MARGAO
Residents of Mungul and the ruling Margao Municipal councillors descended at Seraulim near the wholesale fish market to protest and to question the land filling carried out along the Western bypass alignment when the 10-member NGT-appointed panel has recommended construction of the elevated road on the Seraulim-Mungul stretch admeasuring 980 metres.
Margao Municipal Chairperson Lyndon Pereira, Mungul ward councillor Francis Joanes, councillors Raju Naik, Ravindra Naik, Johnny Crasto, Vitorino Tavares along with Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai descended at the Seraulim site of the bypass and demanded immediate halt to the land filling work.
They demanded to know from senior PWD officials, including the Principal Chief Engineer how the work of land filling is being carried out along the 2.75 km Seraulim-Benaulim stretch when the 10-member NGT-appointed panel has recommended construction of the bypass on stilts.
While the PWD officials maintained that the land filling is being carried out to build an access road in order to build an elevated road along the stretch, the Fatorda MLA said the PWD can start the work only after they show the local residents in black and white that the government has decided to build the 980 metres of the bypass on stilts. “The way the PWD is rushing with the work of land filling only goes to show that they are working as per the plan. It is only a day ago the panel has recommended stilts along the 980 metres. If that is the case, how come the PWD is indulging in land filing,” the MLA questioned.
The MLA and the MMC chairperson pointed out that even if the PWD is required to take up land filling to transport men and machinery to build the bypass on stilts between Seraulim and Mungul, the government will have to give an undertaking that they will remove every inch of mud dumped along the alignment and restore the fields to the original condition after the bypass construction.
Dozens of heavy duty trucks laden with waste, including industrial slag was waiting for the green signal to dump the material for land filling along the alignment.
A senior PWD, NH official told The Goan that the PWD has undertaken the land filling in the view of the recommendations made by the 10-member panel to build the bypass on stilts along the 980-metre stretch between Seraulim and Mungul railway bridge. “We are only preparing the ground for the work that would be undertaken in the coming days after the High Court directs the PWD to build the bypass as per the recommendations,” he said.
The official added: “The land filling is required even if the stretch is to be built on elevated road. We have to transport men and machinery through the access road, which is being created via land filling.”
