TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: The accident-prone Raia-Borim road, which claimed two lives on Wednesday night, returned to haunt the district and PWD authorities.
The road is believed to have claimed around 10 lives so far with work on the four-lane road dragging on for years now, and at some stretches road widening work held up for want of land acquisitions and funds.
At a joint meeting of residents along with the local MLA Reginaldo Lourenco held at the district collectorate, a slew of measures were outlined to rectify the lapses and hasten the road work, as residents complained of faulty road engineering and long delays in widening the road at accident-prone spots. Raia Sarpanch Rumaldo Gonsalves, land acquisition and PWD officials were also present.
After the meeting, District Collector, N D Agrawal told newsmen that short-term measures such as road repairs, installing dividers and signages along the road will be complete by May 10.
Replying to a question on road widening, the Collector said the land acquisition officer had already declared the award, but possession of the land could not be taken for want of finance from the Finance Department.
“We will immediately take possession of the land and road widening will take place after receiving the amount from the Finance Department”, he added.
He said the Raia Panchayat has been told to withdraw the trade license for a tea shop since area has turned into a traffic bottleneck.
Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco admitted that the entire road is engineered properly, adding that a proposal has been mooted to get the road redone.
“I have impressed upon the Collector to invoke the emergency clause to expedite land acquisition in order to widen the road on the turns”, he said, adding that the authorities will complete the process of land acquisition within 3 to 4 months vis-à-vis the shops.
He told the Collector to take possession of the acquired land, irrespective of the owners.
The PWD officials came under fire for the inordinate delays in completing the road, even as an official attributed the delays to tendering of the work in phases.
Raia Sarpanch Rumaldo Gonsalves said that the administration has outlined a host of measures to avert accidents on the road.
