Panaji, March 28 (PTI) The Goa government has proposed to impose hefty penalties on those households and commercial establishments that fail to use the sewerage system.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who presented the coastal state’s budget on March 26, has announced that the government will work on a ‘Goa Sewerage Master Plan 2050’ to take care of sewage treatment for the next 25 years.

The chief minister said that people living in areas where waste-disposal lines have been laid will have to pay an “additional 50 per cent of the water charge for residential connections and 100 per cent of the charge for commercial connections, over and above their regular fees”.

With these additional charges, the government intends to push residents and business entities to use the sewerage system.

Once the households and commercial units start releasing their liquid waste through the sewerage network, the charges will be normalised, the CM added.

The chief minister announced that the Goa Sewerage Corporation would be solely responsible for sewage disposal in the state.

He said the corporation would set up new sewage treatment projects and also maintain the existing facilities.

Sawant said that for the fiscal 2025-26, the government has earmarked Rs 53.12 crore to develop tertiary treatment facilities for the existing “27.5 MLD and 1.5 MLD sewerage treatment projects at Tonca in Panaji”.

“In several areas, particularly in the coastal regions, the sewerage network is either not implemented or poorly maintained, leading to water contamination. We have taken steps to address this issue,” he said.

The first-ever “vacuum sewer network system” in India has been launched in Panaji, which is a significant development, he said.

The CM said that although the sewerage system has been established in some areas, people are facing challenges in connecting to it. This has caused delays and environmental pollution. The goal of implementing sewerage lines is to improve sanitation capacity and reduce environmental pollution, he said. PTI RPS NR