PANAJI
Making a power point presentation on the alignment of the highway expansion project which a section of the villagers of Bhoma has agitated against and demanding a bypass, PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral on Monday said that not a square inch of the temple properties are being touched and only four houses will be affected.
Cabral, who addressed a press conference at the Secretariat in Porvorim also said, that a bypass there is technically not feasible at Bhoma and has been ruled out by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
Cabral urged the villagers not to fall prey to politics and disinformation on the road expansion project.
Residents in Bhoma have for the last couple of months been opposing the highway expansion project claiming that several houses will be demolished and that it will also affect two of the temples in the village.
In the presentation, in which Cabral used real time still footage of the highway alignment shot using drones, the minister debunked the claims that many houses will be demolished.
“Only four houses and about 16 to 17 kiosks will be demolished for this highway expansion in the entire Bhoma village. Also no temple will be affected,” Cabral asserted.
The minister said, the four families will be allotted 300 square meter plots at alternate locations with full ownership rights which they do not possess for their present dwellings which will be demolished.
He also said, the 16-17 kiosks which will be demolished are actually illegal encroachments on government land which was acquired way back in 1992. All of them will however be rehabilitated by building kiosks in an alternate site where the government is acquiring land near the Bhoma panchyat.
Cabral said, whenever the government acquires land which is a portion of a particular survey number, then the initial notices are issued to everyone having holdings on that survey number.
“Those names are dropped in subsequent stages of the land acquisition proceedings,” Cabral said in response to a query as to why notices were issued to over 60 distinct residents of Bhoma village.
He said part of Survey no 6 is being acquired and notices have been issued to all the houses in that survey number which have not been partitioned and issued separate survey numers.
The project which is part of the MoRTH project to four-lane the highway up to Ponda, is estimated to cost Rs 575 crore which has already been sanctioned by the Central ministry.
