim fishing boats have to go, if jetty is made here
nNo possibility of relocating casino vessels upstream across the Zuari bridge due to vertical clearance of the bridges across river
nAt the west of the bridge there is MPT jurisdiction
nIf Cortalim jetty is used by the feeders of casinos than fishing boats and trawlers needs to relocate or portion of the jetty needs to be made available to casino operators initially and simultaneously government may consider extension of jetty
nUse of ferry ramp at Agacaim, with floating concrete pontoon block jetty can accommodate feeder boat
n Plenty of open space is available in Agacaim side but ownership of the property needs to be ascertained
RIVER CHAPORA
nFound sand bars across the mouth of the river
nRestriction of the depth is considered unsafe
nHuge cost of Rs 20 crore will be required for the dredging of river to deepen the mouth of the river
nNeed to provide proper infrastructure like jetties, fewer boats and car parking and space for reception
Conclusion: Only suitable river for relocation will be Chapora “subject to deepening across the sand bars at the mouth of the river Chapora, but huge costs up to Rs 20 crore will be required to dredge the river”.
Importantly the Captain of Ports, on receipt of this report wrote on page number 4/N of the note sheet that the there is a possibility of using “MPT infrastructure for berthing the casinos on the western side of the Zuari bridge”, as on the eastern side, the air draft of vessels will not permit them to pass below the bridge. About relocating to the Chapora river, the CoP agreed on the huge costs needed for infrastructure and importantly he mentioned in his note, “For all of the above, local resistance and fishermen objections may have to be looked into.”
Importantly, the Department of Ports, according to the notings in Herald’s possession, stated on May 4, that it has informed the Chief Minister that “it would take some more time to identify suitable and safe anchorage points”. A presentation to the CM was then planed on June 3. However a month later, the coast, or shall we say, the waters are not clear for shifting any of the casinos.
