PANAJI
Contractors engaged by Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) to execute its ongoing projects are scurrying around to give the capital city a presentable look ahead of the Holi (Shigmotsav) festival.
While excavators were roving around the city, some carried material and a few others excavating trenches in sporadic areas to connect missing links of utility pipes, elsewhere in the city machines and road rollers were seen laying fresh hot-mix carpets on roads that were left devastated for months due to the ongoing work.
Stretches of roads alongside the Madhuban Complex in Tonca, Dhempe College in Miramar, internal roads in Campal-Miramar and some other stretches in the city have been hot-mixed over the last couple of days.
In central Panaji, where work has been ongoing for several weeks shutting down some stretches of major roads leading to the CCP market, a larger workforce has been deployed to work on the finishing of the footpaths and roadside parking spaces which are being lined with interlocking tiles.
In this area around the CCP market, the road stretches adding up to 1.415 kilometres have been shut for traffic since February 9 along the General Bernardo Guedes Road from Geeta Bakery to INOX (535 metres) where it intersects with the DB Marg at Campal.
In the same area, smaller stretches of the Costa Alvares Road from Alfran Plaza to DB Road Junction (200 metres) and the internal bylane behind the 2STC headquarters which connects General Bernardo Guedes Road to the DB Marg (200 metres) were also shut as were two more internal lanes adjunct to the Costa Alvares Road (100 metres).
Meanwhile, on Thursday morning, excavators were seen digging trenches unannounced at the Caculo island circle near Goa Pharmacy College, to reportedly connect missing links of underground utility pipes.
This sudden unannounced work led to massive traffic jams as the area is close to a four-arm junction and traffic jammed alternate by-lanes. However, work there was completed within a couple of hours and the roads opened to traffic by afternoon.
The Bombay High Court at Goa has set a March 31 deadline for IPSCDL to complete all its major projects and open up all the city roads. Other work of redesigning footpaths and finishing work will be carried out until May 31 without obstructing the flow of traffic on the city's roads.
