Year after year, the capital city of Panaji faces the same problem of flooding due to which large areas and important streets remain waterlogged, bringing traffic to a standstill and life to a halt, even after a few showers. What happened on last Wednesday evening is a classic example of water-logging, after the city was battered by heavy showers for around three hours , causing water-logging even on the city's arterial 18 June Road and other low-lying areas. Not long ago, Panaji was one of the cities that had qualified for development under the Smart City project. Unfortunately we have yet to see any perceptible changes in the city's infrastructural development for the city's transformation. Routine pre-monsoon works are commenced in the month of March, only to result in clogged drains, channels, gutters and nullahs at the start of the monsoons. A wasted exercise to say the least. The situation will continue as in previous years, unless drastic steps are undertaken under the Smart City project to overhaul the city's low-lying roads and drainage system with proper gradients and an increase in the size of the drain water pipes to cope with the flood waters , especially during high tide. Let us not wait for the monsoon to end or politicise the situation.
