CANACONA: Fear of Mashem locals came true as gabion basket retaining wall on Mashem Bridge has tilted dangerously onto one side.

Unable to bear the load of the soil, filled for the high rise National Highway at Mashem, the over 10 mts long gabion type retaining wall was seen dangerously tilting on one side; the contractor without wasting time removed the tilting portion of the gabion wall by Friday evening. 

The local residents have been raising questions over the quality of work undertaken by the contractor of the NH66 bypass, linking Charrasta to Mashem since its work started in December 2015.

In the latest incident, the gabion retaining wall built by using plastic coated wire mesh was unable to withstand the weight of the soil which had become wet in the showers. And since the last couple of days due to the ongoing monsoons, the bridge has got tilted by at least half a metre.

This incident has taken place after Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant visited the new bypass construction works on May 5. 

The Chief Minister while addressing the media on the sidelines of his visit had informed that the 7.74 kms bypass road having about 1.5 kms of twin bridges across Mashem-Galgibaga and Talpona river costing 272 crore will be inaugurated by the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari by July 20 and had instructed the authorities to expedite the work. 

Manoj Prabhugaonkar, a social activist who resides meters away from the new highway alignment said that the laterite stones that are used for building the bridge are not suitable and will create more problems in future.

"The authorities should replace the laterite stones with granitic stones otherwise the retaining wall will collapse under its own weight sooner or later," Prabhugaonkar cautioned.

Santan Xavier Da Costa, former panch of Loliem-Polem Village Panchayat speaking with this correspondent said the work of the retaining wall is not as per technical specifications and will not be able to withstand so much load of the filled soil.

"The lower half of the wall should have been broader than the top half, then it wouldn't have collapsed by now, surely it will get stressed more when the road is thrown open to heavy traffic," Da Costa stressed.