MARGAO
Will work on the long-delayed Margao Municipal Council’s multi-level parking lot in the heart of the commercial capital kick start at least in the eighth year since the time the foundation stone for the project was laid in 2015?
After the Margao municipality handed over the project to the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) to execute the prestigious project last year, hopes are raised that the work on the project may finally start in the coming months.
While GSUDA completed soil testing at the site a couple of months back, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat on Monday informed that GSUDA is presently preparing estimates for the multi-level parking lot.
He went on to say that if everything goes well, GSUDA may tender the multi-level parking project before March 31.
The foundation stone for the multi-level parking project was laid during the tenure of former MMC chairperson Arthur D’Silva in the year 2015. The project, however, was stuck in procedural wrangles and red tape before it was tendered around two years later in 2017. Work on the project, however, could not take off due to the introduction of the GST regime. The outstation contractor, who bagged the contract, withdrew from the project since the tender did not contain a provision for GST deduction.
Since 2017 to date, the project lay in limbo with the Margao Municipal Council preparing revised estimates for the project. E-tenders floated by the civic body to take up the work went abegging after contractors shied away from taking up the job due to the non-revision of the Goa GSR rates.
With no contractors evincing interest in the multi-parking project, the Margao Municipal Council last year finally decided to rope in GSUDA to execute the project by adopting a resolution to transfer the funds under the Golden Jubilee scheme to the agency to take up the work.
