Team Herald
CANACONA: Rains are back and with it the worries for the residents of Avali, a ward of Cotigao in Canacona as their only approach road to hilly village has once again got washed away.
“The 1.5 km road which was constructed about 15 year ago is still not asphalted and gets washed away every monsoon to be repaired by the villagers post monsoon every year,” the locals complain.
As the road doesn’t have a side drain and no re-carpeting or repairs being done, a heavy downpour in this hilly village, floods the whole stretch of the 1.5 km road transforming it into a stream.
Narayan Velip while speaking about the difficulties they face said that it’s risky to commute or walk on this road in such conditions and they face a tough time to go to work in the morning or for the children to go to school.
“We keep our vehicles almost 1.5 km away and then walk home. The school children too have to tread the same road to go to the primary school,” Velip lamented.
“The pothole ridden road is dangerous and as the small children can’t ascertain the depth of the potholes we don’t send our children to school during heavy downpour,” said Kushali Velip another resident of Avali.
“In case of medical emergencies we lift and take the patients to the motorable road, when almost all villages in Goa have good roads it’s unimaginable for anyone to know that our village becomes road less in monsoon,” Velip said in dismay.
With little or no help from authorities, the villagers themselves try and make the road motorable each time it gets washed away, atleast for two wheelers, the locals say.
