The Goa government seems to be putting a lot of effort and resources into widening roads, building bridges and expanding highways but somehow, the last-mile of these projects are always lacking. Small but crucial details are overlooked, leaving citizens inconvenienced and annoyed. Whenever a project is undertaken, and completed, remnants of the construction always remain – piles of rubble, old barricades, sacks of cement, discarded equipment and pipes. Take the highway expansion work on the Guirim-Mapusa stretch for instance – post monsoon, the overgrown weeds and shrubbery has not been cleared yet. The tourist season is reaching its peak and signboards along the highway – be it speed limit notices, directions or detour boards are hidden by shrubbery, and coated with grime. What is the use of these signages if the people who need them the most, like visitors unfamiliar with the routes, cannot see them?
I urge the PWD and the Highways authorities to complete their infrastructure projects to the last detail, and clean up after themselves, for the sake of the tax-payers funding these projects.
