MARGAO
Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai on Thursday said that he has told the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) to prepare the land use mapping of the city by January 26 before inviting objections and suggestions to the Outline Development Plan (ODP) for Margao and Ponda.
During an informal chat with the media, he said that he is in favour of re-opening the Vasco ODP in the event the laid guidelines and procedures were not followed while formulating the ODP.
As far as the Margao and Ponda ODP is concerned, the TCP minister said that SGPDA will invite quotation from expert agencies to carry out the land use mapping of Margao and Ponda towns.
"I have told the SGPDA to rope in the expert agency since the PDA has no wherewithal to carry out the land use mapping," he said, adding that the PDA must have not carried out the land use mapping exercise in the past given its magnitude.
"I have been told that only MLA Michael Lobo had carried out the land use mapping in the past, but that too was not implemented. Land use mapping helps to know the ground reality in the city which did not reflect in the ODP all these years," he added.
He said that it's only after the land use mapping is complete, the SGPDA will invite suggestions and objections from the citizens on the
draft-ODP.
