Goa moves one big step closer to becoming a coal hub

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Editor's note: There’s big news coming from Goa. The government has issued environmental clearance to Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group to nearly double its imports of coal into Goa.  The steel-to-paints conglomerate runs a captive port terminal at the state-owned Mormugao Port. JSW receives coking coal there from overseas and uses it as a raw material at its Vijayanagar steel plant in northern Karnataka. While it had permission to handle 7.5 million tonnes of coal a year, the new clearance allows it to ramp it up to 13 million tonnes a year. This is a staggering amount; if it were to be transported by road, it would require 148 trucks to be filled and dispatched every hour for a year, without a break. The approval comes against the backdrop of years of opposition from local communities to a series of port, railway and road projects that aim to increase the import of coal through Goa. Apart from JSW, the Vedanta group had also won a tender to build a coal and iron ore terminal, and the Mormugao Port Authority had proposed to deepen …