MARGAO
Canconkars on Thursday got down to the serious business of debating whether the proposed 3.9 km four-lane road between Karmal ghat and Manohar Parrikar should be executed via a tunnel or along the existing road by felling around 13,471 trees.
Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly & Canacona MLA, Ramesh Tawadkar, along with PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral, senior PWD officials and local politicos Jana Bhandari, Vikas Bhagat, Prashant Naik and others discussed the issue threadbare, but no concrete decision was taken on the moot question whether the four-lane road should come up by felling 13,471 trees or should be executed via a tunnel.
While Vikas Bhagat and others have called for a study, taking into account the environmental aspect, as the project along the existing road would entail the felling of thousands of trees, the PWD Minister said that digging a tunnel would also destroy ecology.
The Speaker, the PWD Minister, besides the political representatives from Canacona, however, decided to have another round of discussions before arriving at a final decision.
As per the statistics compiled by the PWD, around 13,471 trees will be cut down to pave way for the four-lane highway along the existing road between Karmal ghat and the Manohar Parrikar bypass. Cabral, however, said that the number of trees going for felling may come down after a detailed project report is prepared if the people give the green signal. Of the total trees, the Minister said around 7,483 comprises of 3-60 cms size, including 2,824 teak trees and around 450 Nilgiri trees.
“There are around 343 big trees with 1.5-metre width, consisting of around 90 teak trees and around 221 Nilgiris,” he added.
The PWD Minister further said that even if the four-lane is built through a tunnel, it would cause destruction to the ecology underneath the mountain, but along the sides where the tunnel starts and ends.
Later briefing the media, Cabral said all the parties will meet again before the end of June to take a holistic view of the project.
“If everything goes well, the PWD will not require not more than 7-8 months to float a tender,” he said, adding that the four-lane road can see the light of the day within three years.
He added: “The project will take care of the animal movement along the alignment by building underpasses and an over bridge. We will have to weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.”
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar told the media that the meeting was called to forge a consensus on the four-lane road since the road passes through the Karmal ghat section.
“After the opening of the Manohar Parrikar bypass, traffic on the national highway has increased manifold. People say the Karmal ghat section has now become a bottleneck, affecting tourism as well,” Tawadkar said while exuding confidence that Canconkars will take a holistic decision on the four-lane road.
