PANAJI
The finishing of smart city work in Panaji, at least the bulk of it, before the March 31 deadline now hinges on the successful completion of the tail-end portion of the new sewerage system -- from Tadmar temple to the STP at Tonca.
Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) managing director and CEO, Sanjit Rodrigues on Tuesday said this stretch is the core and will be a challenging task since it is where the entire volume of sewage will flow before making its way to the Tonca plant.
“It involves building two more chambers for which alignment and sloping has be ensured since it is a gravity principle sewerage system. Digging will involve going down to a depth of up to 12 meters including eight meters below the water table,” Rodrigues said, adding however that they are confident the work which has already begun will be completed by the March 31 deadline.
Meanwhile, Rodrigues said, that of the 35 Smart City projects, 26 have been completed, while the remaining nine, including the various roadworks, are set to be finished by the High Court set deadline of March 31.
“We may have to execute landscaping, pavement work and other finishing work right up to June but this will be done without any road closure or hindrance to movement of traffic after March 31,” Rodrigues said.
Work on the nearly two-kilometer stretch of ‘smart road’ between the Old Patto bridge and the Neuginagar t-junction at the Four Pillars roundabout will also spill over to May-June because Goa Board exam schedule and school exams have been taken into account, he said.
Two top Panaji schools -- Mary Immaculate Girls High School and People’s High School -- are located along the Rua de Ourem and both are important examination centres for the SSC and HSSC examinations conducted by the Goa Board.
Rodrigues also said that work on a 350-odd meter stretch of the General Bernard Guedes road from the Geeta Bakery Junction to INOX where the road meets the DB Marg will also be taken up now and will spill over to April-May.
Digging and re-digging inevitable
Rodrigues said the digging of roads and then re-digging them was inevitable since the sewerage project is being implemented parallel to the existing one.
Aligning multiple chambers especially at the Cafe Real/Bank of Baroda locale and also at the UCO Bank junction was a challenge. Also the new system has to be interconnected with the old at certain intersections which could not be all done in one go as the existing system is operational and the flow of sewage could not be stopped even for a second,” Rodrigues said.
He explained that the digging and re-digging was not because there were errors in the previous work although many feel so since the roads were tarred after last year’s work.
“We only laid a thin layer of bitumen for convenience. The roads were not fully finished since they had to be excavated again for interconnecting the two sewerage systems,” Rodrigues said.
At Bhatlem where the road has been closed work is in progress to build over a dozen sewerage chambers and will be completed as per schedule.
Ribandar jetty, market in progress
Work on the Ribandar Jetty for ro-ro ferries is currently in progress and is expected to be completed in a week’s time so that the ro-ro ferries can ply after mid-February, he said.
The satellite market complex structure will also be completed by March 31, Rodrigues said while admitting that the project faced some difficulties as an electricity sub-station existing there had to be shifted.
“The building structure will be ready by March 31. Interiors and other finishing work will have to be done later as per the requirements and plans of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) which will be handed over possession. It is a market and CCP will be managing it,” Rodrigues said.
IPSCDL, govt to come out with policy for long-term maintenance
PANAJI: The IPSCDL and the State government will come up with a policy for the long-term maintenance of all the smart city projects.
IPSCDL managing director and CEO, Sanjit Rodrigues, said a board meeting will be held very soon to finalise this maintenance policy.
“Right now the contractors themselves are tasked with the maintenance of the projects,” he said, adding that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has directed that the policy for maintenance of all the works needs to be made and finalised.
