Road widening: opposition gathering force at Tilamol
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
QUEPEM, JULY 8
Tempers ran high at the meeting convened by residents of Kakumoddi-Curchorem to oppose the proposed four-lane road from Tilamol to Curchorem.
Around 300 residents from Kakumoddi on Wednesday gathered near the local chapel to oppose the proposed four lane road. This was the third such meeting in Curchorem constituency in the last four days.
Addressing the gathering, Babajan Fernandes said as per his calculations, presently the traffic plying on the road is only 30 vehicles per hour compared to the road capacity of 150 trips per hour. He sought to know why the government wants to widen the road by spending crores of public money.
Namdev Naik alleged that politicians from Curchorem, who are also mining transport contractors, do not want the by-pass road because after the dedicated mining road is constructed, mine owners would stop giving contracts and commissions to them.
Adds another speaker, Agust Barreto: “They want transport to continue through the populated areas so that they can arm-twist mine owners and extract money. The locals must fight the evil unitedly. PWD has not done traffic survey before finalizing the road widening.”
Adv Atrey Kakodkar explained the legal recourses available to the aggrieved people.
Santan Olivera said widening means more mining traffic and more pollution leading to immense hardships to the locals. He appealed to the people to keep politics and religion aside and join the agitation en-masse.
Rajendra Kakodkar said when Curchorem Cacora Municipal Council (CCMC) and Xeldem Panchyat have passed resolutions disapproving the road widening, how can the government force it on the people?
CCMC Chairperson Maruti Naik, who was invited for the meeting, assured the residents that he and CCMC will be with the people in their fight and would do whatever required in getting the land acquisition de-notified.
Mafaldo Fernandes said government has confirmed that agricultural output has reduced due to mining menace. “Paddy has been reduced by 20%, cashew and mangoes reduced by over 50%,” he said.
It may be recalled that despite several assurances by Chief Minister Digambar Kamat to construct separate roads for mining, people of Curchorem constituency were shocked to see notification in newspapers on July 2 for acquisition of land for four-lane road from Tilamol to Curchorem.
The acquisition entails demolishing several houses, compounds, paddy fields and shops. The reduced area of plots will lead to lower FAR at the time of building new structure after present structure becomes old. Many plots would become unusable due to requirement of set-off. The present market rate in the area is Rs 3,000-5,000 per sq mtrs.
The road passes through the centre of a thickly populated area of CCMC, where over 15,000 people reside. Besides, there are another 15,000 people residing in areas of Tilamol, Sirvoi, Sonfator, Chinchnagar, Tanki, Xeldem, Kakumoddi, Hodar, Sanvordem, Cotarli, where air-borne dust flies due to wind.
The chief minister in April 2010, after the death of one Satish Rivankar in the accident, had identified 12 mine owners, who transport ore on the road and had put traffic restrictions on them and had allowed aggregate 120 trips per hour.
Kamat had also assured to construct separate road for the benefit of mine owners.
On Sunday, about 500 affected people had convened a meeting at Bansai and had vowed to defeat the covert designs of politicians. Later on Monday, over 200 aggrieved people from Sonfator area met to oppose the four lane road.
