PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Tuesday asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to clear its stand in a petition filed by South West Port Limited (SWPL) pleading to consider their proposal for terminal capacity enhancement at berth Nos 5A and 6A at the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) for grant of environment clearance (EC).
The MoEF counsel argued before the Court that following the NGT order of November 22, 2017, that restrained the Ministry and States from granting permissions pending finalisation of the Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs), MoEF is not willing to process the application for grant of EC for the project. The court has asked MoEF to file a written reply on Wednesday.
SWPL had sought directions to MoEF to process the petitioner’s application for terminal capacity enhancement at Berths 5A and 6A of MPT which has been considered and recommended by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry.
Adv Subhod Kantak, representing SWPL, again submitted in the court that the order passed by NGT is not applicable to SWPL and hence its application needs to be considered. He said that the application for grant of EC was submitted on February 9, 2015, before NGT passed its order.
