The government of the Indian state of Goa has decided to grant a twelve-month extension for the continued operation of off-shore casinos on the Mandovi River in Panaji. The casinos will continue to operate until October 1, 2022, and until then the government will have to figure out a way to move these operations on-shore.
The state government revealed that the home department had identified four sites where the casinos could have been relocated: one near Aguada jail, two on the banks of the Zuari river, and one near Chapora river.
However, the four sites were eventually discarded from the discussion as they were found “technically not feasible”, so the government was left with no alternative but to delay the decision of moving the casinos on-shore.
In fact, it is the government’s responsibility to offer alternate feasible sites to the casinos in order to have them move their operations from the vessels on the Mandovi river to physical locations on-shore.