TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Upset that road digging work at Aquem Baixo led to the breaking PWD water pipeline, the local residents called on the PWD for a site inspection on Thursday.
The road was being dug for the laying Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) in Salcete taluka.
The trouble started around four days ago when the road cutting was witnessed by citizens as a PWD domestic water supply pipeline was damaged following the use of road cutting machine.
Navelim resident Manuelin Pereira complained to the site supervisor of the nominated contractor who failed to repair the pipeline. As the leakage persisted, the contractor instructed the labourers to tie the damaged pipeline with a cycle tube. The leakage persisted and the resident continued to get muddy water through her tap. On Thursday morning, the contractor however cut through the concrete of the culvert on the main road and this alarmed the residents as they feared the culvert could break or suffer permanent damage.
Following protests by the locals, the PWD dispatched PWD DIV VI Supervisor Rajesh Naik to the site, who carried out the inspection and called for all the requesite permissions and documents to be presented. The locals demanded that damaged culvert be repaired immediately in order to avert any weakening of the main culvert that could lead to its collapse in the monsoon as the concrete slab was now damaged and would not be in a position to hold up in the wake of heavy traffic plying over it.
Local residents stated that they would lodge a formal complaint against the contractor as the damage to the culvert is grave and could lead to a further disaster especially with the approaching monsoons.
