It said that this road, dug and destroyed, in the pretext of four laning an already beautiful and convenient road, would be shut till November 30, 2015.
Very importantly, the notice was dated April 23, 2015. Now from April 23 to the middle of June, these orders were not followed. The road continued to be dug, vehicles continued to ply, including heavy vehicles and the road got weaker and weaker till no road was left. Then suddenly, they woke from their slumber in the middle of June and installed a signpost stating that Light Motor Vehicles and two wheelers wouldn’t be allowed on this road.
So what the PWD and its contractor M/s M Venkat Rao of Infra Projects Pvt Ltd has done is cause dust pollution due to incessant digging and then shutting the road to smaller vehicles because of the dust pollution and yet allowing heavy vehicles which cause even more pollution.
All through this abject circus, the government has made no attempt to communicate with people and commuters, about the status of work, the time and date when the project would be completed and if there would be any closure.
According to PWD officials, the construction work which was supposed to be completed by the end of May 2015 will prolong further as during monsoons the replacing of electrical cables is not possible. Assistant Engineer Malvankar said that though the work of construction is 70% completed, due to electrical cable replacement the work will be delayed further.
What is even more shocking is that all two wheelers and light motor vehicles have been diverted via the old NH4A through the Ribandar causeway, a 3.3 kilometer narrow road hugging the river. Meanwhile the diversion which they had enforced is useless because there is no police personal in to monitor or guide the vehicles, and also there are no proper sign boards. There is only one sign board from Merces which says prohibition of cars and bikes, but from Old Goa there is no such sign board.
At no point of time was this communicated to the people. Meanwhile the cost of the project has escalated, which obviously benefits all, except the common man. The tendering cost of the road project was 80 crore but it may reach 120 crore, Principal Chief Engineer PWD, D J S Borkar informed.
The Bombay High court in this very year has held that the right to good roads is a fundamental right and that it was the State’s statutory obligation to provide good roads. But many of the roads connecting Old Goa are in an extremely pathetic, precarious and perilous condition. And if a similar order is obtained for Goa from the Goa bench, the state government will be in contempt of court, in every road project that it has sanctioned in and around Panjim from 2014 onwards.
