MARGAO
The contractor entrusted with the work to build a training wall at the mouth of River Sal has finally deployed heavy machinery to lift away construction material from the Mobor-Cavelossim beach.
The deployment of heavy machinery on the beach assumes significance as it was feared amongst the fishermen community as well as local residents of Cavelossim that the construction material dumped on the beach for the construction of the training wall will be washed away at the river Sal mouth, blocking the navigational channel.
Sources in the know said the contractor has set a deadline of one week to lift the construction at a safe place ahead of the monsoon.
A local resident Roy Barretto told The Goan that though work on the lifting of the construction material has started during the last
two days, the contractor should expedite and complete the work well ahead of the monsoon.
“We had been demanding removal of the construction material from the beach since there’s a possibility of the material finding its way at the river Sal mouth. This would only affect the movement of fishing boats,” Roy said.
The construction material was dumped on the Mobor beach by the contractor for the construction of the training wall at the river Sal mouth before the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) stopped the work following a complaint that a temporary road has been constructed on the beach without necessary permission.
Incidentally, though the GCZMA had subsequently cleared the work with a condition that the beach will have to be restored after the completion of work, the contractor could not take up the work in view of the intervening monsoons.
In fact, a senior company official told The Goan that since the training wall project would require minimum four months, work would not commence only after the monsoons.
The training wall project was taken up by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) in view of the long-pending demand of the local fishermen operating from the Cutbona and Betul fishing jetties to ensure a safe navigational channel at the mouth of River Sal.
In fact, local fishermen had been complaining over the years that they are the mercy of the weather and tides due to the peculiar hostile conditions at the river Sal mouth.
