MARGAO
It hasn’t rained nor drizzled in recent days, but the Comba subway is inundated with water, literally. Motorists using the subway when the railway crossing is closed for vehicular traffic have come across waterlogging inside the subway for many days now, throwing up the question of the source of the water finding its way into the subway.
An inspection of the subway has confirmed the worst fears in the minds of the parents and school students, using the subway to make it to educational institutions “ that waterlogging is a result of sewage water that has found its way into the subway.
The PWD, sewerage and the Sewerage Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa Ltd (SIDCGL) have been told to immediately hunt to find out the damaged sewage chamber, suspected to be responsible for the situation, and plug the seepage on a war footing.
Inspection of the Comba subway was carried out on Wednesday morning by PWD officials along with Margao MLA Digambar Kamat after a representative of an educational institution complained of contamination of the drinking well water inside its complex.
The inspection was also carried out as the PWD, Roads have been waiting for some time now to repair the concrete surface inside the subway, but could not execute the work because of the waterlogging.
A senior PWD official has suspected that the accumulated water found inside the subway is sewage water flowing from a broken sewage chamber.
"The MLA has told the concerned officials to immediately find out the damaged chamber and plug the leakage," sources said.
While it is suspected that the water accumulated inside the subway is coming from an underground sewerage chamber, sources pointed out that the subway had played host to a similar situation around half a decade ago.
Sources, however, hastened to add that a detailed inquiry by the PWD had tracked the source of the sewage water to a residential building, which was releasing its sewage into the stormwater drains.
Incidentally, the Sewerage Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa Ltd had promised to commission the North Main trunk line from the Old market circle to the Sirvodem STP plant by December end.
GSIDC General Manager Prakash Pai has stopped taking the phone calls of media persons, who have been trying to figure out whether the GSIDC has missed yet another deadline in the commissioning of the sewerage project.
