PANJIM: Low-lying hutments and houses along the St Inez Creek will get legal status as the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) prepares to provide each of them with sewage connections.

The St Inez Creek was not a part of the smart city project and has been added to the project after the special purpose vehicle begun work.

Under the smart city proposals, the IPSCDL has drawn a sanitation plan which envisions to make Panjim a soak pit free city by 2020. As a mandatory condition all residential and commercial establishments throughout the city’s administrative ambit will have to be connected to sewerage pipelines connected to the sewage treatment plant at Tonca.

Panjim MLA Sidharth Kuncalienkar said that the city has a sewerage network but there are still some pockets which don’t have sewerage connections. These include parts of Mala, parts near Khadint and the houses on the bandh along the St Inez Creek.

He said that work on providing the areas with sewerage connections has begun. “We have taken up connections to these areas with PWD. For the houses on the bandh we have proposed a new vacuum sewer system so that we don’t depend on the natural flow for the sewerage to flow to the plant,” he stated.

Reacting to the providing connections to the houses along the creek, Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado said, “If the government really is keen and interested to develop the St Inez Creek, then the illegal houses along the creek will have to removed and they have to be rehabilitated somewhere else. Till the time these houses exist near the creek it will never be developed.”

Urban developer Vishal Rawlley, however, welcomed the proposal. “Legalising and giving them amenities will actually sanitise the place and will keep away illegal activities. People will be able to live as a right and will not be at the mercy of the politicians,” he added.

The Panjim MLA further stated that the sewerage network laying work is not complete and the network needs to laid in areas under Taleigao constituency too so as to ensure that the creek which originates in Taleigao does not receive sewage.

He said, “I will ensure that there is no sewage discharge in the St Inez creek and hope that it will be reciprocated at the other end (Taleigao) which is more at the receiving end.”

He said that Ribandar areas under the city’s municipal jurisdiction do not have a sewerage network and therefore the smart city project will include laying of sewerage network connecting up to the Kadamba Plateau.

He said, “The Patto STP will be converted into C-tech technology plant. At the same time some people are connecting their sewage directly to the storm water drains. I have already asked all the departments to detect and penalise those who are offending.”

As part of the plan, pipeline of the sewerage network will also be replaced.

The sanitation plan under the Smart City project also includes construction of 60 toilets in the city for the residents as well as the visitors to the city. “Development, operation and maintenance including identification of locations for toilet facilities and allied works on public private partnership (PPP) mode will also be carried out,” Kuncalienkar said.