MAPUSA
With public anger spilling onto the streets and even coastal sarpanchas threatening protests over the State’s crumbling roads, PWD Minister Digambar Kamat on Tuesday moved into damage-control mode, imposing strict curbs on road excavations.
Kamat announced that no government department or agency will be allowed to dig up roads without prior clearance from the PWD’s Principal Chief Engineer (PCE).
“Newly laid roads will not be touched unless the PCE gives a green signal. These powers rest only with the PCE, not even executive engineers. Otherwise, we end up with today’s chaos,” he said.
The PWD minister admitted that the condition of roads was “pathetic” and accepted responsibility for urgent repairs.
However, he ruled out large-scale hotmixing immediately, citing wet weather and non-functional hotmix plants.
“Patchwork has begun wherever the situation is bad. We are also using jet patchers, but in rains, even they don’t hold up,” Kamat said.
According to him, constituency-wise road assessments have been completed, classifying them into “worst, better and good.”
He insisted that while bad stretches exist, they are “spread out and not in large numbers.”
The State government has come under intense fire during this monsoon as pothole-ridden roads have triggered accidents and even claimed lives.
In recent days, sarpanchas of Calangute and Arpora-Nagoa have lashed out at the PWD for failing to deliver relief, warning of agitation if conditions don’t improve.
Kamat’s fresh diktat effectively places road-digging activities under a single authority, signalling a push to curb the patchwork chaos that has left Goa’s roads battered year after year.
