With just nine days to go before the Smart City deadline for completion of all road works in Panjim, the question which is hanging over every Panjimite like a Damocles’ sword is–will the road works be completed by March 31? The city and its residents, visitors and tourists alike, have been reeling under the Smart City dust pollution, dangerous pits, dug up roads, barricades and lack of signboards and traffic marshals for eight long years. Will this tortuous ordeal end with little over a week to go?
The Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) through the Advocate General has assured before the High Court that the Smart City road works in Panjim will be completed before March 31, 2025. However, till date the work remains
sluggish, chaotic, disorganised and with lack of
supervision.
As of date, in central Panjim, there are 3,450 metres of road work which remain unfinished. Contrary to this, an affidavit has been filed in the High Court of Bombay at Goa that only 200 metres of roadwork in St Inez is pending out of a total of 3,000 metres. As pointed out by O Heraldo, on Rua de Ourem, a staggering 13,800 metres of roadwork remains incomplete.
However, completing the road works with poor quality tar is not the end of the ordeal, as residents have found out since the roads face the prospect of being repeatedly dug due to poor planning. Sanjit Rodrigues the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director has himself declared that the road tarring is not final, since if required, the roads will be dug again.
The contractors, their supervisors and workers who are seldom supervised by government engineers are reportedly digging and re-digging the same areas despite earlier claims of completion of work. For instance, the roads near UCO Bank-Govinda Building junction, Vishal Mega Mart Junction and Atmaram Borkar Road have been dug up multiple times.
The Smart City digging and re-digging has had tremendous impact not only on the psyche of the commuters and motorists, but it has led to loss in business to the local shopkeepers. Businessmen have admitted that the number of customers visiting their shops has reduced, even as they have been doing business at the same location for years. Other businessmen say that it is a very bad phase for them, since they have to pay the salaries of their employees, even as the business is not thriving.
The most important default on the part of the Smart City Mission is the non communication of their proposed works to the people. Roads are dug up overnight and left closed for days. Even if the roads are opened for traffic, they are left incomplete.
The bureaucratic hurdles will also determine whether the deadline of March 31 will be met. The Smart City workers pointed to the need for official clearances for hastening of works. They assume that only works which have received clearances from the authorities will be completed on time.
People as well as activists are completely fed upcomplaining about Smart City negligence, delays, bad roads, dust pollution and the general upsetting of the lifestyle and disturbance of the peace of the beautiful city, they so much loved to visit, sit at particular joints, such as the Café Bhosle joint, have a cup to tea and muse about life in general or catch up with the latest on
politics.
Citizens are pessimistic about the city road works being completed by March 31. The Café Bhosle square, the Duarte Pacheco road near Real Barberia, and most importantly the Panjim Municipal Market road area work in progress. The latter too have been freshly dug up for relaying. Are there more roads which the Smart City wise men will dig? No information has been made available to the public. Will the assurances given to the Court be revised?
Apart from the completing the roads, which have only been given a single coat, the next deadline is the completing of all works before May 31, 2025. This includes the completion of the parking lots and the footpath and traffic islands. But as far as the March 31 deadline, with just nine days left, serious apprehensions persist that the Smart City work may not be completed on time, leaving the residents, visitors and tourists back again on a rough road.