MARGAO
Shoppers and vehicles throng the commercial capital ahead of the Christmas festival, but there’s no end to the sewerage road-digging work, leaving the city virtually paralysed with traffic jams being the order of the day.
While the traders in the mega New Market - the nerve centre of the city’s bustling trade and commerce “ have got sewerage work around the market stopped, road-digging, however, continues to throw traffic out of gear in the city. As if the traffic jams triggered by the ongoing work is not enough, the sewerage contractor has taken up fresh works behind the Margao Municipal building, right in front of the Margao Residency, with traffic going haywire yet again.
Questions are being raised amongst traders and citizens alike as to how the district authorities and Margao Municipal Council have granted permission to the sewerage road-digging work on the eve of Christmas festival.
“This is a time when people of Salcete descend on the Commercial capital for shopping. It’s surprising that though there are less than 10 days to go for Christmas, the authorities have not deemed it proper to put a halt on the work,” remarked a trader.
When The Goan called up Margao MLA Digambar Kamat to shed light on the continuance of the sewerage works despite the fact that the city’s traffic is thrown out of gear on account of road-digging, he informed that the contractor is rushing with the work since he is expected to complete the work on the project before the deadline. Kamat, however, said that he would have a word with the contractor and traders on the issue.
Incidentally, even as government authorities and the elected representatives don't seem to be in sync with the ground reality over the road-digging work and the impact it has on the traffic flow, Margao’s traffic cell headed by PI Gawde has decided to knock the doors of the District Magistrate, South to direct the sewerage department/JICA authorities to halt all road-digging work and also repair the damaged roads on priority.
“Every day, huge crowds visit Margao market for shopping, and on account of the sewerage/JICA road-digging work there’s traffic jam along the new market road, and its effect is felt on other city roads, thereby paralysing traffic in the city, and thus leaving road users and visitors inconvenienced,” PI Gawde said in his letter dashed off to the District Magistrate.
In a bid to overcome the problem and streamline the traffic situation, the traffic cell has suggested to the District Magistrate to stop the ongoing road-digging activity and to resume the work from the first week of January.
The sewerage contractor was on Wednesday called by the traffic cell police inspector to discuss the ground reality and the plans chalked out on the road-digging activity.
In fact, road-digging has literally turned the busy old Blue Pearl theatre road into a single lane, while traffic along the Ana Fonte bypass road “ used by motorists to enter the city “ has also been thrown out of gear with authorities commening road-digging from Tuesday.
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While road-digging still continues in Margao even during peak festival time, hot-mixing of internal roads at Chandrawaddo, Gawliwaddo and Ambaji got underway in neighbouring Fatorda constituency on Wednesday at an estimated cost of Rs 2.67 crore.
The Fatorda MLA even had a spat with a sewerage contractor as the latter unveiled his plan to dig up the road proposed for hot-mixing, threatening to put him behind bars if the newly hot-mixed roads are dug up to lay sewerage line.
After launching the hot-mixing works, Sardesai said that most of the roads in Fatorda will be hot-mixed by April.
“I have conducted meetings with Executive Engineers of electricity, roads, water and sewerage departments to avoid cutting of roads after they are hot-mixed. In spite of this, we saw some 'sussegad' government departments contemplating road cutting to facilitate sewerage connections even as hot-mixing commences in the concerned areas. I have warned such unscrupulous public servants that attempts for reckless and unplanned road-digging of newly hot-mixed roads will invite prosecution under the law,” he said.
The legislator also called upon newly-appointed Chief Officer of Margao Municipal Council to be liberal with NOCs under the Health Act for electricity, water and sewerage connections so that the economically backward section of Fatorda can avail of subsidised sewerage connections, a demand which he claims to have fought for in the Legislative Assembly,
Also present for the inauguration of the works were MMC Chairperson Dr. Babita Prabhudessai, MMC Councillors Lyndon Pereira, Terrence Barbosa, Peter Fernandes, Jose Fernandes, Angelis Pereira and ex-Councillor Jhony Crasto, besides local residents Oliver Coutinho, Amrish Naik, Lizelle Falcao, Suresh Naik, Nissar Subedar, Sameer Shaikh amongst others.
