Beleaguered operators cite threat to their livelihoods, seek CM's intervention
Rent-a-bike operators met at the Dando grounds, Benaulim along with Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas to discuss the Konkan Railway tender on rental bikes.
Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Beleaguered rent-a-bike operators on Saturday vowed to intensify the agitation to force the Konkan Railway Corporation to keep the tender inviting bids to run rent-a-bikes at its stations on hold and scrap the project.
A similar meeting of the North Goa rent-a-bike operators will be held at Calangute on Sunday before the operators call on Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to demand scrapping of the Konkan Railway project.
Rent-a-bike operators met at the Dando grounds, Benaulim along with Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas to take stock of the situation arising out of the Konkan Railway Corporation’s tender inviting bids to run rent-a-bikes at its seven railway stations in Goa and outside.
The meeting agreed that it is high time that all the tourism stakeholders rally under one banner to oppose the Konkan Railway project, fearing that the Konkan Railway may soon invite bids to run rent-a-car services at the railway stations.
Pointing out that the Konkan Railway project, if allowed to see the light of day, will have disastrous consequences on the traditional Goan families making a living through the business, the meeting called upon the people of Goa to unitedly oppose the Konkan Railway plan.
Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas later told the media that the meeting has decided to request Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to direct the Konkan Railway to keep the project on hold.
“We have already written letters to the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary seeking their intervention to direct the Konkan Railway to keep the tender on hold. We want the locals to do the business of rent-a-bike. Many families have been engaged in the business and making a living through it,” Venzy said while requesting the government to scrap the project.
The Benaulim MLA demanded that the government and the Konkan Railway take the local stakeholders into confidence before going ahead with their plans.
"How can the Konkan Railway go ahead with the tender to run rent-a-bikes at the railway stations in Goa when the Goa government has stopped issuing licences for rent-a-bikes in the State? If there is a demand for rent-a-bikes, issue licenses to the local unemployed youth to make a living,” he said.
The Benaulim MLA has suggested that the issue should be discussed at the Panchayat bodies across the State so that it becomes a pan-Goa issue. The tourism stakeholders, including a couple of taxi operators, who attended the meeting, feared that the Konkan Railway might also float a tender to run a rent-a-car service at the railway stations.
