MAPUSA
Development comes at a price and nobody will know it better than the citizens of Panaji. But people in the capital city are not the only ones to face such hardships, similar problems are staring in the face of the residents of Mapusa too.
Negotiating through the dug-up roads in Mapusa’s central square has become very painful due to the ongoing underground power line cabling work.
Thanks to Swastika, which has bagged the contract of laying the underground cabling project, several main roads were ripped open and while some stretches have been refilled, there is no sign of tarring the roads.
“It’s so difficult to negotiate through the uneven roads. All the key roads around the market were dug up. They have filled some of the roads with rubble but the mud and loose gravel make it difficult for traffic to negotiate,” rued Rajendra Naik, a resident of Mapusa.
Like Naik, many others complain about the problem of commuting through the uneven roads in town.
The main roads near the Suraj book stall, Dalal newspaper agency, SBI, around the municipal garden and near St Xavier’s College have been dug up and badly bruised to shift the 33KV HT line underground.
Cars, bikes and even buses were seen moving dangerously while trying to negotiate the broken roads.
“These contractors have a habit to dig roads anytime, sometimes without even displaying the warning signages. The district collector should not allow the digging of roads one month before the monsoon. Even if the roads are tarred now, in the rains, the road will sink and create problems for the movement of traffic,” said Peter D’Sa, a resident of Angod, Mapusa.
Locals are worried that if these roads are not patched up with asphalt then disaster is waiting to happen in the monsoons.
While the electricity department has taken up the soling work of the dug-up roads, the PWD (roads) is responsible to tar the roads.
A senior official of the PWD (roads) informed that the work to repair the recently dug-up roads in Mapusa has been tendered but the work order has not been issued yet.
“As soon as we get the work order, the patch-up work of various roads in town will be taken up immediately,” the official informed.
With the monsoon around the corner, there is a big question mark whether the asphalting work will indeed be taken up and completed before it starts to pour.
Hotmixing of key Mapusa road delayed yet again
MAPUSA:
While the Electricity department has decided to remove all the old cemented electricity poles along the road from Union Pharmacy to the Mapusa urban bank on Sunday, the chances of hot-mixing the entire road up to the Mapusa church are dim.
Around five years ago, the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) had taken up the beautification of the road stretch with a plan to remove the overhead wires and push it underground. The road was also supposed to get a divider with two-arm fancy light poles.
“We are removing the old poles and the overhead wires on the main road in front of the municipal market on May 21. After that we will give connection to the new light fixtures on the stretch,” a senior engineer with the power department informed.
However, sources in the PWD (roads) informed that the road from Union Pharmacy right up to the church is not expected to be hot-mixed before the monsoon.
“Although the tender to hotmix the road has been passed, the work order has not been issued and is not likely to be taken up before the monsoons,” an official familiar with the work informed.
