THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: For years, Kala Academy, the State’s premier art institution has weathered many storms. However, fears of citizens, who questioned the inferior quality of renovation work of the iconic structure carried out recently, proved true, as on Sunday night, the stage roof of the open-air auditorium collapsed, exposing the shoddy workmanship of the contractors. Fortunately, no casualties were reported.
The stage roof collapse has raised grave concern and serious questions over the poor quality of work in renovating the State’s premier art institution.
O Heraldo's visit revealed that the entire stage roof in the open air-auditorium had collapsed, side walls of the auditorium too suffered extensive damage in the incident and 10-odd labourers manually cleared the debris.
The collapsed portion was reportedly an old structure that was not touched by the contractor executing the renovation works of the Kala Academy, according to the Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude.
It is pertinent to note that the Kala Academy building has been renovated at an estimated cost of Rs 56 crore without floating a tender and allegedly without following the laid down procedures.
In the past, the BJP government defended its action of not floating a tender for the renovation of Kala Academy by equating it to the “Taj Mahal” and saying that Shah Jahan never did the same.
Public Works Department (PWD) and Art and Culture Department officials visited the site to take stock of the situation.
Later in the day, the government directed the PWD to submit a report on the incident and a team led by PWD Principal Chief Engineer Uttam Parsekar inspected the site. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral, Opposition MLAs, and politicians also visited the site.
