GUILHERME ALMEIDA
MARGAO
Abandoned since the last six years following the change in political guard post-2012 Assembly election, former PWD Minister Churchill Alemao’s dream Navelim-Benaulim bridge project across the River Sal at Sinquetim is now embroiled in a legal tangle.
With the government showing no signs of resuming work on the bridge, the contractor M V Rao has dragged the government and the PWD to court for damages.
PWD officials admitted that the contractor has filed a civil suit against the PWD for the loss caused on account of the huge delay in giving a nod for resumption of work on the project, which was abandoned midway after
the Manohar Parrikar-led
government assumed office in the State
post-2012 Assembly election. “The contractor has raised a dispute, claiming huge losses for the delay in giving sanction to resume work on the Rs 8.5 crore project. The PWD has contested the claim made by the contractor for damages amounting to Rs 6-7 crore,” a senior PWD official told The Goan.
Interestingly, while the PWD is locked in a legal battle with the contractor in the civil court, a senior PWD official, however, did not rule out the possibility of floating a fresh tender to complete the balance work on the abandoned bridge. “We are in the process of preparing a revised estimate of the bridge. The bridge can be completed as per the original design after the government gives its nod,” remarked the PWD official.
The Navelim-Benaulim bridge was one of the three dream bridges taken up for construction by Churchill Alemao during his tenure as PWD Minister during the Congress regime. While the remaining two bridges, the Assolna-Cavelossim bridge and the Telaulim-Varca bridge was completed and thrown open for traffic, work on the Navelim-Navelim bridge had hit a roadblock after strong opposition from the residents of Sinquetim-Navelim.
Work on the bridge was abandoned after Manohar Parrikar returned as the State’s Chief Minister in 2012. Then MLAs of Benaulim Caitu Silva and Navelim Avertano Furtado had their way as they got Parrikar to stop all work on the project.
Plans to revive the bridge project in the form of a foot bridge or for two-wheelers during Parrikar’s tenure were shot down by former Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva, leaving the government with no option but to abandon the project. The bridge was estimated to cost the State exchequer around Rs 8.5 crore. An amount of Rs 3.8 crore ws believed to have been paid to the contractor. A PWD engineer said that major work on the project is almost complete. “The main slab was laid long ago. What remains to be completed is the laying of the slab on the landward sides and the construction of the approach roads to the bridge,” the official added. The return of Churchill Alemao as the MLA of Benaulim constituency offered hopes of a revival of the bridge once again. In fact, Alemao had told the media sometime back that he would take up the project with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
Sources in the PWD said that a fresh proposal was made to the government to revive the bridge project, adding that the department may float a fresh tender to complete the balance work on the project if a nod comes from the government.
Residents of Sinquetim had opposed the bridge on grounds that the bridge would only bring in heavy traffic through the narrow rods of Navelim.
