PANAJI
Saturday morning's unseasonal and torrential rains may have given a welcome reprieve from the heat wave-like conditions Goa sweltered under for several days but the damage and disruption caused, especially in the capital city, exposed the chinks in the State administration's armour and in a way served as a trailer of what to expect when the monsoon actually hits the State in June.
The showers were accompanied by thunder and lightning for about close to two hours before noon on Saturday.
In Panaji, the intense showers left several of the city's roads including the 18th June Road, Atmaram Borkar Road and intermittent stretches of the MG Road flooded with near shin-deep water.
On the 18th June Road lined on either side by commercial establishments, several shops saw the storm water gushing inside their premises.
Elsewhere in the city, Rua de Ourem and the roads encircling the KTC bus-stand were inundated. In St Inez and further west towards Tonca and Miramar too several of the roads and internal lanes and bylanes were affected.
Perhaps due to it being the start of the weekend, traffic and pedestrian movement was drastically thinner and complaints of disruptions in traffic and other woes were muted.
Nonetheless social media was agog with memes and videos posted by users of the fate of Panaji much of which looked like a war zone with the rains water-logging most of the sites where 'smart city' work is in progress.
There were several areas where the patchwork had come unstuck on roads where sewerage chambers have been built leaving gaping and dangerous potholes. However, some of these were attended to as the rains relented later in the day, with more patchwork.
There have also been reports that sections of roads where work was carried out having sunk in some parts, including in St Inez, the main city square and Mala-Fontainhas areas.
The IMD has recorded that Panaji received as much as 3.6 inches of rain in just the two morning hours.
Mayor puts up
brave front
The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) Mayor Rohit Monserrate, who took rounds to assess the situation, sought to put up a brave front saying the municipal workers were on the field as complaints of flooding began to pour in.
"I went around. Civic workers were immediately deployed after parts of the city roads witnessed water-logging and flooding. However, Smart City officials were nowhere to be seen", Monserrate Jr told media.
He added that most of the storm water drains in the city had already been desilted and cleaned but the debris and dust owing to the ongoing 'Smart City work' accumulated again which may have caused the flooding.
"They (smart city) have completed road work but the related drainage work has not yet been done," he said.
The mayor said meetings will be held on Monday with the smart city officials. He added that Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel, who heads the IPSCDL has been requested to convene the Monday meeting.
