Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has chosen to personally examine the situation on the ground on April 1 after giving careful consideration to the controversy surrounding the unfinished Smart City projects in Panaji.
The Bench decided on Wednesday during the hearing of two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) that its Justice would examine the work on April 1 at 5 p.m.
The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) promised to begin with two mobile monitoring stations after the High Court requested that the latter install monitoring stations to keep an eye on pollution.
Installing long-term, real-time Air Ambient Quality Monitoring Stations at all significant Panaji locations is one of the petitioner residents’ requests in order to gather information and keep an eye on the air quality standards close to Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited’s construction projects.
Additionally, they asked the High Court to order the GSPCB to make sure these stations regularly gather real-time data and make it available to the general public.
The petitioners claimed in their Public Interest Litigations (PILs) that the GSPCB has failed to consider the possible health risks associated with dust pollution from road construction and other city infrastructure projects.
Additionally, the Board has not conducted an evaluation of the consequences of the extensive construction projects being carried out concurrently in densely populated residential and commercial areas, which equates to a disregard for public health and safety.
“There are no measures undertaken by IPSCDL or the concerned contractors or agencies to control or eliminate the dust pollution by adopting any remedial mechanism,” reads the petition.
