MARGAO, March 22 -- Team Herald

With the monsoon expected to start in June, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) faces a race against time to initiate the long-overdue transportation of 35,000 tonnes of hazardous waste from the Cuncolim Industrial Estate to the Pissurlem disposal facility.

For over a decade-and-a-half, the annual ritual of covering the waste with tarpaulin sheets has been a temporary fix, but concerns persist over its environmental impact.

The urgency has grown following a study by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), which reaffirmed that the waste left behind by Ms Sunrise Zinc nearly two decades ago remains hazardous and must be removed.

The GSPCB had commissioned the study la...