The Goan Network
Panjim
The Congress on Wednesday slammed the government, including, but not only, the public works department, for their lack of concern towards road safety, especially the plying of heavy vehicles over the Zuari bridge.
Referring to a notification issued in the Official Gazette on July 19, 2018, Congress president Girish Chodankar pointed out that while the weight of vehicular traffic on the bridge was restricted to 12 tonnes for vehicular traffic, except for local passenger buses which could weigh 16.5 tons, in actuality, no one was verifying if vehicles followed this.
"Even though the notification in the Gazette lays down the weight for vehicles on the bridge, no one is verifying the same, and it is very unsafe for the public," Chodankar said.
"Alternative arrangements for the bridge need to be made at the earliest," he added.
Chodankar also said that in addition to checking the weight of the load being carried across the bridge, a study of the corrosion of steel use was also of the utmost urgency.
The Congress informed that they had tried to get information under RTI about various aspects of the bridge, but were not satisfied with the responses they had received.
The party further said that authorities were washing their hands off the unsafe situation with the Gazette notification.
"A notification in the Gazette doesn't cut it. Officials are just trying to play safe so that if a disaster occurs, they can they point to the Gazette," said Chodankar, even as he said that public awareness was key.
Chodankar later went on to allege that there had been favouritism during the tendering of the third Mandovi bridge, and that the Congress would study the tendering process.
Continuing its tirade against the government, the Congress also said that the standard of IFFI had dropped due to the collapse of governance in the state.
