Many Madgavkars and even Xaxtikars who commute to Velim, Assolna, Cuncolim and connect the coastal line on the other side, Margao’s flyover which is over 2- decades old is seen as an engineering marvel by many and is Goa’s only flyover across the cities and towns.
But now 20 years later, the flyover that saved many Xaxtikars time to cross the railway bridge to proceed to the coastline or Navelim and beyond, suddenly see this bridge as a bane in the heart of the city.
The S-shaped flyover of over 700 metres in stretch on its underside has Khareband and Calcondem which is a huge hub for budget hotels, restaurants, old bars and drinking joints and many wine shops. People going to Quepem, Sanvordem, Sanguem via the Railway station route and also tourists who ply towards Bangalore and South of India are regular patrons there.
But the new Supreme Court ruling that bans liquor outlets and restaurants and bars serving alcohol along the highway, means banning all the wine shops and bars on the underside of the over bridge since the over bridge at the time of construction is notified as NH66 and a continuation of the NH17.
“My wine shop is very distant from the Navelim flyover junction and hence I thought I was safe, until the other day the excise authorities came and measured my shop from the top to the bottom of the over bridge as 8 metres away from the highway. Never will I climb the flyover to sell alcohol, neither will anyone buy alcohol from that height of the bridge but like many others I’m a victim of this draconian judgement,” explains old Sanjay Deulkar who says that the government is not serving notices but they will by default not renew licences since all wine shops and restaurant owners go for a renewal every March 31 and the excise department has prepared a list of whom not to renew.
While another old man, Navin Naik who runs an over 40 year old bar in Khareband explains to us how sadly the aerial presence of the bridge since its eight metres above has increased the radius of the ban in the vicinity. Navin is upset that none of them will ever make sale on the flyover at such height but they are all victims of the law.
Similarly the large hotels, lodges and dormitories like Hotel GoGoa, Raviraj Classic, Shrinivas Dormitory, and Annapurna Lodge will lose out on budget clients who live in the Commercial capital and survive on the age old bars that include Longuinhos, Furtados and Goa Lords. Some of these hotels itself along the Margao Cricket Club Road have in house bars and restaurants which will go dry due to this monstrous elevated highway.
“To make matters worse there’s a NH66 bypass under construction connecting Benaulim to Navelim and bringing traffic from Nuvem via Seraulim and that means the tiny joints in the villages will also go for a hit with the new rule and sadly the Goa government is napping while so many will go jobless,” explains Jane Costa whose wine shop is already affected along the Calcondem stretch of Navelim only because of the aerial distance of 500 metres from the flyover.
The Assistant Commissioner of Excise, Satyawan Bhivshet asserted, “Our job is to do the logical measurements and calculation in and around the highway and not look into these technicalities of height. We will do the best to implement the law passed by the SC. The onus is on the government to decide how to handle this.”
