MARGAO
As the historic Lohia Maidan is being spruced up after years of neglect, the adjoining Margao Municipal heritage building has been craving attention from the powers that be.
Plans to refurbish the over century-old imposing building with a fresh coat of paint has been stuck up in the Vigilance Department for over a year now. For, the painting work was part of the 50-odd developmental works that had come under the scanner of the investigation agency after the Goa Lokayukta ordered a probe.
The heritage building, however, is craving urgent attention. Not only has the paint faded, giving a bad look to the building, plans to paint the building with the original brick red colour is still confined to the record books.
That the heritage structure needs urgent repairs is evident by the fact that rainwater seepage had come to light during the monsoons at a couple of places, including the taxation section.
The Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) had prepared a plan to refurbish the Margao Municipal building along with the Lohia Maidan, but in the second phase, which is yet to see the light of the day.
When The Goan called up Director, Urban Development Gurudas Pilarnekar to shed light on the fate of the MMC building renovation and beautification project, he was quick to confirm that the project was supposed to be taken up in phase-II of the Lohia Maidan beautification project, but in vain.
Given that the MMC building painting work is stuck up in the vigilance and that GSUDA’s phase-II project is yet to see the light of the day, the civic body has roped in a consultant to suggest how to go about the renovation work. In fact, the contractor has been told to obtain details from GSUDA of the phase-II project and whether the proposal can be amalgamated into the proposal being worked out by the civic body. Sources in the know, however, said this would take some time, including time to prepare estimates for the work and it may take months before the work is tendered and work order issued to the contractor.
