TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: In the wake of parking in the city becoming a nightmare, Mayor Surendra Furtado has sent a reminder to the Chief Town Planner asking them to amend the Goa Land Development and Buildings Construction Regulation 2010 in a bid to regulate off-street parking spaces for vehicles in the capital city.
This has become all the more exigent since the Corporation of the City of Panaji’s plans to enforce pay parking for the umpteenth times are stuck in red tape and the corporation has cleared around 13 commercial projects without notifying any changes in provisions for parking by builders.
Neither has the CCP conducted any survey to determine the extent of space meant for parking as per plans and converted it into saleable space as alleged by corporators themselves, nor taken any action against the builders concerned.
In his letter Furtado writes, “Sir, this is a reminder to my letter No … and subsequent letter dated 09-07-2013 on the above subject. It is regretted that I have not received any communication from your side regarding the action taken by your department on the proposal of this Corporation as communicated to you in the above letters.”
Furtado admits that subsequent to the letters, the Corporation in its meeting held on 31-07-2013 had decided that “since some parties who had submitted their plans for approval of commercial-cum-residential complexes to this Corporation have approached the High Court of Bombay at Goa and since the amendments when approved by the Government of Goa will be from prospective date, this Corporation has decided to approve the projects which are already received by this Corporation,” but before the rules are amended and before any check is done to identify and rectify any irregularities committed by builders or notifying paid parking.
The mayor also says that henceforth no new projects shall be approved unless amendments as suggested by the Corporation to the Town & Country Planning Department are approved by the government.
It may be recalled that the corporation had been ‘gifted’ some trucks for their usage by some reputed companies that are in the real estate business and some more are expected.
