SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024
Team Herald
PORVORIM: Opposition members on Tuesday grilled PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar over the ongoing sub-standard and unmotorable national highway work from Patradevi to Canacona and demanded immediate action against the contractors.
Tabling his postponed starred question regarding national highway expansion works in the Legislative Assembly, Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte demanded action against the contractors for causing innumerable problems to the commuters and to the people living along the National Highway-66. He pointed out how the road contractors have been damaging water supply pipelines, snapping underground power cables and filling fields with debris with impunity.
Khaunte said that as per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), of the total 3440 accidents, as many as 1160 accidents were reported due to current road conditions on national highway leading to 66 deaths in 2009. He demanded to know whether the State government agree that the ongoing work is sub-standard, unmotorable and defective and what action the government will initiate against the contractors.
Pauskar admitted that there have been issues with the contractors and already the Goa government had issued show cause notices twice to the national highway contractors. He said that the highway expansion work from Patradevi to Canacona is undertaken in different packages and will be completed by December this year.
National highway expansion work is in full swing after the monsoon. We have shifted all the water supply pipelines away from the national highway hence there won’t be any further bursting of water pipelines. Also site inspection of ongoing works is held every month, he said.
Intervening during reply, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant said that the efforts are on to amicably solve the pending matter of elevated section of national highway passing through Porvorim i.e. from Porvorim Bazaar up to the Teen Building.
Sawant said that contractors will be asked to rectify the faults if any as per the defect liability clause at the time of handing over the completed works.
“Some residents have approached the Supreme Court against the current alignment of flyover at Porvorim. We are trying to hold consultations with the petitioners for amicable solution and a mutual affidavit will be filed in Supreme Court to sort out the issue”, Sawant said.
The Chief Minister also assured Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat that the contractors will be asked to repair roads under flyovers from Panjim to Margao especially below the new Zuari bridge before November 1.
Kamat raised the issue of pathetic condition of the roads under the flyovers built by the contractors on national highway from Panjim to Margao and the negligence by the contractors to keep them in motorable condition. He demanded that the contractors be asked to stop the ongoing bridge work for next few days and to undertake the road repair works on war footing.
Sawant said that it is the job of the contractors to maintain these roads and they will be asked to repair them immediately.
Most of the opposition members demanded half-an-hour discussion over the ongoing national highway expansion work. But their request was turned down by the Speaker.
