This may not be a very good idea since in overall terms Goa is a tourism destination and attracts tourists because of its natural beauty and here you are proposing to take them and send them underground through a tunnel. Would it not be better to build a meandering, circular road climbing up the hill with look-out points so that the tourist can look out at both sides of the Pilerne hill.
As far as tunnels go, the Konkan Railway experience which sees similar terrain like Goa has not been too good. The majority of their accidents have been at the mouth of these tunnels. The reason for this has been the soft and porous laterite rock which is prone to collapsing and causing landslides particularly during the monsoon.
The experience of going by train through the tunnels during the monsoons is a scary experience with water trickling on the sides of the tunnels and at some times gushing down. One is happy to see the end of the tunnel quickly! Is the Pilerne hillock any different from the hills through which the Konkan Railway has already tunneled? Surely not! Therefore it is best if the road cannot at all be made over the hill, the detour road from Verem to Candolim should completely avoid the Pilerne hillock and we should look for another orientation for the road unless we want another disaster in the making.
Such projects along with the 3rd Mandovi Bridge are what are called end-of-tenure projects with which people will remember the CM who has ‘said’ that he will leave state politics by 2017. Both are badly conceived, the tunnel project for technical reasons and the 3rd Mandovi Bridge project which is the only project which may get over by 2017 because there is no land acquisition involved, the major stumbling block or delay causing factor for all other bridges including the 2nd Zuari bridge.
Therefore can we ask for at least some rational decision making for our infrastructure projects? Moreover the consultancy charges paid for these projects is in crores. If saved, the same money could more than help finish small projects around Goa like the pavement in Porvorim that we have been asking for, a small repair to sluice gates or repairing a bandhara elsewhere so that salt water does not come into paddy fields and many such projects that are useful to the community at large.
