Many of you will have heard about the fictitious ‘Rip Van Winkle’ character depicted in a short story by Washington Irving in 1819. The story goes that Rip Van Winkle encountered some mysterious Dutchmen, consumed their liquor and fell into a deep sleep – only to wake up 20 years later. The people he knew had grown old and some were even long gone. He missed the American Revolution during that time and the small world as he knew it had changed completely.
Strangely enough, I myself will have my own Rip Van Winkle moment this year when I hope to visit Goa after well over a decade; a visit that I am very much looking forward to, though with some apprehension. It will certainly not be the same as Mr Winkle only because I have seen Goa over the years through the lenses of others, from what I have read and what has been shared on social media.
But what if, like Rip Van Winkle, a Goan from the diaspora experiences such a deep slumber and woke up after, just say, five years? With the disappearing familiar landscapes, the rapid new developments, the changing lifestyles and the technological changes, one cannot fathom what a Goa that person would awake to. Would Goa be in a better place than it is today? Would the large-scale infrastructure development still continue and tourism survive, let alone be a booming industry? Hard to say, indeed. But anything is possible, and depending on how one looks at those changes, one has to be prepared for both the good and the not so good.
To get a better feel of such a concept, I picked up the phone and spoke to a few friends who regularly visit Goa to find out what they thought about where Goa will be in 5 years’ time and what they would hope to see improve or done away with in that time.
Road and Infrastructure
Let’s be honest. The new flyovers, bridges and road network has been an immense improvement. Today, one can travel from Margao to Panaji in about 35 minutes and in relative comfort when compared to the prior decade.
But sadly, due to a lack of any initial feasibility studies carried out, and a desire to rush a job, either through governmental pressures or otherwise, the surrounding areas along the newly built roads and flyovers are facing collapse as seen by the increase in landslides and flooding.
Going forward, the view is that engineers need to carry out their work without continuous interference by government officials. Proper assessments of the impact to surroundings need to be carried out, and additional supporting infrastructure needs to be incorporated to avoid landslides and such disasters.
Housing Complexes
The last few years has seen a rapid explosion of large-scale housing build programmes. Notwithstanding who the builders are and who the accommodation is destined for, the impact to the landscape and environment can only be described as disastrous. Very little land is kept aside to be designated as open and green space.
Housing complexes that are built on the hillside and plateaus, some with swimming pools, will not only cause damage to the landscape, but it is bound to place a huge demand on the already stressed power, water and local services.
Successful management of a Housing Co-operative for over 500 units where most of the residents are semi-permanent, will be very difficult, if not almost impossible.
One would hope that over the 5-year period, the granting of permission to such large projects is curbed and more attention is given to open and green spaces thereby allowing Goa to maintain semblance of its beauty and people’s lifestyle.
Power outages
Much is already known and has been said about the failure to deliver stable power to homes and businesses since the early 70s. And after all these years of statehood, one can only hope that the electricity department is able to resolve the teething issues over the next 5 years. Especially if the projected growth of industry and large-scale building programmes is not set to ease up in the coming years.
Maintenance funding
It is all so nice to build new hospitals, schools and bridges, but maintenance and cleanliness is easily forgotten. Private enterprises always put some funds aside in their budgets to carry out annual maintenance of their fixed assets. Government suppliers worldwide are notorious for completing a job and then simply walking away from any of their maintenance and warranty obligations.
It is hoped that the Government of Goa will consider including funds, not only for maintenance, but to also maintain cleanliness.
Standard Operating Procedures
It is a well-known fact that a number of public services and facilities such as markets, public toilets, waste & recycling etc. suffer from uncleanliness due to a lack of any meaningful standard operating procedures (SOP). Local municipalities and panchayats sometimes take on projects and then fail to engage the appropriate personnel or take their local communities as stakeholders into confidence in arriving at a set of day-to-day procedures to maintain the services and facilities.
It should not be very difficult for a local body to adopt a set of available guidelines, customise those guidelines as procedures to meet their own needs and then train the staff on those procedures.
Motoring and Accidents
How many accidents need to take place for all to say that enough is enough? In 2022 there were over 3,000 road accidents reported in Goa, averaging 8.25 accidents per day, and citing overspeeding as the main reason for road accident casualties.
In Goa today, there are on average 2 vehicles per household, with some households having 6 vehicles. And while one can find some space to park in Mapusa and Panaji, it is impossible to find a parking slot in Margao even as early as 9:30 am. A two-wheeler, at times, is one’s only salvation.
On many of the internal roads, care for the environment has taken a back seat as the passing vehicles on the mud roads whip up a lot of dust causing health issues and forcing homes to leave their doors and windows shut.
Admittedly, not everything can be solved overnight and people will need to play their part in saving the environment. Perhaps this can be done so by cutting down on the unnecessary use of their vehicles(s), which may take a bit of time as this involves a change in people’s attitude. But what can certainly be implemented over the next few years are traffic calming measures such as speed breakers, additional warning signs and road chicanes.
Public transport systems
Implementing an integrated public transport network in Goa would be a dream come true for many, but it seems like it is a few years away. With KTC providing services on major routes, smaller private operators run internal city and remote location services. It is quite a common scene to witness a bus breakdown with commuters having to wait for a following bus to carry them to their destination. The privately owned services are notoriously bad at maintaining a schedule and some of their buses are simply not roadworthy.
In all this, the good news is that the Goa Government is paying some attention to the environment and has successfully deployed a number of electric buses across the state, with a further plan to deploy over 300 electric buses to replace diesel vehicles by 2028. This alone may not solve Goa’s transport woes, but the intention, ambitious that it might sound, has to be applauded.
Along with the e-bus plan, a maintenance budget needs to be put aside. Likewise, the number of EV points will need to be scaled up to meet the demand. This would also necessitate staff training to be imparted to help maintain the new transport system – all these costs to be considered on an already stretched KTC balance sheet.
Add to the above plan, a real-time bus arrival schedule driven from an app on a mobile phone, and the Government of Goa will have implemented the building blocks of a successful integrated public transport network that would be of a great benefit to Goa.
In conclusion, and looking at it from a pragmatic aspect, implementing much of the above is going to be very challenging. Yet there is some hope that, at the very least, the initial building blocks can be put in place to achieve much of the above. I say this only because I have come across some very creative and intelligent Goans in Goa who can contribute significantly to the betterment of Goa.
Given the chance and taken into confidence, the local and state level authorities might just be able to deliver much of the above before the Goan from the diaspora wakes up in 5 years’ time from his Rip Van Winkle moment. Till then, we can only hope.
