the goan I network
MARGAO
Come January 7 and the burning issues of waste segregation at source and multi-level parking will take the centrestage and may offer a solution for these twin issues plaguing the city over the years.
For, while the Director of Municipal Administration, R Menaka, IAS will be descending in the Margao Municipal Council to take stock of the civic body’s agenda on waste segregation at source, the tender floated by the civic body for multi-level parking will be opened on the January 7, which will offer a solution to the parking problems affecting the city.
Sources in the corridors of the Margao Municipal body informed that DMA Menaka’s visit to the civic body on the invitation of Margao Municipal Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai offers a hope to evolve a solution to the waste problem in the light of the directions issued by the NGT’s regional committee to take up waste collection at source in the city on utmost priority.
MMC Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai said she has invited the DMA to get the Municipal administration take up waste collection at source on a war footing in the light of the NGT’s directions to take up waste collection at source in all the 25 municipal wards.
“The DMA had accompanied the NGT regional committee head, Justice Deodhar and she is aware of the directions issued by the Committee to the Margao Municipality on waste segregation at source. I have invited the DMA precisely to get the MMC administration aware of the directions so that a road map is put in place to resolve the waste imbroglio,” Babita told The Goan.
She added: “I do not see any problem in making available additional workers to carry out waste segregation at source in all the municipal wards. What is required is a change in the mindset to implement the exercise on top priority.”
Presently, the Margao Municipal Council is carrying out door-to-door waste segregation only in seven out of the 25 Municipal wards, but the NGT wants the MMC to extend the exercise of collecting segregated waste from all the 25 municipal wards. Waste segregation at source from the households has also become a dire necessity in the wake of reports that the unsegregated waste which finds its way at Sonsodo has almost choked the waste treatment plant.
As far as the multi-level parking is concerned, the Margao Municipal Council has floated the tender for the second time in the last one year. If Municipal Engineer, D Arsekar is to believed, the multi-level tender floated at an estimated cost of Rs 5.58 crore, will be opened on January 7.
“Since it is an e-tender, we cannot see at this stage how many bidders have applied for the tender. We will have to wait till January 7 to find out the number of bidders ready to take up the multi-crore project,” Arsekar told The Goan.
It’s now more than three years since the Margao Municipality had laid the foundation stone for the multi-level parking project behind the Municipal building at the old fish market. The project, however, did not see the light of day in the last one year on account of the GST tangle, leaving the civic body with no option than to go for a fresh tender earlier this month. With the multi-level parking facility having a provision to accommodate more than 100-cars, the project, once completed is expected to give relief to the acute parking problem facing the commercial capital.
