THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate on Friday inspected sites of the ongoing 'smart city' works in the capital city, including some areas where encroachments on footpaths and road widening setbacks have impeded work.
Monserrate, who was accompanied by Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) managing director and CEO, Sanjit Rodrigues, IAS, CCP deputy mayor Sanjiv Naik, municipal engineer Parsekar and other officials, instructed the team to remove the encumbrances and encroachments so work can progress quickly.
One of the sites Monserrate, Rodrigues and the CCP team inspected was the stretch of road taken up as a 'smart road project' between the Caculo Mall junction and the Madhuban circle and onward into the city towards the St Inez Cemetery junction.
These stretches have been set a work completion deadline of January 31 and have some encroachments which have impeded work.
Over the last several weeks, the ongoing works and the chaos it has caused has often hit the news leading to criticism of the Monserrates who represents Panaji while his wife Jennifer is MLA of the adjoining Taleigao and their son Rohit is the CCP Mayor which has jurisdiction over both the constituencies.
Monserrate, meanwhile, has blamed the contractors and consultants for the chaos during the execution of the smart city projects and has got the government to set a May 31 deadline for completion of all the work.
He has also sought to wash his hands off the quality of the projects but Rodrigues has vouched that all the work will be of the same quality and standard as the Bal Bhavan to Fire Services junction stretch of road which was commissioned over a year ago and has weathered a whole monsoon.
