PANAJI:
Although on the Board of Directors (BoD) himself, The Corporation of the City of Panaji Mayor, Rohit Monserrate's antagonistic view of Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) is well known and now it is seemingly coming in the way of the smooth progress of the civic body's routine pre-monsoon work.
"We are doing our best. The first round of clearing drains is completed. The old Portuguese-era underground drains have also been opened and cleared of the silt and debris. But this is all in areas where Smart City work is finished and not in progress," Monserrate told The Goan.
Monserrate also said that at the river-front, where storm water from the drains flows into the Mandovi, we have asked the WRD to build sluice-gate infrastructure so that water does not flow back in during high tide.
Asked about the areas where smart city work is currently still in progress, the mayor said the CCP will wait till the work is over and then move in to work with clearing the surface drains and also the underground drains.
"We will do our best. But the main problem where all the city’s drains merge at two points along the 18th June Road and the Pandurang Pissurlekar Road, no work has been done as part of the 'Smart City' so I don't know what will happen when the monsoons come," Monserrate said.
"We are doing what we have to. We will also conduct multiple rounds of cleaning and desilting the same drains till the monsoons set in," he added.
