the goan I network
MARGAO
It’s another monsoon and motorists have to undergo yet another ordeal “ to park their vehicles in the muck and craters dotting the SGPDA parking grounds.
If hopes were raised around two years ago that the sprawling SGPDA grounds would play host to parking amenities with funds from then Rajya Sabha MP late Shantaram Naik’s MPLAD scheme, the ground reality has not changed for the better till date. And, the situation has only turned from bad to worse over the last one year despite the fact that Vinay Tendulkar had succeeded Shantaram Naik as the Rajya Sabha MP.
In fact, TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai had promised a year ago he would get the entire PDA ground, which was acquired for the purpose of parking over a decade and half ago, would developed for parking using funds under Shantaram Naik’s MPLAD scheme, but in vain.
The parking ground belongs to the SGPDA which is used by motorists visiting the Osia Commercial Complex and the adjoining mega retail market. Following heavy rainfall, a couple of four-wheelers were stuck in the muck on the PDA grounds for want of parking amenities.
Incidentally, the SGPDA had got a portion of the ground notified in the Margao Outline Development Plan (ODP) for exhibition ground. Sadly, traders, vendors as well as visitors to the week-long feast fair had bitterly complained of the uneven ground and the muck all round the ground following a downpour.
When The Goan contacted SGPDA Member Secretary Ashok Kumar to shed light on the issue, he said the parking project is not scrapped, but very much on the agenda of the SGPDA.
“Only last week, the PDA had submitted all the project documents to the District Collector, who is the nodal officer for the implementation of the MPLAD schemes,” Ashok Kumar said, adding that the project would see light of the day in the near future.
