Team Herald
VASCO: Goenchea Raponkarancho Ekvott (GRE) on Friday objected to the land acquisition at Pale and Issorcim for the Margao-Vasco double tracking project of South Western Railway.
A memorandum of objection was submitted to Mormugao Deputy Collector Mahadev Arondekar by the villagers and GRE, on Friday.
GRE General Secretary Olencio Simoes stated that acquisition of any land for double tracking of railway lines at Pale and Issorcim should be scraped in toto, failing which, he warned, people would be forced to come on streets.
Simoes stated that the villagers were shocked to receive notices from office of the Deputy Collector for acquisition of land for double tracking of railway line in the village of Pale and Issorcim, even after repeated assurance made by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and local MLA Alina Saldanha that the project would not be taken up. In fact, he said, Alina vociferously fought against the double tracking in Velsao, Pale, Issorsim, Cansaulim villages.
Terming the issuance of notice as betrayal of the BJP government, Simoes alleged that the proposed double tracking project is to facilitate the proposed Sagarmala project of Mormugao Port Trust (MPT). He said that the Sagarmala project would cater to the coal requirement needs of steel and power plants in Karnataka.
MPT has two dedicated coal berths; they have been leased out to Adani and Jindal and have a combined capacity to handle 12 million tonnes of coal per annum.
“MPT plans to increase the number of coal berths to 5, so that it can enhance the coal handling to 50 million tonnes per annum. The doubling of rail line between Vasco and Hospet is only to transport coal from Adani and Jindal berths through our villages, which have churches and heritage houses that are more than 450 year-old,” he said.
Simoes accused the government of cunningly building, part by part, mega projects like double railway line, 4 lane roads only to facilitate Coal expansion projects of MPT.
“The coal trains which pass close to our house have already damaged our old houses due to the vibration. The coal spillage from the wagons has caused dust pollution and has affected our health,” an affected villager from Mollo in Velsao, Agnelo Fernandes said.
“If the double railway line is constructed then the coal pollution will spread all over our village and this will cause serious health hazard like cancer. Due to the increase in frequency of trains, the villagers will have to wait for longer periods at railway crossing gate at Velsao, Cansaulim and other places along the proposed line,” Fernandes said.
