MARGAO
A huge banyan tree lay on the National Highway at Dandeavaddo-Chinchinim on Sunday evening, disrupting traffic on the highway, as “ill-equipped” were on the job for hours to open the road for vehicular traffic.
The banyan tree was believed to have come crashing down on the highway at around 2.30 pm on Sunday. While the Margao fire brigade was busy occupied, attending to a dozen other calls, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team was the first to descend at the site to clear the tree.
However, since the job required power cutters to cut away the huge tree, an SOS was sent to the fire brigade by Salcete Mamlatdar Prataprao Gaonkar to rush to Chinchinim as the highway was already blocked for more than three hours. Locals joined the operation of removing the huge tree with a set of power cutters. A JCB was also arranged to push the tree.
As the authorities were waiting for the fire brigade to arrive at the spot, questions were raised how come the PWD, National Highway were conspicuous by their absence. Officials pointed out that the PWD should have mobilised heavy machinery from the empaneled contractors to get the tree away from the road. “We will report to the district Collector on the absence of the highway officials during the operations,” remarked an official.
The work of clearing the road for traffic gained momentum after fire men came with a set of equipment which went on till 9.30 pm, the NDRF, Fire brigade and locals were on the job of clearing the banyan tree to open the highway for traffic.
