TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Efforts are on to use industrial slag as an ingredient to build roads in the state, which is lying at various industrial estates and outside, Environment Minister Alina Saldanha told the House on Monday.
Alina said that National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) has already conducted a study and found it to be suitable for the construction by mixing slag in tar to resurface the roads.
A meeting between the Industries Department, Public Works Department and Goa State Pollution Control Board will be held in the next 15 days to expedite the issue; Alina said adding that the GSPCB had already written to the other agencies on the experiment.
The hazard of slag lying within the Cuncolim and other industrial estates was a cause of concern with local MLA Rajan Naik raising the issue during the discussion on demands for the environment department.
Alina also expressed the helplessness of the forest department to rein in illegal cutting of trees, in private lands especially since the forest department gets to know after the act has been committed. “Without the support of the public especially the owners of these lands, our efforts will be met with little success,” Saldanha said responding to a concern raised by Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte.
