New Dona Paula jetty in tatters after only 6 years

Is the new Dona Paula jetty, built by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) and completed as recently as 2009 in distress? Exclusive photographs obtained by ‘Herald’ of the bottom of the jetty would seem to suggest so. They show that the reinforcing steel bars in the Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) structure are exposed and corroding. 

The jetty, an important tourist landmark in the state, gets thousands of visitors everyday, despite the fact that it is in a dilapidated condition. The railings of the jetty have corroded and are broken in many places, posing a grave threat to visiting tourists. The electrical lamps, too, have been removed by sawing them off after they suffered corrosion within a few years of their installation. The steel staircases leading down to the water have corroded to the point of being unsafe, and the tube fenders installed for berthing of boats are all missing.

In fact, the old Dona Paula jetty, which still exists next to the new one and acts as a breakwater, protecting the new jetty from the powerful waves, may even be said to be in a better condition. The GSIDC has more or less confirmed the condition of the jetty by ordering a Non-Destructive Test (NDT) on the jetty in April this year. 

The NDT was cleverly phrased as a “structural audit of the Dona Paula jetty to ascertain its carrying capacity” by the GSIDC so as not to alarm the citizenry. In fact, GSIDC Managing Director, Sanjit Rodrigues told Herald at the time that the GSIDC wanted to ascertain the “strength” of the jetty, ie, the structure’s capacity to carry benches, hawkers, shops, restaurants, etc. The audit, he claimed’ would help to contribute to the Panjim’s master plan. But an NDT was very much part of the scope of the study. 

Not surprisingly, the test report is being kept top secret. According to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) ‘Manual on Repair and Rehabilitation of RCC Buildings’, exposed steel rapidly corrodes and expands to 10 times its size, cracking the concrete around it and allowing permeability of atmospheric gases. This facilitates further and more rapid corrosion, especially in a chloride-rich marine environment. Accelerated corrosion causes even greater cracking and then ‘spalling’ of concrete, exposing large sections of the steel reinforcement to the atmosphere. The process results in thinning of the steel reinforcement, ultimately leading to the possible collapse of the structure. 

Unless swift and adequate measures are forthcoming from the GSIDC, the life of the new Dona Paula jetty may be much shorter than expected, just as the life of the lights, railings, gangways, fenders, and other paraphernalia has been. And who is responsible for this colossal waste of the taxpayers’ money? Apart from the GSIDC itself, it is the contractor for the jetty, a company called M Ventaka Rao Infraprojects, which happens to be the GSIDC’s all-time favourite contractor. M/s M Venkata Rao Infraprojects has bagged nearly a third of all GSIDC projects, and pretty much gets to do what it likes, since the higher-ups in the GSIDC do not exert themselves to stop its frequent and flagrant violation of contract conditions.