12 Sep 2020  |   05:16am IST

Mapusa municipality resolves to develop Mapusa bus stand

Decides to divert the funds that were earlier allotted for the construction of an administration building; Mapusa MLA attends the meeting; Councillor Kandolkar argues for new MMC building work to be taken up first instead
Mapusa municipality resolves to develop Mapusa bus stand

Team Herald 


MAPUSA: The Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) resolved to develop the land of Mapusa bus stand under grants received from the 14th Finance Commission. 

Giving more details about the plan, MMC Chairperson Ryan Braganza said, “Earlier, we had allotted fund of Rs 3.27 crore for the construction of the Administrative building. However, today, the council has decided to divert this fund for land development of the Mapusa bus stand.”

“This will include hot-mixing of roads, construction of pavements, toilets, shed and creating illumination facilities in the area. Work will begin after taking the  NOCs from the Transport Department and Goa State Industrial Development Corporation and the work is expected to start by December,” he continued further.  

The resolution was passed during the ordinary council meeting convened by Braganza.

Incidentally, the meeting was also attended by Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza while Chief Officer Kabir Shirgalkar and other councillors were also present. 

The agenda for the meeting was about diverting the grants received from the 14th Finance Commission to the land development of the Mapusa bus stand. The funds had earlier been allotted for the construction of the administrative building. 

Interestingly, during the deliberations at the meeting, Councillor Sudhir Kandolkar, who had contested the Assembly by-poll elections against D’Souza, argued that that presently, the construction of new administrative building is more important as the municipality is facing a lot of space constraints. 

To illustrate his point, he gave the examples how  MMC files are stored in the municipal hall, where meetings are held due to the limited space available in the existing MMC building. He reiterated that there isn’t enough space, let alone proper space, to keep the MMC files. “Municipal records are kept in a haphazard way, due to which files go missing,” added the senior councillor, while emphasising that the council should undertake the construction of the administrative building with the  funds. 

However, senior councillor, Sandip Falari said the Mapusa bus stand has been the dream project of “Mapshekars”, which has been pending for several years now. “If the land development of Mapusa bus stand is taken up, then it will help decongest Mapusa to some extent,” Falari added.  

His suggestion was then accepted by another councillor and thereafter, it was agreed that the grants would be diverted for the development of the bus stand. 

In other resolutions, the council decided to complete the work of the beef and pork meat complex under the 14th Finance Commission Grants, whereby Rs 90 lakh has been allotted for it. The work of this complex construction had initially been taken up under the municipal funds. 

The council further resolved to undertake the installation of a solar panel on the roof of the municipal fish and vegetable market using the grants. 

A decision was also taken to increase the capacity of vendors that are allowed in the market from 33% to 50%. The council arrived at this resolution following discussions about how in order to abide by the then COVID-19 norms; the council had reduced the capacity to 33%. The councillors pointed out that now with everything unlocked, there was no need for Mapusa to be left behind and be the only one following the restrictions. 

Thus it was agreed to increase the capacity to 50% and that the vendors will work in different alternate shifts per week.  


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