Team Herald
MARGAO: Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai and Public Works Department Minister Sudin Dhavalikar today instructed their respective officials to carry out site inspection and explore the possibilities of shifting the State Highway No 8 away from the heritage village of Chandor.
Significantly, yesterday while addressing the crowd at a football tournament in Chandor, Vijai conceded that Chandor is a heritage village and had been the capital of Kadamba Dynasty and said it was the duty of the government to preserve the heritage.
“World over, heritage tourism hubs have been very successful and are thriving,” he said adding that Chandor could be developed as a heritage-tourism hub in Goa.
“Being the minister for archives and archaeology, I shall extend all support to protect the archaeological monuments in Chandor and ask the people to come up with proposal that the department can take up even to protect old houses,” he said.
He also said he had fixed a meeting with the PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar and officials today and invited a delegation of people from Chandor to come to the Secretariat and accordingly 10 people from Chandor and Guirdolim, including Chandor Cavorim Sarpanch Celina Furtado and former Sarpanch of Guirdolim Agostinho Antao went to Porvorim.
Vijai led the villagers to the PWD Minister and held marathon discussions with reference to the Regional Plans of 2001 and 2011 that did not mention any State Highway through the village.
The misguidance by PWD officials was also exposed by the villagers as the concerned official was berated and his falsehoods were exposed with documents. However, Dhavalikar reportedly insisted that the State Highway cannot be dropped.
Following another round of discussions, where the villagers were asked for an alternative Antao referred to land already acquired by the government and pointing out that it would not cause any damage to existing houses, suggested a route going through fallow paddy fields.
Both the ministers asked the officials to inspect the route suggested by the former Sarpanch and submit a report following which another meeting would be held to decide upon the matter.
Meanwhile, Chandor Cavorim Sarpanch Celina Furtado welcomed the decision at today’s meeting. “This will help solve the problem that has been troubling us for the last so many years,” she said.
