We have this University Road where we stay that runs from GMC, Bambolim up to Dona Paula and thereafter to the Governor’s palace which is a beautiful piece of road akin to an international highway and currently probably the best in Goa. We will not go into the fact that the road runs through the Goa University campus which is undesirable considering its impact on student movement and its consequent safety issues and further a negative effect on campus atmosphere. The existing fact that the segregated road for up and down traffic with broad tiled pavements is an excellent facility and needs to be maintained as such. But the unfortunate part is that the pavements are not cleaned and you have them abysmally dirty with dog pooh, maybe human excrement also, the remnants of impromptu night time parties evident with strewn cardboard boxes of food, broken liquor bottles and empty beer cans.
You also have just after the gate of the AIR facility on the same side at two places where garbage is being dumped systematically by some hotels leading to the pavement in front of it getting completely messed up and leading to the stink of rotting food that assails the noses of people passing by. A little ahead on the opposite side of the AIR facility is an impromptu slum where the contractor responsible for the road construction has housed his workers who are all mostly migrants. This has its consequential impact on the area with these workers defecating in the open (and maybe sometimes on the pavements), dirtying of the pavements with mud and other matter like stains of betelnut juice etc.
The point is that if you have an excellent facility almost at par with international standards, one should take care of it and preserve it. If the road comes under the Highways Dept. then the concerned authorities should take the responsibility of cleaning the road and the pavements regularly. The road contractor can be made to install toilets for his workers and advised to tell his people not to dirty the road and the pavements. Sometime back aping Singapore both Panaji and Margao had got road cleaning machines which must be rusting in some backyard somewhere. Why cannot the PWD Highways Dept. take these machines, if they are in working condition, and clean up the University Road with a proper schedule so that it remains a jewel in Goa’s crown? The Governor may also like to intervene since if it helps her to reach Dabolim faster the least she can do is to give instructions to have the road spruced up so that the next time she can drive past winding her car windows down.
The road is used by a lot of morning walkers, mostly senior citizens, and biking enthusiasts who will be more than grateful if this road and the pavements are restored to top class condition. The stretch from the GMC Bambolim is the worst until the start of the Goa University campus and thereafter there is less muck. Therefore the authorities can start the cleaning exercise on this short stretch of road and extend it to the entire stretch as time goes by.
