MMC garden walkway to stay wide, safe with new railings

Margao MLA Digambar Kamat launching the railing around the Margao Municipal garden.

Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar

MARGAO
A “weird” idea to cut down the width of the pedestrian footpath around the iconic Margao Municipal Garden is down and out, with the civic body going ahead with installing railings around the footpath to ensure citizen safety and security.

Based on a proposal received from the Traffic Department, the Margao Municipal Council had, some time ago, adopted a resolution to reduce the width of the MMC Garden’s pedestrian footpath in a bid to fix traffic issues plaguing the heart of the commercial capital.

The resolution was never implemented by the civic body after municipal officials privately raised questions and concerns over such a move, fearing backlash from citizens. In fact, an MMC official attached to the technical section pointed out that the proposal to reduce the footpath width was no solution to the traffic woes facing the city. He further said that the proposal need not be implemented, given that the amount of heavy traffic passing through the city has reduced drastically following the commissioning of the Margao Western Bypass.

Margao Civic Chief Damu Shirodkar also agreed that reducing the width of the garden footpath does not offer a solution. “I am not in favour of the proposal and will never implement such a proposal while I am presiding over the MMC,” Damu said.

Even as the resolution to reduce the pedestrian footpath width has been put in cold storage for the moment, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat on Thursday launched Rs 30 lakh worth of work to install railings around the MMC Garden footpath. The work will be executed by the PWD (NH) at a cost of Rs 30 lakh, he said. “The railing will ensure the safety and security of pedestrians walking on the garden footpath. It will act as a guard against vehicles climbing onto the footpath, as the level of the road has almost come up on par with the footpath,” Kamat said.

This is not the first time that the MMC Garden will have a railing around the entire footpath. In the past, the garden was fenced with railings before they were removed due to lack of upkeep and maintenance.