Team Herald
MARGAO: People from Chinchinim and more particularly from Dandevaddo are quite agitated over the alignment of the National Highway passing through their village on two grounds. While the first is that their grievance is being drowned by the demand of the people of Cuncolim and also because even Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s direction are not being adhered to.
At a meeting held on February 5, 2018, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in the presence of the Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardessai constituted a six member core committee and directed the PWD to flag off the alignment of the proposed National Highway along with the core committee members.
However, till date not a single step is taken to flag off the alignment on ground, lamented Nelson Lopes a member of the core committee. Incidentally, while three members of the core committee are from Chinchinim, the other three are from Cuncolim.
The residents of Cuncolim and Chinchinim have objections to the alignment of the National Highway as proposed by the National Highways of the Public Works Department as it is not in keeping with the alignment shown by the PWD earlier and which was reflected in the Regional Plan.
“The earlier alignment was running parallel to the Konkan Railway track while the new one they are showing is a totally different one and when questioned the PWD said they changed the alignment at the behest of the Ministry of Surface Transport,” said Lopes a retired headmaster.
The Chinchinim villagers have prepared an alignment for the National Highway a little away from MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues’ house to come right near Village Gate at Cuncolim and from there to follow the same route proposed by PWD earlier which would touch the existing National Highway near Balli health centre.
The PWD has prepared two alignment of which one that is prepared using the google map while looking good as it does not damage any houses, is not very clear and has to be seen on loco said Upendra Pai Angle another member of the core committee.
The other alternate route prepared by PWD is to the east of NUSI hospital proceeding through Culvado and Comba Parricoto in Cuncolim. This is in contrast to the earlier alignment of the PWD where the highway was shown going through Culvado in Cuncolim.
Unfortunately, since the meeting with the Chief Minister nothing concrete has happened as the meeting with the officials on 14th March at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex ended in a fiasco as two political groups clashed to take credit for the meeting.
The flagging off that was supposed to commence yesterday also did not happen as the concerned PWD officials did not turn up and only a technician was sent to deal with the agitated villagers.
