THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO
Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari’s next visit to Goa will come only at the time of inauguration of the Galgibaga and Talpona bridges later this year.
He ought to have been here at Mungul on Thursday, as the incessant day-long rain submerged vast tracts of land along the 2.75 km stretch of the controversial Western bypass alignment, spanning the villages of Seraulim and Benaulim.
Work on the construction of the bypass on the 2.75 km, from the wholesale fish market road at Seraulim and the Varca road has been kept on hold with villagers objecting to the land filling to make way for the bypass and demanding its construction only on stilts.
Even as a government-appointed consultant is presently undertaking the work of soil testing and preparing a report on the technical and financial feasibility of the bypass on stilts, Thursday’s large scale flooding of the low-lying and flood plains of River Sal, right along the Seraulim-Mungul-Benaulim only confirms the fears expressed by the villagers that building the bypass via land filling will only result in displacement of the water and flooding of the low-lying villages.
When the Goan contacted a senior engineer, PWD-NH to shed light on the flood situation along the 2.75 km stretch of the bypass alignment, he agreed that the low-lying areas along the alignment are completely flooded. “I have told our officials to take pictures of the areas flooded by the rain water,” the engineer said.
He, however, attributed the flooding of the flood prone areas to the delay in desilting the river Sal from Nuvem to Khareband.
“I have observed that the river Sal was overflowing at several points. This has happened because the river is heavily silted reducing its water carrying capacity,” he said.
A look at the Tolleabandh lake at Benaulim also showed that flood waters have inundated the lake.
The Western bypass alignment is passing through the lake and Benaulim locals have feared that constructing the bypass without stilts will displace rain water and submerge low-lying areas of the village.
It’s now three years since the villagers of Benaulim and Seraulim in Benaulim constituency, besides Mungul coming under Fatorda represented by Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai, have been demanding construction of the Western bypass on stilts saying the filling up of the wet land and the flood prone areas will only submerge the low-lying areas of these villages.
Though Vijai has come out openly in favour of the bypass on stilts along the flood-prone 2.7 km stretch between the wholesale fish market and Varca road in Benaulim, he has so far not been able to convince the BJP leadership in Goa and in Delhi to concede the demands of the people for a bypass on stilts.
