MARGAO
In an interesting development, the Town and Country Planning Department has told the PWD, National Highway officials that specific permissions property wise were required to be obtained along with drawings showing the extent of hill-cutting for extraction of murram by the contractor for the western bypass on a case-to-case basis.
In a letter addressed by Senior Town Planner, James Mathews, to the NH-17 Executive Engineer, the TCP made it clear that if the land under reference is not a slopping land as per the definition contained in the Act, i.e. less than 1:10 gradient, specific documentation in that regard has to be in place.
What’s significant to note is that the Senior Town Planner has clarified to the NH-17 Executive Engineer that his letter dated February 9 last explaining the general guidelines required to be followed for hill-cutting cannot be construed as any permission issued under Section 17-A of the Town and Country Planning Act. The Senior Town Planner’s letter to the National Highway authority assumes significance as the Executive Engineer R Kamat had dashed off letters to the deputy collectors of Margao, Ponda and Mormugao not to stop trucks laden with earth and entertain complaints from the general public since the activity had the permissions from the TCP department.
Incidentally, sources in the TCP informed that the contractor is transporting earth from Verna as well as Quelossim in Cortalim village for land filling along the Verna-Navelim-Telaulim stretch of the 12-km long Margao Western bypass.
The contractor is looking for earth as the entire project requires around 24 lakh cubic meters of earth to build the earthen embankments. This works out to roughly around 3.5 lakh truck loads of earth.
