MARGAO
Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd's (RVNL) plan to conduct a trial run on the double track being laid between Margao and Colem seemed to have hit a block once again.
Blame it on the Covid pandemic, the ongoing lockdown in the state or simply the CEC recommendation against the project between the Tinai ghat-Collem section, work on the project between the Collem-Margao section has slowed down over the last fortnight.
While the RVNL had set the month of May as the fresh deadline to hold a trial run on the double track being laid on the Margao-Collem section, senior officials say the trial run may be postponed to a further date in view of the intervening Covid scare and the ongoing lockdown. The RVNL had earlier set March as the deadline to hold the trial run on the double track between these two sections.
Sources in the RVNL informed that the ongoing work had slowed down along the Collem-Margao section after Covid raised its ugly head against the labourers. Even Covid cases, sources said, were detected in the RVNL office.
“There were labour issues not only because of Covid surged everywhere, but on account of the lockdown, which forced many labourers to head home to their native states”, informed a senior RVNL official.
He, however, was quick to assert that the slow down of the work was purely on account of labour and lockdown issues and has nothing to do with the CEC report recommending rejection of the double tracking project along the Tinai ghat-Collem section. “The CEC has only made recommendations on the Tinai ghat section. The Supreme Court is yet to take a decision on the CEC recommendation”, he said.
The official further maintained that the CEC recommendations only pertains to the Tinai ghat section and has no bearing on the ongoing track doubling works on the Goa section.
At Chandor village, one could hardly find any labourer at the work site since the last few days. Chandor locals waging a battle against the track doubling project, sources said, had made it clear to RVNL officials that villagers will not remain silent spectators if the railways engage labourers at the worksite in time of Covid and endanger the lives of the local populace.
Chandor-based Activist John Coutinho told The Goan that the villager had conveyed a clear message to the railway officials not to get migrant labourers in the village when there’s a Covid surge across the country, including Goa. “Though we do not find many people at the work site, we were ascertaining reports that the contractors are getting the workers in trucks early morning. We want to make clear that villagers will not tolerate an attempt to get outside labourers when many Covid cases have been reported in the village”, he said.
Last month, a delegation of Goyant Kollso Naka had submitted a memorandum to RVNL General Manager (projects) D Sahoo to stop the ongoing track doubling works in the wake of the CEC recommendations against the project passing through the Tinai ghat-Collem section.
