BRIAN DE SOUSA, Margao
It is a little difficult to understand why the Goa government is looking to set up a water metro (not its first attempt by a state government) when the demands of the present require that a plan be made to handle the lack of adequate rain, which will affect the lives of farmers, crop production and ultimately the consumers of food. Rain saving or harvesting should be priority No 1.
Food security is key, and the government must ensure that food is available even if the rains play truant. Yet we have high-level functionaries from a double-engined Sarkar tom-tomming the line of the Centre for infrastructure development at precisely the wrong time.
What Goa's government, which seems bereft of sustainable ideas, needs to do is make our public transport better, more efficient and able to serve the state's inner villages (not just convert them into urban areas). That, unfortunately, is not happening. Flyovers sound good and fancy as infrastructural branding with a political label but need to be carefully thought through. They actually encourage speeding in a state that has the dubious distinction of having among the highest road accident records.
Cochin is the only city that has a water metro and, thanks to the particular topography of the city, a water metro makes sense, even though its effectiveness depends on how many passengers can be ferried per trip.
Water metros sound attractive but may not serve the purpose of enabling people to get to work and back home on time, and they require associated infrastructure which is far from complete. Goa's travelling public deserve better.
