Govt has already floated tender and shortlisted agency to execute 4-laning work
The NH66 at Chinchinim.
MARGAO
Is the government at the Centre and in Goa taking the people of Chinchinim for a ride on the long-pending demand for a road bypass instead of an elevated corridor at Dandeavaddo on the National Highway66?
It appears so going by the assurances received by beleaguered residents as well as the Chinchinim Village Panchayat from officials of the Goa PWD and officials of the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, besides Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
While on one hand, the government has floated a tender amounting to Rs 518 crore to execute the work of four-laning of the 7.23 km Navelim-Cuncolim stretch of the NH66. On the other hand, assurances have not stopped coming from the concerned authorities till date when the government has already floated the tender and has shortlisted the agency to execute the work on the project.
The latest development has come from the Regional Office, Chief Engineer Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Mumbai wherein the office has sent a letter to the Chief Engineer, Goa PWD requesting to examine the matter and take necessary action at the earliest, under intimation to this office.
The development comes after the Sarpanch of Chinchinim Sarpanch Frank Viegas submitted a memorandum to the Regional Officer, Mumbai in a last ditch effort to convince the Centre to build a road bypass instead of an elevated corridor on the highway passing through Dandeavaddo-Chinchinim.
Incidentally, questions are raised whether the request made by the Regional Office, Mumbai will in any way change the alignment of the NH four-laning project when the Goa PWD is not only aware but had given the nod for the alignment tendered by the Centre.
That’s not all. When the residents of Chinchinim and the village Panchayat had called on Chief Minister Pramod Sawant along with Velim MLA Cruz Silva sometime back with a plea to build the road bypass instead of an elevated corridor, the latter had promised to look into the matter if the local Comunidade body was ready to give the NOC for the land acquisition.
Incidentally, while the local Comunidade body has given its no objection for land acquisition for the proposed road bypass, the government has so far failed to change the alignment in support of the road bypass at Chinchinim.
In fact, a senior official of the PWD, NH told The Goan on Sunday that the contractor to execute work on the four-laning of the 7.23 km stretch of the Navelim-Cuncolim stretch has been finalised and work would commence on the project after the monsoons.
Chinchinim Sarpanch Frank Viegas has told the media that the request sent by the Regional Office, Mumbai to the Goa PWD Chief Engineer has raised hopes that the long pending demand of the villagers for a road bypass may find favour with the local officials.
PWD officials in the know, however, told The Goan that changing the alignment of the four-laning work at Chinchinim by scrapping the elevated corridor in favour of a road bypass is a policy decision that falls in the government’s domain.
Work on the four-laning of the Navelim to Cuncolim Section of the NH-66 includes construction of new pavement, rehabilitation of existing pavement, construction and/ or rehabilitation of major and minor bridges, culverts, road intersections, interchanges, drains, etc.
