MAPUSA
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, on Friday, has directed the Department of Water Resources to prepare a holistic plan to take up dredging work of River Tar within one month.
Sawant has also issued directions to immediately take up de-silting of the river near the Ganesh immersion site along Tar River in Mapusa so as to felicitate immersion of the idols.
“The Chief Minister has asked us to prepare a plan to carry out dredging of the entire River Tar so as to avoid repeated flooding of the areas in Guirim. We have to submit the plans within one month,” said Pramod Badami, Chief Engineer water resources department (WRD).
The Chief Minister met the concerned officials at the secretariat along with Aldona MLA Glenn Ticlo and Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza.
Chairperson of Mapusa Municipal Council Shubhangi Vaigankar and Bastora Sarpanch Ranjeet Usgaonkar were also present.
Badami further informed that on Chief Minister’s instruction, work on de-silting of the river near the Ganesh immersion site will be taken up immediately and completed by next Thursday.
“The immediate task before us is to de-silt the river near the immersion site. We are taking it up on priority to facilitate immersion of the Ganesh idols,” he said.
He further said that the plan to dredge the entire river will be taken up soon after the Ganesh Chaturthi.
“We have all the preliminary details. We only need to reconfigure the figures and put it in order. We will prepare the estimates and place it before the government for further action,” the WRD chief engineer informed.
It may be recalled, the Chief Minister had conducted an inspection of key areas in Guirim which were submerged in water due to heavy rains in mid-July. He had said that de-silting of Tar River was the only long term solution so that water does not get accumulated in the fields along both sides of the NH66.
The Chief Minister had also directed the WRD and PWD to draw a plan on how to go about in resolving the flooding issue.
