FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Recently, a sewage tanker fully loaded with sewage while going to unload it into the Sewage Treatment Plant at Tonca, the driver to avoid an accident with an oncoming truck while negotiating his vehicle on the bridge, lost control and rammed the sewage tanker on side wall of the bridge, where it partly collapsed. Luckily, the tanker did not fall into the creek.
The Monteiro Workshop owner was alerted by a resident and by the time he came to see the damage, the ill-fated sewage tanker managed to escape from the scene and reached the STP plant.
Monteiro inspected the damaged wall and stated that if his earlier suggestion to the PWD to have incoming and outgoing roads from both the sides of bridge had materialised, this accident would not have happened.
This Tonca Bridge is so narrow. The PWD officials should have taken steps on priority basis to have two roads on both the sides. Already, there exists huge damage to the existing wall at the corner which can fall into the creek at anytime.
There is one more problem the creek is facing. Several attempts to clean up the creek have been unsuccessful. Some time ago, even the former mayor of Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) and his team while inspecting the cleanup operation had a narrow escape in the accident when their boat tripped. The mayor and his colleagues fell into the creek.
The creek is still badly polluted and the concerned authorities and MLA of Panjim have never been successful to clean up the mess. There are several building constructions coming up in the vicinity of the creek, which can be found discharging polluted materials and sewage into the canals. Also one can see on the other side of creek, the situation is quite alarming, as there are number of water pipelines passing haphazardly.
