Team Herald
Panjim: The State’s capital city continues to reel under continues excavation of the roads with several agencies lined up to dig the stretch over and over again. While the endless digging of roads is being carried out for the last several months, a botched-up mending of these dug roads or some patches left unattended for several days has caused much hardship to the residents and commuters.
As per the City Corporation, five works such as laying water pipeline, cable connection, etc across several road stretches are approved to four agencies.
Details with Herald reveal that Public Works Department (PWD) was granted the first permission to lay the water pipeline, work of which is on the verge of completion. The Larsen & Toubro (L&T) firm is carrying out separate projects allocated by the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited and another by the Defense on laying cables for wireless connection. Tata Smart Opticals is also tasked with a similar work while Goa Natural Gas is focused on gas distribution.
However, non-coordination from some agencies has led to repeated digging of the same roads in many parts of Panjim, which has ultimately led to inconveniencing the general public. Herald spoke to a few residents who expressed their ordeal as a result of the work. “The work has reduced the width of the roads. The two-ways roads where the excavation of roads is taking place has increased the risk because vehicles ply both sides. There is always chaos,” lamented Anita Gawas, a resident along the Altinho slope.
What has irked people the most is the digging along the road stretch from Altinho to Bhatulem, wherein the same stretch is dug twice within a span of less than a month. “Just some days back, the digging work was going on for several days. The access route from one’s house/building to the road was also dug and there was alternate arrangement made for these residents. We have senior citizens living with us. Do the authorities expect them to jump the unfilled patch?” a government employee residing in Bhatulem said requesting anonymity.
“The previous agency’s work was so shabby. The dug portion of the road was left unattended for many days and when some residents asked the workers at the site, they told us that cables had to be laid at one-go. We do not object to the work but why it is being carried out without any safety measures in place and sans alternate arrangement?” housewife Sunita Shirodkar, a housewife living at Altinho, said adding, “When the work was complete the filling was done haphazardly and today (Monday), the same road stretch is being dug yet again.”
Improper mending of the damaged roads and inordinate delay at some other stretches has also become an eye-sore. In view of the prevailing problem, the digging committee under the Chairmanship of Additional Collector-I Vikas Gaunekar held a meeting last week wherein all agencies had agreed to stop the work within the CCP area until it is regulated.
“The Collector has taken cognizance of the unregulated digging in the city. The agencies like CCP, PWD, Smart City, etc must upload on their websites the digging schedule, name of the contractor, time to complete work, emergency number and name and mobile number of the CCOP Corporator under whose ward the work is being undertaken. This will ensure transparency and people, particularly women and senior citizens will be able to approach their representative to intervene in case the safety measures are not in place,” GOACAN Convener Roland Martins, who has actively taken up the matter with the authorities, said.
GOACAN had this month written to the government authorities seeking intervention into the extensive trenching work, negligently being carried out in different parts of the capital. Martins had informed the North Collectorate that all safety precautions were thrown to the wind while carrying out the work.
Martins also lamented on the non-coordination among the agencies while suggesting that CCP should appoint a nodal officer to oversee the works and Department of Information & Publicity to give weekly updates.
Herald spoke to the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) that confirmed that two agencies were given approval for separate works along this road. Commissioner Ajit Roy conceded that several residents have approached them with the grievance. “Directions have been issued to ensure that if more than one agency is expected to carry out the work on the same road stretch, it should be carried out simultaneously. We understand the problems faced by the people and CCP has received many complaints in this regard. We have thus asked the agencies to have proper coordination while taking up the work,” he said.
Mayor Vithal Chopdekar has also sympathized with the people stating he has directed his staff to submit weekly reports on the ongoing works.
“The junior engineers will be conducting weekly inspection and submitting report to me. We have directed the agencies that have taken up the work to restore the roads to its original look. If there is any violation, we will take them to task,” he warned.
