the goan I network
MAPUSA
Aldona MLA Glen Ticlo on Wednesday reiterated that the road overbridge cum underpass at Bastora along the NH17 will be completed before the May 31 deadline.
He also said that hot-mixing of the service roads on either side of the NH17 will be completed before the onset of the monsoon.
“The work on the overbridge cum underpass is taking place at a quick pace. And as the engineers have promised, the project will be completed before May 31,”
Ticlo said.
The MLA was speaking to the media after carrying out an inspection on the progress of the work on the overbridge cum underpass at Bastora along with the PWD officials.
Work on the project, which started in January 2016, was first scheduled to complete by June 2017. It was then pushed to December 2017 and later to March 2018.
The project has faced some hurdles since its inception. Initially, work was delayed due to time taken to shift utility services like the water pipelines and electricity poles.
The Aldona MLA has requested the engineers to carry out part of drainage work on the Mapusa side.
The drains along the NH have been concretised but part of the drain on the internal road was left undone raising fears of water overflow during the monsoon.
The drain channelises the water into the Mapusa river.
“We have requested the NH officials to take up around 35 metres of the drainage work which is touching the internal road,” the MLA said.
Referring to another bridge between the Bastora overbridge and Hotel Green Park along the same stretch of the NH, the Aldona MLA has requested the authorities to reconstruct the bridge at an elevation.
“We want to ensure that there is enough space for maintenance and cleaning up of the water channel and that is why the bridge needs to be built at a certain height,” he said.
Bastora Sarpanch, Savio Martins and panch members were also present on the occasion.
Executive Engineer, PWD (highways) Narayan Mayenkar, Assistant Engineer PWD (highways) Eduardo Pereira and the junior engineers were present.
The Rs 29.42 crore overbridge cum bunderpass is expected to give huge relief to people living in Aldona and adjoining villages from the constant traffic chaos at the Bastora junction.
The total length of the overbridge is 20 metres with a six-lane span along the highway while the 6-metre high underpass will be four-laned for vehicular movement along the Aldona-Mapusa route.
Work on Tar Bridge to be taken up: Ticlo
MAPUSA: Aldona MLA Glen Ticlo disclosed that work on widening the Tar Bridge will also be taken up to ensure smooth flow of vehicular traffic into Mapusa and vice versa.
“The width of the present bridge will be increased to 25 metres and a four lane bridge will be constructed across the Tar River,”
Ticlo said.
He said the NH officials will soon carry out demarcation of the area for the expansion of the Tar Bridge. “The Mapusa Municipal Council will take the lead to get various NOCs from their end,” he added.
The present narrow Tar Bridge acts as bottleneck which causes perennial traffic congestion leading to constant traffic jams in the area.
