the goan I network
MARGAO
Hazard a guess how many trucks filled with mud were used by the Public Works Department (PWD) to douse the fire and smoke during the week-long operation at Sonsodo?
If the fire services department has claimed that around 11 lakh litres of water was used to douse the fire, PWD officials pointed out that a whopping 651 truckloads of mud was used to cap the fire at Sonsodo. And, not to mention about the four heavy earth-moving machines, including two Hitachi, to churn the burning waste to make way for the trucks to dump the mud on the dump.
PWD officials claimed that the mud was transported by Dilip Buildcon, besides private contractors, and not to mention the PWD department, which lifted the construction debris dumped along the Eastern bypass to cap the fire at Sonsodo.
While the Margao Municipal Council is ascertaining the hours of work put in by the four heavy earth-moving machinery at Sonsodo in order to finalize the bill to clear the payments of the contractors, Principal Chief
Engineer Parsekar seems is looking into the bills raised for the mud and transport contractors.
Parsekar told The Goan that since the PWD had ordered the work of requisitioning the mud for the Sonsodo fire capping, the department will clear the bills submitted by the contractors. “Right now, we have not received any bills from the contractors. Once the bills are raised by the contractor, the same will be scrutinized by the department as per the GSR rates before clearing the payments,” he said.
Local PWD officials, who had monitored the entire fire and smoke capping operation at Sonsodo, have claimed that around 651 trucks load of mud was used to cap the dump which was under fire for over a week. The PWD had sought the help of private contractors, including Dilip Buildcon, the contractor building the Zuari bridge, after a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant accepted the recommendation of the Maharashtra fire expert that the Sonsodo fire could best be controlled by capping the dump with mud.
Incidentally, when Sonsodo was engulfed by a massive fire exactly a decade ago, the fire was capped by a similar operation by the district authorities, by roping in a PWD contractor, who capped the fire and smoke by dumping hundreds of trucks of mud at the site.
