PANAJI
Officials of Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL), its contractors and dozens of labourers were seen engaged in work frenzy across multiple sites in the capital city as the May 31 deadline set by the Bombay High Court at Goa to bring all work to a halt is just 48 hours away.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who is the chairman of IPSCDL, has claimed that nearly 95% of the ‘Smart City’ projects are “nearing completion”.
He said, IPSCDL managing director and CEO Sanjit Rodrigues, will in the next two days do a “comprehensive inspection” along with Panaji Mayor, Rohit Monserrate, who is also a director on IPSCDL’s BoD, to ensure that everything is completed on time.
On ground zero, however, everyone is with fingers crossed. While IPSCDL has indeed opened up some of the city’s roads, not everything is complete. Footpaths are incomplete, there are barricaded pits in some places and several citizens have raised concern over debris lying unattended all over the city.
For instance, along one stretch of the MG Road between Casa International and the Government Printing Press, at least five pits dug up for constructing sewerage manholes continue to narrow the road impeding traffic movement. Work on this stretch of the MG road is unlikely to be completed before May 31.
Public spirited Panaji resident, Raj Vaidya, also raised concern over the unplanned manner in which the contractors are winding up their work.
“They concretised the pavement, fitted the pavers and now realised that they forgot to provide chambers for stormwater overflow. So now, they are digging to make the utility crossing chambers,” Vaidya said.
“These will have cables passing through them...typically their ‘smart planning’ for execution of these ‘smart city’ projects throughout the last several months,” Vaidya added.
Road reconstruction, pavement improvements, utility crossing chambers and footpath development are some of the projects IPSCDL has taken up. What however has been the cause of immense chaos and forced residents to face the brunt of the dust pollution is the excavation carried out to construct the sewerage chamber network and the smart road project.
The last stretch of the smart road between Taj Vivanta Junction and the PWD office at Tonca, meanwhile is giving the IPSCDL and its contractors sleepless nights to beat the May 31 deadline.
IPSCDL itself had committed to opening this stretch on Tuesday night but could not meet this commitment. Workers however are engaged in round-the-clock work at this site around the Caculo Mall junction.
Rodrigues, meanwhile, was optimistic over meeting the May 31 deadline set by the court although he admits that the deadline may be overrun by a couple of days in a few locations.
