High Court seeks Goa govt’s reply on 2,000-capacity casino boat plea

PANAJI : The Bombay heights margaret court at Goa has asked the authorities of Goa to register its response after citizens living on both sides of the River Mandovi, where a young 2,000 guest capacity casino and entertainment boat has been given permission to berth, approached the Court challenging the decision.The citizens from Panaji, the capital city and Reis Magos, a village falling on the northern bank of the River, alleged that permission has been given to berth a new 112 metre long, 28 metre wide seven storey tall vessel replacing an existing 60.2×13 metre luxury vessel that has a capacity of 70 guests for gambling and entertainment, despite objections from the Captain of Ports and the Secretary of Ports that the new vessel “may create further navigational hazards due to the clustering of vessels which will create a bottle neck at the mooring positions”.In their petition, the petitioners have alleged that the Goa government cannot just replace a vessel with a capacity of 70 with another vessel of a capacity of 2000 without considering all aspects, especially since the new vessel, if allowed, will singularly have more capacity than all the other casino vessels berthing in the Mandovi combined.The other five vessels have a combined capacity of 1987 guests.Goa currently has six offshore vessels berthed in the River Mandovi operating as casinos and used for live gaming, and which are popular among tourists. Goa’s 17 operational casinos -- six offshore and 11 onshore casinos pay ₹354-crore in annual recurring licence fees, 437.23 crore from GST, 11.42 crore to the River Navigation. As per recent government figures the casinos contribute ₹812.68 crore to the Goa government coffers.“MV Royale Flotel cannot be “replaced” by the new vessel. The law does not provide for “replacing” an existing vessel with a new vessel. Section 13E of the Goa Gambling Act permits transfer of a license to “any other person”. However, the said license in such a case would pertain to the same vessel. Even if the new vessel seeks to replace MV Royale Flotel would have to obtain its own fresh license in light of the fact that the license granted to a vessel is passenger capacity specific,” the petitioners argued in their petition.In response, Adv Darius Khambata representing Delta Pleasure Cruise Company Pvt Ltd, told the Court that they have permission to berth the vessel that was granted back in 2022 that has been granted to them following the due process of law adding that the petition has been filed belatedly at a time when the vessel is already on its way from Udupi to Goa, in order to reach before the seas turn rough before the monsoons. He said, “There is no navigational impediment in bringing vessels of this size into the River.”“In granting NOC … by ignoring the serious concerns raised by multiple authorities about the navigational hazards caused by the mooring of the new vessel is illegal, unreasonable and arbitrary. The people at large have a vested right of all natural resources which are by nature meant for public use and enjoyment and the State is merely a trustee,” the petitioners argued.“The change from a 70 passenger vessel to a 2000 passenger vessel, which exclusively serving as a floating casino will have catastrophic problems in the form of the rise of anti-social public elements, especially problems resulting from gambling and gambling under the influence of alcohol. This will also result in increased traffic, parking in Panjim that is already strained in terms of public infrastructure,” they also said.A representative for Delta Pleasure Cruise Company didn’t respond to HT’s requests for a comment. The state government is expected to file its reply by Friday.