the goan I network
PANAJI
It was deja-vu at the smart city citizens consultation meet for the Dona Paula jetty beautification plans, with citizens once again raising questions over the priorities of the smart city project.
While the main proposals for the jetty, which is a prime tourist attraction in the state, included pedestrian infrastructure, increasing the width of the bridge, more shade-providing structures, sustainable transport, a sunrise pier, viewing decks and a glass pier, amongst many other proposed improvements, citizens raised the issue that they said affected locals most: parking.
Opening the barrage of questions on parking facilities for the lakhs of tourists that visit the jetty every year, a lady resident of Dona Paula asked what guarantee smart city officials would give that the traffic chaos on the Rosary High School Road and Raj Bhavan road would be taken care of.
Smart city officials, while saying they could not give any guarantee about the same, said that they had planned the NIO circle and the Goa University road as designated parking areas for tourists visiting the jetty.
Further, the lady resident wanted to know what the purpose of a sunrise pier was when tourists, far from heading to the jetty at sunrise, poured in throughout the day.
From amongst the 30-odd concerned citizens, mostly men, who had gathered for the meet, around 10 gentlemen including Brian Soares, Avertino Miranda, Antonio Pereira, Rahul Deshpande, all raised concerns and gave suggestions from the local resident point of view, and the problems the locals faced because of the massive tourist influx to the jetty.
“Why are you making fancy plans without any parking? That should come first,” said citizen Brian Soares.
When asked about what study the Smart City team had done before creating a plan, what statistics they had on the number of tourists visiting, and vehicles coming in, a smart city official responded, “Around one lakh tourists visit the jetty a year,” while the MD and CEO of the Smart City project, Swayandipta Pal Chaudhuri assured, “A detailed study is being done as we speak.”
However, citizen Rahul Deshpande countered Smart City’s statistics, pointing out that a study done had showed 22 lakh tourists visiting each year, with a 10% increase per year.
“Fifty percent of these are between November and January, while the second most crowded time is during Diwali and the month of May,” said Deshpande, even as he reminded the Smart City team that they had to buck up with their research on the area, as their ideas were only “half-cooked” ones.
Citizens also raised the question of a hotel being planned on a 16,000 square meter area demarcated for parking in the area.
Even though Chaudhuri said that no such hotel would come up, citizens insisted that the MLA of the area had confirmed reports about the hotel.
