Goa govt to spend Rs 800 crore to revive Mandovi waters

Panaji : The Goa government has taken up various projects to clean up the Mandovi river and curb the pollution of its waters, a senior official said today.

"The total cost of these projects would be Rs 808.47 crore which would be spent till September 2018," he said.The National Green Tribunal (NGT), on July 21 this year, had directed the state government to put in place a time-bound programme to revitalise the river.The river hosts several off-shore casinos, and is used by fishing trawlers and ships ferrying iron ore to harbour.

The Public Works Department has put up proposals of Rs 8.72 crore before the government while the state-run Sewerage Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited has drawn up a huge plan costing Rs 711.75 crore, the official said.Other agencies including the Directorate of Panchayat, Corporation of City of Panaji and Fisheries Department have also proposed measures to curb the pollution of Mandovi waters, he said.

"The river is getting polluted due to direct discharge of sewerage by the population settled around it. Commercial establishments too have sprung up on the banks," a senior official from the Goa State Pollution Control Board told PTI.

As per a GSPCB report, most of the parameters indicating the health of a water body, such as the amount of dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen and turbidity level, are within permissible limits, except the concentration of fecal coliform bacteria which is high.