PANAJI
Power Minister Nilesh Cabral on Thursday said that the agreement for the streetlights fixation and maintenance is in its final stage and with the finalisation of this system there will professional maintenance of the streetlights in the state by January 2021.
The minister said that the cabinet has already decided on streetlights and the further process in this direction is in the final stage with modalities of the agreement being finalised.
He said that the government has decided to shut down the RCC workshop due to high production cost of street posts further adding that the workshop will be utilised for streetlight maintenance.
Cabral further said that the faulty LED streetlight will be replaced with new ones and the repair work will be done in the workshop. The minister said that though this system will increase the maintenance cost, there will be no scope for complaints about the faults in the LED lights. He also said that with the new system the people can complain directly about faulty streetlights to the Electricity Department through the local fuse call centre or on 1912 helpline.
Speaking on the opposition to the coal transportation issue, the Power Minister said that coal handling at MPT Port is going on since 1947 and now some people are making it a political issue, creating fear that Goa will be converted into a coal hub.
He said that Coal handling potential what is being projected by the consultants in Sagarmala projects will not happen as MPT has already given a reply stating that many of the expansion projects are not possible in Goa.
"The way it is projected that Goa port will be handling 150 MT coal will never happen though normal coal handling will continue," said Cabral.
