PANAJI: The Bombay High Court in Goa has asked the Goa government to submit its response after citizens living on both sides of the Mandovi River, where a new 2,000-guest casino and a leisure boat were given permission to dock, approached the court challenging the decision.
Citizens from Panaji, the capital, and Reis Magos, a village on the north bank of the river, claimed that permission had been granted to dock a new ship 112 meters long, 28 meters wide and seven decks to replace an existing 60.2 x 13 meter luxury ship with capacity for 70 guests for gambling and entertainment, despite objections from the ports captain and the ports minister that the new ship “may create more navigational hazards due to grouping of vessels which will create a bottleneck in the locations of Docking.
In their petition, the petitioners alleged that the Goa government cannot just replace a ship with a capacity of 70 people with another ship with a capacity of 2,000 without considering all aspects, especially since the new ship, if allowed, will have a capacity individually greater than all the other casino ships moored in Mandovi put together.
The other five ships have a combined capacity of 1,987 guests.
Goa currently has six cruise ships anchored in the Mandovi River that operate as casinos and are used for live gaming, and are very popular among tourists. The 17 operating casinos in Goa – six offshore and 11 onshore paying casinos. $Rs 354 Crore Annual Recurring License Fee, Rs 437.23 Crore GST, Rs 11.42 Crore for River Navigation. According to recent government figures casinos contribute $812.68 crore to Goa government coffers.
“The MV Royale Flotel cannot be ‘replaced’ with the new vessel. The law does not provide for ‘replacement’ of an existing vessel with a new vessel. Section 13E of the Goa Gambling Act allows the license to be transferred to ‘any other person’. However, the said license in such a case relates to the same vessel. Even if the new vessel seeks to replace the MV Royale Flotel, it will have to obtain a new license of its own in view of the fact that the license granted to the vessel is passenger capacity specific,” the petitioners said in their plea.
In response, advocate Darius Khambatta, representing Delta Pleasure Cruise Company Pvt Ltd, told the court that they have permission to berth the ship in 2022 which was granted to them after due process, adding that the petition was filed late at a time when the ship was already on its way from Udupi to Goa, in order to arrive before the seas become rough before the monsoon. He said: “There is no navigational obstacle that prevents bringing ships of this size to the river.”
“Granting the NOC…by ignoring serious concerns raised by multiple authorities regarding navigational risks arising from the berthing of the new vessel is illegal, unreasonable and arbitrary. People in general have a vested right to all natural resources which are by their nature intended for public use and enjoyment, and the state is a mere trustee,” the petitioners said.
“The change from a 70-passenger ship to a 2,000-passenger ship, which operates exclusively as a floating casino, will face disastrous problems in the form of emergence of public anti-social elements, especially problems resulting from gambling and drunken gambling. This will also lead to increased traffic, and parking in Panjim which is already strained in terms of public infrastructure,” they said.
A representative for Delta Pleasure Cruise Company did not respond to HT’s requests for comment. The state government is expected to submit its response by Friday.
