The National Green Tribunal, Western Zone Bench has stayed the Environmental and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance granted to the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) for a major channel deepening project in Goa citing "Copied and Pasted" Conditions. The tribunal's order, halts the operation of the July 21, 2025 clearance until the next hearing on November 2, 2026.

​The NGT has ordered the stay after hearing arguments from appellants Rupesh Shinkre and another party. The appellants exposed severe contradictions in the clearance document and raised alarms over unassessed pollution risks.

​The project faced opposition on multiple environmental and procedural fronts like the deepened approach channel would accommodate capesize vessels, effectively increasing the coal and ore handling capacity at MPT's berths 5, 6, and 7 from 12 MTPA to 42.1 MTPA. The appellants argued that the clearance was granted without an adequate assessment of the resulting air and water pollution from coal dust.

Despite earlier directives to assess Vasco Da Gama's air quality via a source apportionment study by IIT Bombay, appellants alleged this critical report was never presented to the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) or the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). MPT's counsel disputed this claim and was granted two weeks to produce evidence that the EAC reviewed the study.

A February 2024 site inspection by a Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) expert warned that generating 15 million cubic meters of dredged material to achieve a 19-meter depth would severely modify the estuary's morphology. The expert noted this could compromise the stability of the Zuari river banks and seabed, recommending a fresh Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). However, the GCZMA ignored this recommendation and approved the project based on a previous 2018 clearance.

​During the hearing, the NGT highlighted blatant errors in the impugned EC and CRZ clearance as the specific Condition No. (viii) explicitly prohibited underwater blasting. Conversely, Specific Condition No. (xxi) stated that "rock blasting, which adversely affects the local biota, is planned while dredging," and Condition No. xxii addressed the monitoring of fish mortality due to blasting and the condition No. (ix) directed that dumped dredge material must not enter "Thane creek" — a water body in Maharashtra that is entirely irrelevant to a project in Goa.

​The tribunal observed that these irrelevant stipulations appear to have been "copied and pasted" into the clearance. The bench further noted that the MoEF&CC counsel provided no assistance in explaining how such contradictory conditions were incorporated. Given these significant discrepancies, the NGT ruled that the EC and CRZ clearance shall not be operationalized till further orders.