the goan I network
MARGAO
Can anyone shed light on the status of Digambar Kamat’s “Ultra-Modern Transport Hub” at the Margao KTC bus stand, or ex-transport Minister Sudin Dhavalikar’s “Bus Port” project or Vijai Sardesai’s “Fatorda Margao Bus Terminus proposed at the same site for close to a decade now?
Or, is it these projects have failed to fructify till date with the powers that be more keen in the commercial exploits of the real estate spread across around 50,000 square metres of prime land when bus commuters in particular and citizens in general have been looking for a decent bus stand to rid the Margao bus stand of the utter chaos within and outside the stand.
These and other questions have once again come to the fore on the eve of Dussehra festival as it was on this auspicious day eight years ago that former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat had first laid the foundation stone for the ultra-modern transport hub at the Margao KTC bus stand on October 6, 2011.
Besides making provision for parking of 300 buses, 1,300 four-wheelers and 800 two-wheelers at the transport hub, the ultra-modern transport hub was supposed to play host to mega imposing structure, comprising of shopping malls and arcades, besides hotels in the complex.
While the provision for shopping malls and hotels in the transport hub had raised many an eyebrow, as the plan prepared by Delhi-based Khanna Associates, Kamat had then tried to allay apprehensions by reassuring the people that government would not take up the project, estimated to cost Rs 200-odd crore under the controversial Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, but would be executed departmentally.
A change in political guard with former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar returning to power in 2012 saw the project landing in the government cold storage for well around five years, before Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai decided to revive the project in 2017 and rechristened the same as “Fatorda Margao Bus Terminus” by persuading Manohar Parrikar to agree to the project, by incorporation certain changes to the original plan prepared by the Delhi-based consultant.
If Digambar Kamat had promised to execute the Rs 200-crore project departmentally, Vijai Sardesai had gone to the town saying the government would take up the project on the PPP model since the project cost has shot up to Rs 350 crore. Incidentally, before the project could make any headway, Sardesai is out of the government and the status of the bus terminus remains unknown.
In between, former Transport Minister Sudin Dhavalikar had proposed a “Bus Port” under the central government scheme at the KTC bus stand, but the project was grounded even before it could make any headway.
With the congested and chaotic Margao bus stand continuing to operate from a makeshift shed erected over three decades ago, questions were raised whether the ambitious project had hit a block just because the powers that be are eyeing on the commercial exploits of the prime land.
When this question was posed to former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, he said the objective behind going in for an imposing bus stand was to make the KTC financially self-reliant. He, however, made it clear that his government did not favour the PPP model since that would have only made the government part with the prime land to the developer.
Outgoing deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai also echoed similar sentiments, but begged to differ on the agency executing the project. “Our government had mooted the PPP model to execute the bus stand project, because of the huge financial implications since the project was estimated to cost Rs 350 crore and the government’s inability to fund the project departmentally,” he added.
Saying that he has been consistently following up the bus stand project with the government, Sardesai said the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has called the consultant and officials of concerned departments on October 16 to discuss
the project.
