SPLIT: The beautiful village of Cansaulim where the Feast of the Three Kings is celebrated annually, the village will be divided further if an additional track is laid through the beautiful ancestral homes of bhatkar like former Chief Minister Dr Luis Proto Barbosa.

By Rajan Narayan

Union Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, in collusion with Chief Minister of Goa Pramod Sawant, are not only converting Mormugao Port Trust into the dirtiest port in the country but also exposing the whole of south Goa to coal pollution– by double tracking South Western Railways which will primarily transport imported coal from MPT to the Jindal steel unit at Hospet, Bellary, in Karnataka……

THERE is a lot of confusion about why there is opposition to the Sagarmala project of Nitin Gadkari and the proposed double tracking of South Western Railway. In fact, till the Konkan railway started as a private company Goa was not connected by railway even to Mumbai. Konkan railway is much older than South Central Railway which connects Goa to Bengaluru. The South Central railway is a crucial link between the Mormugao Port Trust and the Jindal-Adani iron or steel power projects in neighboring Karnataka. The doubling of the South Western railway track and Sagarmala have the same objective. It is the brainchild of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari to ensure fast transportation of key raw materials for the infrastructure industries.
The Sagarmala project envisages setting up jetties at various points in south Goa so that the coal imported from outside India can be stored at various landing jetties. From the landing jetties they will be transported by South Central railway to Vasco da Gama junction and on to the goods trains – primarily all this to import coal through Goa’s MPT for destination Karnataka.
This is an action replay of what happened with iron ore. The only reason why export of iron ore before the Chinese era was profitable was because its transportation via sea and river routes was much cheaper than land roadways. Unlike in the case of coal most iron ore mines are located in north Goa. The distance from Curchorem and Sangolda to Vasco da Gama was very long. In the early days of mining there were no smooth roadways leave alone highways and fancy bridges. Ore, in fact, was transported by bullock carts in the early days and it used to take days if not weeks to reach the port from which it was to be exported abroad.
Some bright mine owner thought the idea of transporting the ore from the closest river jetty by water to Mormugao port. That is why jetties came up all over Goa. From the jetties the ore was downloaded to barges which had the capacity of 20 to a 100 trucks. The ore was then taken by the barges to MPT. At MPT it was found that many of the cargo ships calling at the port to lift the ore cargo could not berth close enough because the sea bed was shallow and required dredging. So the next stage in the development or ore logistics was building trans-shippers. These were virtually barges which carried the ore out to sea and loaded them on to the huge cargo ships parked mid-sea.
At some point the Goa government set up Panjim port which has a floating jetty which you can see from Miramar beach. With the collapse of the export of iron the MPT decided to switch to coal. There has always been a large demand for coal for the steel plants of the Jindals in Karnataka and the thermal power generation plants of the Adanis. Indeed, both Jindals and Adanis have dedicated berths at MPT. The combined 14 million tons of coal per year will go up to 50 million tons by 2030. The Adanis have secured a concession for a huge quantity of coal mined in Australia on an investment of 21.7 billion Australian dollars.
There was a controversy as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recommended that the State Bank of India should finance the deal. Due to pressure from Nitin Gadkari the coal handling capacity of the Adanis at their dedicated berth in MPT was also increased proportionately. The increased import of coal is meant entirely for the expansion of the Jindal steel plant and the adani power station in Karnataka.

SINGLE TRACK

IN MOST parts of the country there is only a single track for primarily passenger trains. When there is only one track at various junctions the train has to go into a siding so that the train coming from the opposite direction can pass. Normally double tracking is done when there is a very big increase in passenger traffic. There is justifiably a purposely for double tracking of the Konkan railway as the passenger traffic capacity has more than doubled. Besides the Konkan railway trains like Konkan Kanya and Rajdhani from Tiruvinanthapuram (capital town of Kerala) to Goa also run on Konkan railway track. The other Rajdhani trains from Mumbai to Delhi run from Baroda on Western railway.
But there is no increase in traffic on the South Western railway from Vasco to Bengaluru which passes through Hubli and the mining district of Hospet and Bellary. The factories of the Jindals and the power station of the Adani are located at Bellary, Hospet. So much so the double tracking is entirely for the benefit of these industrial estates which are close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. When double tracking takes place instead of two lines there are four lines of tracks. This means that trains don’t have to wait to cross over and simultaneously there can be an up-train and down train. The very fact that there are more than two good trains going from MPT, Vasco to Hospet and Bellary daily shows the huge volume of the traffic.
The doubling of the track will require acquisition of more space. It has been estimated that the South Western railway will have to acquire 1.60 lakh square meters for the additional tracking. The tracks passes through densely populated coastal villages like Majorda and Cansaulim where the Feast of the Three Kings is held on January 6 every year marking the end of the Christmas season.
I AM very familiar with the village because two rival politicians, namely Nelson Fernandes and Mathany Saldhana, who were members of the Panchayat lived next door to each other. There were two different feasts as they were bitter rivals. The then chief minister Dr Proto Barbosa used to be a good friend of Mathany Saldana. The residence of Dr Proto Barbosa was on the other side of the then single track of the South Western railway very close to the track. If this track is doubled not just the compound wall but the drawing room of Dr Barbosa would have to be demolished.
Many old ancestral homes in Majorda and Cansaulim will have to be partly demolished due to the double tracking. Among those likely to be affected is the home of the famous writer Damodar Mauzo who lives just next to the civil track, he has recently shut down his grocery shop.
There would have been no objection to the double tracking if it was not meant for the people of Karnataka! Though several lakh Karnataka natives have migrated and settled in Goa post-Liberation most of them have settled permanently in Goa. Of course they still keep in touch with their native places in Karnataka. This is particularly true of more recent migrants. The claim of the South Western railway is that it is double tracking for the benefit of increasing human traffic but this is totally false.
The double tracking is specifically for the benefit of the importers of coal coming from abroad. Ore from Goa is not exported to Bellary and Hospet because most steel plants in India do not have the technology to make steel from fines. Our steel plants are used to lump ore to make steel.
All the NGOs in Goa led by Goenkaracho Ekovat have come together to oppose the double tracking. When a public hearing was to be held last Monday a crowd of 200 people gathered and forced the government to postpone the public hearing. The public hearing is expected to be held end-October. Normally, when land is acquired for public purpose objections are invited from the public to find out what the objections are if they are any for a new project for which land is acquired. For the double tracking and the building of jetties in south Goa.

KAALE SAAPNE!

THE greatest threat from the kaale saapne of Nitin Gadkari is nationalization in reverse or really anti-nationalism. At present there are some subjects like law and order which come completely under State jurisdiction. There are other subjects like education which too comes under the Concurrent list of the Constitution. It means that there has to be consultation between State and Centre. So far the Central government could not take any action like building a dam without consulting with the State government. If rivers are nationalized than Karnataka needs no permission to build dams on the tributaries rivers of the Mandovi or Goan rivers rising in Karnataka Western Ghats as it is already doing now without any respect for Goa’s water needs. The objective of the nationalization of the rivers was to sacrifice the interests of the people for the benefit of the industries. Under Nitin Gadkari’s grand plan even cars manufactured in Pune may travel by sea and river to Kolkotta and transportation by road as is the case presently will cease.