the goan I network
MARGAO
The PWD has agreed to drop hot-mixing of the main road at Chandor, which comprises the controversial state highway SH8 after local residents demanded that the road can be taken up for hot mixing only after the government denotifies the State highway passing through the village.
This was decided at the meeting arranged by Cuncolim MLA Clafacio Dias with PWD Superintending Engineer, Kulkarni, Executive Engineer Agnelo Barros, members of the Chandor village Panchayat and agitating public here on Thursday.
After the meeting, the Cuncolim MLA told the media that the hot-mixing work costing around Rs 2.20 crore was scheduled to be taken up from Monday given the bad condition of the road. He, however, said that the residents requested him to keep the hot mixing project in abeyance till the government takes the decision to denotify the road as a state highway.
“I told the villagers that I have no problem in dropping the work or keeping the hot mixing work in abeyance. In fact, after the meeting, I told the PWD officials to shift the work to some other place,” Clafacio said.
The MLA clarified that the road work was taken up at Chandor as it is worn out at several stretches, making the road unmotorable.
“Since the people requested me to drop the work till the government agrees to de-notify the SH8 highway, I requested the PWD to divert the work to some other place in the constituency,” he said.
Residents of Chandor have been agitating for the de-notification of the SH8 highway on grounds that the road will destroy the rich heritage of the village, including Portuguese era houses and other structures.
Following the sustained agitation launched by the villagers, PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar and TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai had last month visited the village to see
for themselves the ground reality.
The PWD Minister had agreed to de-notify the SH8 in the event an alternate route was identified by the villagers.
