TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Public Works Department (PWD) will be shortly entering into an agreement with the Goa College of Engineering, Farmagudi to monitor the existing bridge over Zuari river with the estimated amount being accorded sanction just a week ago.
While the proposal for entrusting the mammoth task to the GCE has been on since last year, sources say that an amount of Rs 52 lakh has been sanctioned for the proposed task of monitoring the bridge to the Goa College of Engineering.
“An agreement will now be signed with the GCE which will detail the kind of work that they will have to undertake,” Principal Chief Engineer J S Rego told Herald.
The PWD expects to sign the work order shortly even as it is yet to finalize the work specifications.
Rego told Herald that the GCE has the expertise and equipment that will help to assess the condition of the existing bridge. The PWD ministry is to hold deliberations with the GCE on the time frame for carrying out the surveys, tests and other procedures and submission of a detailed report.
“We will see what are the recommendations from them after which a decision will be taken on repairs or maintenance works to be carried out,” Rego said.
In the meantime the government is in the process of finalizing plans for appointing a consultant for the new Zuari bridge.
The Goa government has decided to proceed with its plans for preparing the detailed project report.
The ministry had earlier disclosed that until the central government gives its final consent to the project funding, Goa will start the ground work.
Public Works Department Minister Sudin Dhavalikar had told Herald earlier that land acquisition and road alignments have to be carried out and this task would be given to the consultant.
