MAPUSA
The delay in completing a service road along NH-66 at Colvale has raised serious safety concerns, with residents and schoolchildren forced to walk along the busy highway every day due to the lack of a parallel access road.
The incomplete stretch affects a mini satellite township with over 150 houses, along with a primary school and a higher secondary school nearby. In the absence of the service road, residents, including children travelling to and from school, have to use the highway, exposing themselves to speeding vehicles and increasing the risk of accidents.
The issue was raised in the Goa Legislative Assembly last year by Opposition MLA Vijay Sardesai. During the discussion, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had assured the House that the matter would be resolved. However, more than one-and-a-half years later, the service road remains unfinished.
Former Tivim MLA Kiran Kandolkar, at a press conference, alleged that the project has been deliberately delayed by the PWD Executive Engineer (EE), despite the Chief Minister’s assurance.
According to Kandolkar, an estimate of around Rs 2 crore had already been prepared for completing the service road, and the proposal was moved after the Chief Minister’s intervention.
“Despite the Chief Minister’s assurance, the file has not moved forward. The Executive Engineer has deliberately kept it pending,” Kandolkar alleged.
He further claimed that the delay was connected to a proposed petrol pump belonging to local MLA and Fisheries Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar, alleging that the alignment of the service road passes through the property where the fuel station is proposed.
Kandolkar alleged that the file was kept pending on the instructions of the local MLA. He demanded that the PWD Minister conduct an inquiry and take action against the Executive Engineer for allegedly blocking the project.
Colvale Sarpanch Ritesh Varkhandkar said he had written to the PWD seeking details of completed and pending service roads in the village, along with information on streetlight installations.
He alleged that several service roads in Colvale remain incomplete, creating safety risks for residents, and urged the local MLA to take steps to ensure that pending works are completed without further delay.
Local resident Sitaram Naik recalled that villagers had initially demanded an underpass at the location before the highway expansion works began.
“Instead, an underpass was constructed some distance away. We still do not understand why the service road at this location has not been completed,” Naik said, adding that the incomplete infrastructure continues to inconvenience residents and put lives at risk every day.
