MARGAO
The façade of the St Rock Church, Tollecanto came crashing down on Tuesday afternoon.
The collapse of the façade came just at a time when the Church was to undergo major repairs and renovation.
Fr Allan Travasso informed that the Church had applied for permission from the TCP to construct a new façade as the façade and the walls had shown stress and turned weak. Though the Church had applied for the permission to carry out repairs a couple of months ago, the permission could not come immediately in view of the intervening lockdown.
“We had received the permission to build a new façade only last week and we had applied for further permissions from the Velim Panchayat”, Fr Allan said.
To a question, Fr Allan said the original Chapel was built way back around 1883 before the chapel was elevated into a church a couple of decades ago. “Since it became evident that the structure had become weak because of the water seepage, the religious services were not taking place in the church for some time now”, he said.
Fr Allan said he has called for men and machinery, including local engineers on Wednesday to assess the situation before the debris is cleared without causing any further damage to the remaining structure.
“We are organizing ourselves to clear the debris and ensure there’s no further damage to the structure”, he added.
