Team Herald
MARGAO: Even as the State government has repeatedly insisted that the Western Bypass traversing Benaulim will only be built on embankments, members of the Benaulim panchayat, who on Thursday submitted a memorandum to Union Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari, have appealed to the Central Government to provide additional funds for the bypass stretch to be built on stilts.
Goa’s PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral had earlier this month rejected the demand for the bypass stretch to be built on stilts and said that additional culverts would be constructed along the bypass route, to avoid flooding. In their memorandum, the villages highlighted how the catchment area of Benaulim will get flooded if the bypass is built on embankments and the devastation it would cause to the area, the agricultural fields, the biodiversity and much more. We have been told there is a shortage of funds to build the bypass portion in Benaulim on stilts, they lamented . “If this is going to create hurdles, we request you to consider building part of the referred sections consisting of only 650 meters, which incidentally falls in the main basin, for which an additional cost of only Rs 49 crore will be required as per government estimates,” said Benaulim Sarpanch Xavier Pereira in the memorandum.
“This allocation of funds will help the future generation in progressing through sustainable development of the village, “he added.
