Politicos busy giving promises of building modern bus stand for past 12 years
The Ultra Modern Transport Hub proposed at Margao in 2011.
MARGAO
Madgavkars in particular and Saxttikars in general celebrated Dussehra on Tuesday, but the fate of the ultra modern Transport hub or the Fatorda Margao Transport Hub or the Bus Port proposed on the sprawling Margao KTC bus terminus remains unknown.
For, on Dussehra day exactly 12 years ago in October, 2011, former Congress Chief Minister Digambar Kamat had laid the foundation stone for an Ultra Modern Transport Hub at the KTC bus stand premises to cater to the inter-state and intra-state passengers.
Since then, the people of Margao and Salcete have only heard the politicos handing out promises and assurances to build a modern bus stand for Margao.
Otherwise, consider this. After Kamat laid the foundation stone for the ultra-modern terminus on Dussehra day, the former Chief Minister said the transport hub will take shape in the next two years. The transport hub was planned and designed by a Delhi-based consultant, but a change in political guard in the state in 2012, which paved the way for the return of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar saw the project buried deep in cold storage.
Incidentally, the project was sought to be revived again when the BJP returned to power in 2017 with the support of Goa Forward Chief and Fatorda MLA, Vijai Sardesai. Knowing well that the project has been opposed by the late Parrikar on grounds that the project looked more like shopping malls and less of a bus stand, Sardesai, sources said, persuaded the former Chief Minister to give the Delhi-based consultant to make the necessary changes to the plan for its implementation.
The project was later rechristened as Fatorda Margao Transport hub, but before it could be taken the logical conclusion, Sardesai and the Goa Forward Minister had to quit the Cabinet after 10-members of the Congress party joined the BJP.
In between, Transport Minister Ramkrishna Dhavlikar told the Goa Legislative Assembly that the Margao KTC bus stand would soon be developed as a Bus Port under the Central government scheme for development of bus stands.
After six long years, incumbent Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho in mid-August 2023 announced that the Margao Bus stand will be developed as a Bus Port with central funds. Godinho further announced that the state government will take up development of major bus stands across the state under the Centre’s Bus Port scheme.
Two months down the line, nothing has been heard from the Transport Minister on the Bus Port project nor has the ground reality at the existing Margao bus stand functioning from a makeshift structure erected in 1985, changed for the better.
The Margao KTC bus stand is operating from land admeasuring around 60,000 square meters, which is considered prime real estate land. So far, the government has not explained to Madgavkars what the Bus Port concept is all about and whether the PPP agreement which the state government will ink with the Centre will entail handing over the prime land to real estate sharks for development.
