Chicolna-Bogmalo village, which is famous for its beautiful beach, receives high footfall of tourists throughout the year. But when it comes to basic infrastructure, it lags behind the other six panchayats in the Mormugao taluka and desperately needs a development boost.
The beach is among the best in the entire taluka, which attracts a number of tourists throughout the year. But the existing road infrastructure is unable to support the increasing footfall of tourists. Ironically, except for the main road leading to the beach, all other internal roads in the village surrounding the INS Hansa Naval base are narrow. The files pertaining to the proposed widening of these roads is yet to see the light of the day. Chicolna residents are forced to bear the brunt of improper road infrastructure as the roads leading to their houses are full of potholes.
“The road infrastructure in the village is in a mess. Narrow and dilapidated roads have actually become the village identity and the villagers can do nothing much about the situation, but criticise the authorities. Presently, the main road leading to Bogmalo beach needs to be properly tarred. We also need good parking facilities at the beach. All these years, leaders have made false promises. We are happy that the issue was raised once again before our MLA during a joint meeting held at panchayat on Tuesday and now we hope that his assurance for a good road would be fulfilled this time or else the villagers and tourists would continue to face undue hardships,” said a local resident speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The road issue was in fact on the main agenda of the meeting called by the minister and Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho. He as then Congress MLA from Dabolim had actually proposed all sorts of road widening in the village but was unable to complete the same in last tenure because he was in the Opposition. However, now that his is a cabinet minister, he has assured that all dilapidated roads in the village will be hot-mixed and internal roads would be widened soon once the hot-mix plant begins its operations.
Earlier, Chicolna-Bogmalo was part of the Chicalim panchayat and was then bifurcated in 1994. Surprisingly, in the last 23 years the state administration has failed to provide a health centre facility. In absence of such facility, the villagers are forced to travel over 6 kms to the Chicalim Cottage Hospital.
“Indeed, the village desperately needs a medical facility because many tourists and locals visit Bogmalo beach to spend their leisure time. However, during medical emergencies, the patients are forced to travel a long distance,” said Sapna Patel, a resident of Dabolim.
Elected panchas too feel that the demand for health centre facility should be fulfilled on priority.
“Following demands from locals we had formally requested the state government to provide a health centre facility. However, the demand has been pending. On Tuesday, we placed the proposal before our MLA. We have been assured and we are hopeful that our demand for a medical facility will be fulfilled soon,” said panch Laxman Kavlekar.
Likewise roads and health facility, the school infrastructure in the village too is in doldrums. The state government had provided primary and middle school facilities in the village. However, due to low enrolment, the primary school located near panchayat ghar closed some two years ago and the middle school located near naval museum is also on the verge of closing down as the villagers are unhappy with its infrastructure.
