MARGAO
Budgetary allocation of Rs 6.5 crore by the government for the construction of the KTC bus stand at Margao and Vasco has left KTC officials as well as citizens to wonder on the nature of the bus stands that would take shape at the two towns with the fund allocation.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s budget estimates has thrown up further questions whether the budgetary allocation of Rs 6.5 crore is meant towards the appointment of a consultant to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) or to just develop the existing bus stands.
Questions are further raised over the fate of the Bus Port mooted by Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho to be implemented with central assistance on the 60:40 model.
Indeed, the budgetary allocation of Rs 6.5 crore has kicked off a debate of sorts in KTC and local circles over the exact nature of government’s plan to build the two KTC bus stands at Margao and Vasco.
A KTC official told The Goan they are trying to figure out how the government intends to execute work on the two bus stands with Rs 6.5 crore when the preliminary estimates prepared for a modern bus stand is pegged around Rs 350 crore and that of the Vasco bus stand Rs 100 crore.
“When the preliminary estimates on these two bus stands run into hundreds of crores, the allocation of Rs 6.5 crore in the budget estimates is certainly a pittance. May be the budgetary allocation is meant for the appointment of a consultant to prepare the DPR for the two bus stands. We are trying to seek clarity on the budgetary allocation for the two bus stands,” remarked a KTC official.
Another official told The Goan that the government might have spent close to Rs 1 crore to refurbish the KTC bus stand at Margao for the Viksit Bharat Viksit Goa rally addressed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week on February 6. “The PWD, roads has spent a whopping Rs 70 lakh on tarring of the Margao KTC bus stand. The PWD, buildings has also spent a sizeable amount to replace the decades old bus stand shed. We have no idea how the government intends to go about building two bus stands with Rs 6.5 crore allocation,” the official added.
Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho had last year mulled construction of the Margao KTC bus stand along with other bus stand as Bus Ports with central assistance. “We have no idea whether the budgetary allocation of Rs 6.5 crore is part of the plan to rope in the Centre to build the bus stand as a bus port,” another official added.
Sources in the know pointed out that the Congress regime headed by then Chief Minister Digambar Kamat had in the year 2011 laid the foundation stone for an Ultra-Modern bus terminus at the existing KTC bus stand, Margao, with a proposal to build a bus terminus along with the commercial exploitation of the prime space admeasuring 65,000 square metres. The project, however, was later shot down by the former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar on the ground that the bus stand proposed by his predecessor was not a bus stand but a real estate development.
