PONDA: Ponda and Curti locals on Wednesday raised their voice against the National Highway Authority of India contractor for his negligence and unplanned work and wasting tax-payers money by digging across the new four-month old highway road to shift the water pipelines at Curti.
A local Sandeep Parkar said, “Before the construction of four-lane road he should have shifted those 900 and 750 mm diameter water pipelines supplying water from Opa to Ponda and Panjim but now he is doing the work by digging the newly made four-lane road which is a waste of public money and causing inconvenience to the traffic movement.”
“The contractor had not followed the guidelines while doing the work on NH. As per the rule, before the construction of four-lane road, the contractor was required to shift the water pipelines, but he failed to do so and now digging the newly constructed road for the said work,” he added.
“Earlier in August due his negligence landslide was caused and 900 and 750 mm diameter pipelines were damaged at Curti which caused hardship to Ponda and Tiswadi locals as there was water shortage for eight days. Around Rs1.25 crore was spent for restoring the pipelines and the contractor didn’t even bear the cost but submitted the bill to PWD,” Parkar informed.
