Panaji (Goa): Haryana politician-cum-business tycoon Gopal Kanda has found his luck to finally start casino operations in Goa despite his very controversial off-shore casino vessel Lucky 7 is undergoing major repair works at Chennai dockyard. His firm Golden Globe Hotels Pvt Ltd (GGHPL) has taken over the non-operational Maharaja Casino anchored in River Mandovi since last eight years, on lease for six months.
It now awaits a jetty to be allotted by Captain of Ports Department to start the operations, for which the company had moved the High Court of Bombay at Goa seeking directions to the government.
The division bench of Justices N M Jamdar and Prithviraj Chavan has directed the State government to allot a jetty for which the latter has assured to issue necessary orders within one week.
“It is clear that the State Government has decided to allot a Jetty in respect of vessel M V San Domino. Learned Advocate General on instructions states that necessary orders will be issued to the Petitioner within a period of one week. We accept this statement,” the bench ordered, copy of which was made public late last night.
During the hearing the CoP James Braganza stated, “Now since the M V Lucky Seven has not in condition to be considered and therefore now the petitioner on December 1, 2017 made fresh application for allotment of Jetty With respect to the Vessel M V San Domino. I state that the petitioner has applied for allotment of jetty, which will be given to the petitioner, since Casino License, which was granted, was with respect to the vessel M V San Domino which is the subject matter of the present application.”
While Maharaja is the sixth and till date the last casino granted permission to operate in River Mandovi; Lucky Seven is the second casino in Goa. However, due to permission glitches the Maharaja, parked close to Verem, remained non-operational till date while Lucky Seven suffered other problems followed by a major breakdown during its towing operation in July this year.
Probably one of the biggest floating casinos in South East Asia, ‘Maharaja’, aboard the MV San Domino, entered the waters of the Mandovi on February 17, 2009 but it has since then remained a forlorn vessel.
GGHPL has procured Lucky 7 vessel from a company in Egypt, which has its office in Dubai too. The directors had earlier decided to float the vessel to Dubai where M/s AMS Marine LLC also conducts repair works but the dock yard couldn’t give any slot, after which the vessel was taken to Cochin.
After nearly 70 days of struggle, the grounded vessel – that ran aground at Miramar beach on July 16 was floated 500 mtrs into deeper waters off Miramar on October 5. The experts, technicians and divers from the Dubai salvage company carried out temporary repairs of the vessel that had developed many cracks and a hole beneath it. The High Court which continues to monitor the situation allowed the vessel to move to Dubai, Cochin or any suitable port of repairs.
