Team Herald
MARGAO: In an interesting development with regard to Tamnar Power Project, Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral on Saturday said the recent order passed by the Supreme Court is nothing new but what the Government of Goa has proposed five years back and hence the concerned NGOs should stop misleading the people of Goa.
He also said that the priority of the government is to commission the Tamnar Power Project, while double-tracking of the railway line from Castle Rock in Karnataka to Kulem in Goa, and four-laning of a National Highway 4 will be taken up later.
“The government too had proposed to replace the existing 110 KV power line with 440KV, and the Apex Court has also stressed on the same,” Cabral said.
A few days before the Supreme Court in its 219-page order had accepted the Central Empowered Committee’s recommendations and stated that the Goa Tamnar 440KV power line is set up along the alignment of the existing power line so that fresh forest areas are not disturbed.
“The government had also proposed the same thing five years ago, and the Apex Court has stressed on the same. There is no point in claiming that the NGO has won and the government lost in the case. Our intention was to replace the 110KV power line with 440KV line. I never said that the new power line should be done by cutting the trees,” Cabral defended.
He has further claimed that now it will be easier for the government to go ahead with the project.
The Environment Minister charged the NGOs and said they want to show that everything is happening because of them only, but the government had taken the same stand before also.
“The government has succeeded in convincing the Apex Court that there is an urgent need for a 440KV power line in Goa, otherwise people will face a tough time of power-cut in the near future,” he stated.
As claimed by Cabral, Goa is heading towards the worst situations due to power-cut, and the industrial sector are the most affected ones, and hence need to support them.
