Team Herald
VASCO: Following the Goa government’s decision to give easy and comfortable access to iron ore transfer through the State to the Mormugao port, the first goods train carrying iron ore of mining giant Vedanta from Karnataka arrived at the Mormugao Port for export on Thursday, after a decade.
The ore cargo will add around two million tonnes to the traffic of the Mormugao Ports Authority (MPA).
Those opposing the movement of coal or iron ore through Goa have constantly reiterated that these activities are of no benefit to the State and Goans. Goa remains only a passage or corridor for the benefit of private players is what people’s organisations like Goencho Ekvott, Federation of Rainbow Warriors, and a host of organisations have repeatedly said.
The top brass of the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) including Vice Chairman G P Rai acknowledged the State government’s role in facilitating iron ore transport through Goa.
Rai said, “This is the first railway to arrive at the Mormugao Port after nearly a decade and this marks the beginning of iron ore export activity at the MPA,” hoping that the MPA will earn good income from this mining activity as well as income from Railways handling wharfage charges.
Nitesh Samant, Chief Commercial Officer – Iron Ore Goa at Vedanta (as per his LinkedIn profile) said that the iron ore cargo had come from Karnataka and was to be exported to China. “We are the first one to bring in iron ore from Karnataka and this service, which has commenced after a decade, will add to the revenue of the port and the local economy. The rakes will keep coming continuously and we have not planned any figure as such, as of now, because we are in the initial stage. We can firmly decide on the number of trains, once we know the capacity and observe the port traffic for a few days,” Samant said.
