VASCO: The Russian Army under Vladamir Putin is used to bombed streets and trenches in the war zone in Syria. But he isn’t quite expecting to see a mini replica of that scene when he lands at the Dabolim airport and leaves for Mobor, where the BRICS summit will be held in October. But he just might.
While the Goa government is busy paving roads to ensure that road infrastructure is world class, the Airport road stretch just outside the airport to the Chicalim junction, which was once the best road in the state, is a wreck. One of the main causes for its present state is the laying of water pipelines under JICA project and the other being the reckless cutting of the road to lay 4 G cables of a major internet company.
“The mobile company has made trenches to lay cables which are protruding out on the main road at various places causing trouble and posing high risk of accidents to the motorists during night. The JICA contractor has cut the road with huge trenches from naval officers residence quarters (Nofra) to Salgaocar House to lay the pipes but the work has been left incomplete at several locations. Also a huge trench has been kept open just near the SMRC bus stop which is the bus stop used by School going children,” said former Sarpanch and present Ward Panch Francisco Nunes.
When Herald visited the spot on Tuesday, it saw that water pipes have been dumped in the storm water drains at various stretches of this important busy road due to which the flow of rain water has stopped at several points. To make matters worse the storm water drain has also been filled with the debris thus blocking the smooth flow of rainwater which now makes it way directly on the main Airport road. Also deep cuts can be seen on the road opposite Chicalim Sports Complex ground as well as near the Naval Children School which are dangerous to the motorists especially bike riders.
“School children from Navy Children School, Kid Zee School, Regina Mundi School, Vidya Mandir School, residents and people going to the airport use this road. Also people have brought this to the attention of the concerned authorities including authorities in the taluka administration requesting the disaster management teams to set things right earnest. There is no clue whether this road will be restored before the BRICS summit,” said Vasco resident and social worker, Pramod Amonkar.
Meanwhile during election year, can politics be far behind? Pradeep Tamboskar, Gen Secretary of the Dabolim Block Congress Committee has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the concerned to act on the closing of trenches on airport road failing which the members of Congress Block, along with the parents and students of the schools dotting the airport road, would come out on streets to block the road.
As for Vladamir Putin and other ten heads of state and government we can only pray that they either do not notice or are flown directly by helicopter to the BRICS venue.
