Team Herald
MAPUSA: The electricity department has been working frantically to illuminate every street in Goa with LED lights, but it just cannot see the Calvim bridge – the only road link for the locals with the outside world – enveloped in darkness at night since February this year.
The bridge was constructed in record time after a ferry tragedy in which some school students died. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar then touted it as the state-of-the-art bridge.
Locals say that travelling through the bridge at night is a nightmare as anti-socials, taking advantage of the darkness, have been indulging in criminal activities since many months.
Besides, some groups of boys are found consuming liquor on the bridge, regularly; later, they leave the bottles on the bridge and sometimes even break them and leave the pieces all around.
The local MLA reportedly inspected the bridge recently, but failed to follow up by instructing the power department to illuminate the bridge. During his inspection, the MLA had reportedly assured to install CCTV on the bridge for the safety of the people.
The issue of bridge was reportedly raised at a Calvim gram sabha, but even the panchayat failed to restore the lights on the structure.
Amarnath Panjikar, a local said, “People of Aldona are upset that many places in Aldona constituency are in darkness.” He blamed the Aldona MLA for the sorry state of the bridge.
