OLD GOA
The retaining wall protecting the steep road near the Santan Church in Tiswadi collapsed in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, as incessant rains pounded the State since Tuesday.
Luckily as the incident occurred in the wee hours when there was no traffic, no untoward incident was reported.
However, even after the incident, the traffic continued to flow despite there being imminent danger that the portion of the road could collapse further.
It was only after the media highlighted, the road was closed.
Curca deputy sarpanch Vinesh Adpaikar, who was one of the first on the site, informed that he had highlighted the issue on social media a couple of days back as a huge crack had developed in the retaining wall.
“After that, the PWD conducted an inspection of the wall and finally, it collapsed in the wee hours of Wednesday,” Adpaikar said.
A PWD official stated that their inspection report had clearly stated that there was threat of collapse.
However, the official could not answer why the road was not closed to traffic.
St Andre MLA Viresh Borkar informed that the major portion of the retaining wall was constructed around 2014.
“However, last year, when mishaps started occurring, the road was raised and a parapet wall was constructed,” Borkar said.
When questioned why work on the re-construction of the entire retaining wall was not taken up during that time, Borkar informed that it did not fit into the scope of work proposed and also the amount came up to over Rs 45 lakh, which would have caused undue delay.
Further, the MLA informed that at that time, it was important to prevent the mishaps due to which only the work on raising the road and constructing the parapet wall was taken up.
To another question whether the re-construction of the retaining wall would be completed before the St Anne feast which is celebrated on July 26, Borkar said that he cannot assure anything as the process to get work approved in the PWD takes ages.
Poor quality of work alleged for collapse, probe sought
OLD GOA:
Alleging that the quality of work of the retaining wall was poor, AAP leader Ramrao Wagh has demanded that authorities conduct a probe into the matter and blacklist the contractor involved.
“From the look of things, it is clearly visible that the quality of work on the retaining wall was poor. So, it is high time that investigation is done in the matter and the contractor responsible for the same is punished,” Wagh informed.
He further stated that on Tuesday morning, a day before the wall collapse, he had also highlighted the danger as a huge crack had developed.
“Before that, the PWD along the local MLA had inspected the retaining wall. So, why was the road not closed for traffic?” Wagh questioned while adding that if any untoward incident had occurred then who would have been responsible for the same?
He further slammed the authorities for not moving quickly enough to close the road after there was a threat of further collapse.
“Four-wheelers and two-wheelers were freely using the road for several hours after the collapse,” he stated.
