the goan I network
MARGAO
For the thousands of students, however, it will be yet another academic year when they will have no option than to either wait at the Comba railway crossing or wade through the nearby subway to make it to the institutions located on either side of the railway line.
Less than a month to go for the new academic year, the PWD authorities appear still not geared up to ensure the maintenance of the Comba subway “ the sole entry and exit point to the educational institutions when the railway crossing is closed for vehicular traffic.
When The Goan team visited the subway on Wednesday, the ground reality hasn’t changed for the better since the last academic year. Take note, the PWD has installed a water pump to pump out water inundating the subway during the monsoons. But, PWD officials are still groping in the dark how to stop the entry of sewage water into the subway day in and out, and which could pose a health hazard to the students during the rains.
A PWD engineer confirmed to The Goan that the water that finds its way into the subway round the year is sewage water flowing from a line passing through the railway property. In fact, the PWD has failed miserably to arrest the flow of the sewage water into the subway since the last year and half despite complaints from the school managements that the water poses not just a nuisance but a health hazard to the student community.
That’s not all. The PWD is yet to lay a carpet of hot mix inside the subway for the simple reason that sewage water flows continuously into the road under pass. Huge craters at the mouth of the subway, both at the entry and exit points, suggests that the government is yet to hot mix the important road for reasons best known to the PWD.
That the subway is being used by hundreds of parents to drop their wards to the educational institutions, has not spurred the PWD and district authorities to whitewash the structure ahead of the new academic year. In fact, the subway resembles an eyesore, with neither the structure whitewashed nor the silt deposited inside lifted away. Illumination of the subway with LED lights is still a far cry, with poor illumination literally the order of the day.
