the goan I network
MAPUSA
With an eye on revenue generation, the Mapusa municipal garage situated on prime land in the heart of the city will be redeveloped into a six floor commercial project.
Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) will take up the project at an estimated cost of around Rs 20 crore and after completion hand it over to the Mapusa municipality.
Located near the Alankar theatre in Angod, Mapusa the place is used to park various municipal vehicles.
GSUDA has kick-started the process by inviting tenders for development of the municipal garage into a commercial complex with basement, ground plus six floors.
Former GSUDA vice chairman and councilor, Sandip Falari informed that the project will have shops and offices with parking facility in the basement. He also hinted that the project could entail a roof top restaurant.
“The prime objective was to harvest the potential of the project/site which is in commercial C1 zone with 200 percent FAR which right now is used only to park vehicles. It is a gross under-utilization of precious resources,” Falari said.
He said GSUDA after completing the project will hand it over back to the municipality.
“The civic body will later auction the premises which will fetch quite a big revenue for the council,” he said.
As per the plans a provision for parking of 52 cars, electrical room, fire tank and domestic tank has been made in the basement.
Seven shops have been planned on the ground floor while the first floor will have 14 shops with a provision of common toilet. Similarly, 17 offices each have been planned on the second and third floors with individual toilets while the fourth floor has provision of 16 offices with individual toilets.
The fifth and sixth floor will also have an office space.
The former chairperson said that the civic body has at least three options to shift parking of the municipal vehicles.
“It’s not a big issue. We can always use the present garbage site for parking of vehicles. We have two or three options for that,” Falari said.
Meanwhile Falari informed that the process of the other project, beautification from Union Pharmacy to Nandadeep, also taken up by GSUDA was nearing the end and work on it will start very soon.
The project entails four aspects “ underground cabling from Union Pharmmacy to Nandadeep plus conical two arms electricity poles and road divider and underground cabling of two sides of the KTC bus-stand and a dedicated transformer which will take care of power supply to first and second floor shops above Aram Soda shops line.
“The construction of these shops was also executed by GSUDA, which will be handed over to MMC. The council will then auction the shops and generate revenue to the civic body,” he said.
Another dedicated transformer near the grams stall in the market and replacement of the old transformer opposite Bairanv with a sleek-looking one and 60 three/four arms poles for the 20 wards in the municipal jurisdiction will also come under this project.
The total project cost is around Rs 5 crore.
“We expect work on both the projects to start before the code for LS elections comes into effect. In fact the beautification project will hopefully be completed before the code,” Falari said.
