PANAJI
Some of Ponda's busy roads may have just been laid with a fresh bitumen and hotmixed carpet of tar, but the rains witnessed over the last few weeks have damaged them, and commuters have to bear the brunt of bumpy rides, in some cases even risking mishaps.
The roads in the Kadpabandh area and outside Ponda in Khandepar and Opa have been battered by the rains, a perennial problem in heavy rainfall-prone Goa, where water seeps into minute cracks and causes damage to the road.
Timing of roadworks questioned
MGP leader Dr Ketan Bhatikar said it was foolish on the part of the authorities to carry out hotmixing of the road in late May.
"The rains, which hit Goa due to the cyclone on May 21, damaged the freshly laid roads, and now with the regular monsoon rains, they have become unmotorable," Bhatikar said.
Elsewhere, the nearly two-kilometre stretch from Ramnathi to Undir is also riddled with potholes in some places. Locals said they face difficulties commuting on this stretch, especially on two-wheelers.
Sunil Naik of Ramnathi said the PWD should, by default, ban any work that requires the digging of roads from May until the monsoon ends.
"When roads are dug for any underground work in May, it is impossible to complete the resurfacing of the road before the onset of the monsoon, which will then render these roads unmotorable," he said.
Some rural roads in Curti and other villages like Bhandora and Kundaim also saw locals complaining that roads in their localities were not in good shape.
PWD defends road conditions
Executive Engineer in the Public Works Department (PWD) Armstrong Fernandes, however, defended the condition of the roads in and around Ponda. He said it was not true that recently hotmixed roads had been washed out.
"Except for the roads in Khandepar and Opa, where we stopped the work because the rains came early, all the other roads are in much better shape than in the past," Fernandes said.
He added that over the last year, the entire two-kilometre stretch between Ramnathi and Undir, which was dug up at several locations to build sewerage chambers and for underground power cable laying work, has been fully completed.
"This road is fully hotmixed, except for a small stretch where the road would have settled due to the trenches that had been dug. We will finish this small stretch after the rains," Fernandes said.
