
MARGAO: With work on the Western Bypass stretch passing through Benaulim being expedited, the villagers worry that their long-standing demand for the bypass to be built on stilts and not embankments, won’t be fulfilled.
The people of Benaulim believe there will be widespread destruction to the fields, the biodiversity, and that they will have to endure flooding during the monsoon, if the bypass is built on embankments.
The Water Resources Department (WRD), in its inspection reports on the flooding of Tolleabandh area in July 2023 and July 2022, had warned against the construction of the bypass on embankments. However, PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral had turned down the plea for stilts made by Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas in the last Assembly session, and the ruling legislators even voted against the proposal for building the bypass on stilts in Benaulim.
Incidentally, the neighbouring village of Seraulim, where the bypass stretch is being constructed on stilts, has witnessed flooding, affecting local farmers who attribute the heavy water-logging to the filling up of low-lying fields.
When O Heraldo spoke to Cana-Benaulim Sarpanch Xavier Pereira, he stated that the panchayat will soon file a petition in the High Court challenging the government’s plan to build the bypass on embankments.
Pereira added that they are in touch with their advocate, while the resource person they are working with is coordinating with the Hydrologist the panchayat had appointed, whose study will be presented before the HC. This study scientifically backs the villager’s demands for stilts against the government’s technical assertion that constructing the bypass on embankments won’t cause flooding issues.
The villagers also recently suffered a setback when an expert who had been commissioned by the Union Ministry of Surface Transport in New Delhi did not endorse the idea of constructing the bypass on elevated platforms through the Tolleaband water catchment area in Benaulim.
The expert, R K Pandey, had been commissioned by Union Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari to assess the feasibility of constructing a bypass on stilts along the Tolleaband stretch. During his evaluation of the Khareband-Benaulim segment of the Sal River, Pandey noted that even if the bypass was built on stilts, the Tolleaband water body would still be prone to inundation during the monsoon, due to slow drainage into the Sal river.Based on his inspection, Pandey concluded that a comprehensive solution is needed to address the flooding issues, including measures like river desilting and the construction and widening of culverts along the Margao-Varca Road, connecting Tolleaband to the Sal river.
Pandey however did provide alternative suggestions for improving the Sal river’s discharge capacity, emphasising the importance of actions like desilting and dredging. Furthermore, he highlighted the necessity of enhancing the drainage capabilities from Varca Road to the Sal river, which could involve increasing culvert size or their numbers.
Pandey also recommended avoiding the construction of reinforced earthen walls in flood-prone areas and conducting a review of the slope stability in high embankment regions with a 1:1 slope.
Following these recommendations, the PWD’s National Highway Division communicated with WRD, urging them to take action on the desilting of River Sal. Additionally, they’ve reached out to the PWD roads division, with a request to consider constructing extra drainage on the Margao-Varca road to facilitate the smooth flow of water from the Tolleaband water catchment area into the Sal.