VASCO: Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha has expressed shock that the government intends to invoke the Railways Act to acquire land for the doubling of the South Western Railway tracks between Margao and Vasco, despite assurance to the contrary.
In a press release issued here, Saldhana said that in September, 2017, the Regional Railway Manager Arun Jain, at a meeting held at the South Goa Collectorate had categorically stated the railway authorities were not considering taking up the project of doubling the railway tracks beyond Majorda, primarily due to the objections raised by the public.
The meeting was attended by then South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar, the sarpanchas and panchas of the villages along the railway route.
“Despite all the assurances given, the SWR authority is now planning to bulldoze the project, showing total lack of respect and concern to the pleas of the people to save their houses – big and small, old and new and heritage houses that are more than 500 years old. The land owners have made their objections known during the hearings before the Mormugao Deputy Collector and further, over 1600 villagers have signed a memorandum addressed to the chief minister, the Collector and the other authorities concerned, expressing their opposition to the project,” Saldhana said in the press release.
Saldanha further stated that people’s main objection to the doubling of the railway tracks lies on the fact that due to the proximity of the tracks to their houses, their homes will eventually collapse rendering them homeless, as the vibrations due to increased number of trains and increased speed will eventually ensure the collapse of these houses.
She has questioned the authorities and has showed curiosity to know from them how the people are supposed to cope with high decibels of noise and the impact it will have on their health. “It is extremely important to remember that more than a hundred years ago, the ancestors of these families gave SWR the land for the meter/ narrow gauge which was eventually converted to broad gauge,” she said.
“Over the years, various generations of these villagers residing along the route are coping with hardships that make life difficult as the SWR authority never thought of them and never put in place related infrastructure for their benefit. It is horrifying to note that till date, more often than not, school boys are crossing the tracks by moving under the parked trains to reach their respective schools in time while many of the seniors residing along the tracks have to walk for nearly 30-40 minutes to reach the other side of the tracks where basic infrastructure is, a distance they would have otherwise covered in five minutes,” she said.
