MARGAO: The road condition across all eight constituencies of Salcete taluka has worsened and though complaints have been filed, the contractors and government agencies are only playing the blame game.
“In Vidhyanagar, near the Borkar Stores and Santosh Garage, the potholes are so big and so many that there is no road left. People drive on the side of the road as the road is like a pond when it rains and those who go over it can’t see how deep the potholes are and it can lead to an accident,” said Tania Fernandes, Aquem resident.
Further at Davorlim, Navelim, a school teacher met with an accident owing to problems caused by the dug up road and there have been many recent accident cases caused essentially by the bad conditions of roads.
PWD has been rectifying the issue, where a private company had dug up the left portion of the road to lay an underground cable only to fail in covering the portion. The dug portion has washed away in the rain, the cables stand exposed and worse, two-wheelers have a tough time maintaining balance when the tires go over this patch.
This has been the case in Fatorda, Colva and other parts of Salcete. “This is a big problem at Carmona near the market area. In the rains there are many who roam on bikes and this makes the bike wobble every time they go over this stretch where the dug up portion is now uncovered,” said Cavelossim resident Flavio Pereira.
“Between Majorda and Betalbatim, people have started putting small plants in these potholes not as a mark of protest but to let the commuters know about these potholes. The government agencies concerned should have ensured that there are signboards or barricades in front of these dug up portions,” added Utorda resident John Rodrigues.
“You don’t have to go out of Margao. Just look at the stretch in front of Kamat hotel and the municipal garden. The same is the case a little ahead of Ana Fonte garden towards Margao or around the Margao Police Station area. The contractors for JICA have dug up the road and only the mud patchwork was put up and the same has now sunk in because of the rains and are left unattended,” said Nilesh Raikar from Margao.
Reacting to the varied complaints, Salcete Deputy Collector Ajit Panchwadkar criticized PWD, BSNL, Electricity department and JICA contractors for failing to meet the May deadline for completion of all digging works.
He added that they were asked to file a compliance report in the last week of May confirming that they had completed the digging up of roads so that they would commence restoration of the roads before the monsoons but had failed to do so.
Adding that the departments had been summoned last month to the collectorate for a meeting to discuss the issue, their failure to attend to the potholes and dug up roads had led to the threat to the safety of life and property and on the failure to submit the compliance reports, they are to be reported to the secretaries concerned for the further action through the Collector.
