This is an open letter to Ramkrishna alias Sudin Dhavalikar, Minister of Public Works Department (PWD); Mr Uttam P. Parsekar, Chief Engineer, PWD (National Highways, Roads & Bridges); Mr Dharmendra Sharma, Chief Secretary, Government of Goa (PWD); Mr Nilesh Cabral, MLA Curchorem; Mr Gajanan Prabhudessai, DYSP Traffic (South Goa); Mr Shailesh Gawade, Station Fire Officer, Officer-In-Charge, Fire Station, Curchorem and residents of Curchorem, surrounding areas, and Goans as a whole.
Surely you will all agree when I say that the relationship between roads in Goa and the monsoons has always been a cause of grief in everyone’s lives. Whenever there are rains, there are potholes; and wherever there is a pothole, there are more potholes.
With an average of around 3000 mm rainfall annually, Goa comes under the top 5 wettest places in India. It is only logical that asphalted or tarred roads in a place this wet should be weather-proof and tough enough to withstand the bashing that the monsoons deliver.
What I am driving at is, I guess, already very obvious. Yes, it is about the sorry and deplorable condition of the road that leads from the Babasaheb Ambedkar Circle in Curchorem towards Assolda / Chandor.
I realise that some people that I have addressed are not directly responsible for the state of affairs here. But they have to be kept in the mailing list for obvious reasons.
As a resident of Per-Seraulim, located in the neighbourhood of Colva, in the Benaulim constituency, around 28 kms from Curchorem, this road and its condition should technically make no difference to me. But let me point out that this is the road that I take on a daily basis to work. I am currently posted as the Manager of the Goa Animal Welfare Trust (GAWT), located just a stone’s throw away from the Ambedkar Circle. My job is very fulfilling and self-satisfying, but the journey is the killer.
When I joined GAWT in March this year the summer was at its peak and temperatures were soaring like never before. The road in question had apparently been recently asphalted then. And everything seemed neat and clean and solid. Three months and one small thunder-shower later the road was magically transformed into what looked like the surface of the Moon under a meteor attack!
What began with a couple of cracks and potholes, quickly manifested into something that one should only have to see to believe!
The PWD tried to salvage the situation by trying some damage control. They deployed trucks after trucks with laterite rubble to fill the massive potholes. Roller-compactors tried to level the roads to cover up the potholes and the cracks in the road. This was so clearly just eyewash in order to lead people into thinking that the asphalting (Hot-Mix) will be done again.
As qualified and experienced people, don’t the PWD officials know that hot-mixing a wet road logged with water is as good as impossible? What good has the rubble done? As a matter of fact it has worsened the situation. With the red laterite and water mixture, the road now looks as if it has evolved from being the Moon’s surface to now resemble the surface of Mars after a heavy rainfall. Vehicles travelling by this road enter with one colour and by the time they are on the other side they display a dual colour, splashed with the red laterite – water mixture.
Furthermore, as if to add insult to the injury, the commuters plying on this road are subjected to the traffic police barricade at the Ambedkar Circle. People are fined for helmet-less riding, not wearing seat-belts, over-loading of goods carriers, etc. While I pass by these roadblocks, sometimes I have half a mind of yelling at the police officers and chasing them away. Are they blind? Can’t they see the pathetic condition of the road? Truth be told, a rider without a helmet will not die due to head injury but of a heart stroke while riding these roads. And yet the traffic cell has the audacity to set up a road-block and to fine people for petty traffic offences.
Another significant point to be noted is the fact that the Curchorem Fire Station is situated along this pitiful-excuse-for-a-road. This is a major Fire Station and caters to areas like Chandor, Curchorem, Sanvordem and Quepem. But from the look of things today, I guess the Fire Station requires rescuing. Chances are that the fire-truck responding to an emergency call would not make it past the first pothole on the road and would require the other fire-truck to come to its own rescue.
They way I have put things may sound humorous but the actuality is far from amusing. If something is amusing then it is the complacency displayed by the concerned people and officials in dealing with this road, this thorn-in-the-flesh. After a long and pondering thought process, I would like to ask a few questions to all those who I have addressed in the beginning:
a) Who is directly accountable for the repairs of this road? Please answer without passing the buck. Your blame-game has been played for far too long and is not fooling anyone anymore.
b) Who was the contractor who built the road in the first place? Is he related to any of you?
c) The road was built using public money, which is how it should be. But, are the repairs also being done using public funds? If yes, then why? Isn’t the contractor supposed to repair the road at his own cost as a consequence of doing such inferior, shoddy, and substandard work in the beginning? Or has he made sure that all mouths are sealed with fresh, pink, cherry-hued currency notes?
d) Can at least one of you stand up and like a man take responsibility and ownership of this issue? Or will you continue washing your hands off?
e) Can you people please stop playing the game of “Passing the Parcel (Responsibility)”? The music has stopped so please stand up and own up.
A great man, a legend once said, “You can fool some people sometimes but you can’t fool all the people all the time”.
Remember that!
