Pollution Board bans buffer zone for Pernem Theme Park

Enforcing environmental norms, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has asked BramhaCorp Theme Parks LLP, the promoters of the upcoming Mini India Theme Park project in Pernem taluka, to maintain a buffer zone of 200 meters from the adjacent Pernem Waste Treatment . plant.

It is noteworthy that the Pernem Municipal Council (PMC) had passed a resolution to impose a lower buffer zone of 100 meters radius on the project and informed the pollution board about its decision in a letter dated October 19, 2023.

Deciding to go by the central guidelines, the GSPCB during its 157th board meeting said that the area approved for the theme park has been notified by the Department of Town and Country Planning as a buffer zone in the Regional Planning, Goa, 2021 and the adjoining Has gone. 5 TPD Waste Management Plant of Pernem Municipal Council.

The Board pointed out that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines on provision of buffer zone around waste processing disposal facilities state that its distance from the boundary of solid waste treatment plant exceeding 5 tonnes per day should ideally be 500 metres. Needed TPD).

As per CPCB guidelines, the extent of the buffer zone may be decided on a case-to-case basis by the local body in consultation with the concerned pollution control board. “A distance of 200 meters may be considered subject to the condition that the said facility meets the prescribed standards laid down by the concerned Pollution Control Board with respect to ambient air as well as emissions,” the guidelines said.

It may be noted that the government had in June 2023 given permission to the Pune-based real estate firm to set up a theme park on 97,224 square meters of private land in survey numbers 310/0 and 311/0. PMC. Subsequently, the Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board (IPB) had de-notified the buffer zone around the waste management plant and also notified it as an investment promotion zone. The theme park has faced opposition from Pernem residents.