Fatorda Block Congress Committee has joined the bandwagon against the Margao Western National Highway bypass with a demand to the PWD to immediately issue a stop work order for executing the project without undertaking a study on scientific lines and without considering the heavy monsoon pattern in Goa.
A delegation of leaders and members of Fatorda Congress Block Committee headed by vice-president Yatin Borkar along with AICC Secretary Girish Chodankar, general secretary in-charge of Fatorda Block Pratima Coutinho and GPCC spokesman Avinash Tavares met the executive engineer in-charge of National Highways at PWD, Fatorda and presented a memorandum highlighting that the bypass should be constructed on stilts over the catchment areas. The delegation pointed out that failure to construct the bypass on stilts will cause flooding in Madel, Dovondem, Mungul, Chovotem and other parts of Fatorda and also other neighbouring villages.
The executive engineer explained that the contractor is conducting preliminary works and is yet to submit final a design plan.
The delegation pointed out the haphazard manner in which filling was done and also the damage done to the river. They also requested for a public presentation by the contractor so that citizen groups and village panchayats can understand the process and the plan, and raise any objections.
In the memorandum, the Fatorda Block Congress demanded that environmental authorities conduct a joint inspection to assess the damage caused to the river and the low-lying catchment areas. It was also demanded that all the departments concerned should set up a joint committee to conduct the EIA and design the bypass on stilts to prevent flooding along the alignment.
Considering previous incidents of flooding in the areas along with bypass, they also demanded that the authorities be directed again to redesign the project with monsoon data from the Water Resources department.
The delegation informed that they will approach the higher authorities, including the National Green Tribunal for relief, if the PWD does not pay heed to their genuine demands.
