26 April,2010

Plaza hype
Hype cannot replace efficiency. The truth of this is more than clear from the experience at Goa’s “Nariman Point”. Media reports have highlighted the problems faced by those located in what was meant to be a prestigious project for Panjim and for Goa—the Pato Plaza area.
Since the project was first envisaged many years ago, the big talk about building “Goa’s Nariman Point” today sounds hollow. The complex is in a pathetic state: there’s poor lighting, parking woes are rife, and monsoon flooding is a regular feature. Dust pollution and poor roads are other complaints. Those with offices in the area complain of the accumulation of garbage and sewage, and even people falling into open gutters.  The CCP has been dumping its garbage nearby. The area isn’t safe for women at night. Official action is slow in coming, and bureaucrats talk of taking decisions “at the next meeting”.
One needs to only go back in time to recall the hype with which Goa’s “Nariman Point” was planned and speedily built. So, what really went wrong? Was it the planners’ fault? Did the politicians push for a decision because they saw personal benefit in it? Politicians love concrete projects, and converting field projects into areas for high-rise structures.
Or, was it a mix of both? More likely, the politicians pushed in a way that helped their selfish interests, while the officials just toed the line. As the doughty campaigner for secularism Teesta Setalvad is demonstrating right now, phone calls went out from the office of chief minister of Gujarat, and abysmal police inaction was the result. The problem of politicians interfering and officials falling in line is at the root of many of our woes.
The Pato fields were made into a “Nariman Point” with decisions taken in the 1980s and 1990s, times when political instability ruled Goa.  While political stability is not necessarily a good thing in itself, the price of instability is that politicians can take just about any controversial decision, knowing fully well that they would probably not be held accountable in some years time. Some of these politicians were so adept in jumping from one side of the political fence to the “other”, that they earned immunity from all the major political parties that ruled Goa in recent times.
Pato is not the lone case. So many major government projects in recent years have been announced and set up, but the tall promises made have hardly come true. Is our new Assembly and legislature secretariat justified in size and grandeur? Does the Konkan Railway offer as many trains as were once promised, and is it meeting its cargo plans? Are our mega stadia and Ravindra Bhavans being used to the optimum? What about the grand plans promoted in other fields such as prawn hatcheries?
Pato Plaza is different because it is so visible to all those who enter Panjim. It also affects an influential segment of society, including the business class who invested in the area to their disappointment.
Other recent studies have called the Pato Plaza an “isolated entity” that is “alienated and deserted at night”.  Though physically connected to the rest of Panjim, Pato Plaza is isolated from the city and its neighbourhood in terms of its activities. “The built form and its character is in stark contrast to its vicinity,” a recent study by the Ahmedabad-based The Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University had noted. Other problems it pointed to include the water logging in the monsoons; lack of connectivity between Fontainhas and Pato Plaza; and a lack of public participation in what becomes a ghost-town at night.
Much needs to be done before Goa goes about offering more tall talk and planning grand projects. It’s fine for politicians to promote new airports or another big stadium—and then gain from insider information or land deals themselves. The real test is whether such projects help the State, are run efficiently, and the cost is justified on the return on investment.