Team Herald
MARGAO: A group of 25 eminent architects and planners have added their voices to those of Goan citizens, scientists and other groups opposing the planned double tracking of the railway line through the Mollem National Park and the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary (BMWLS).
In a letter to the Director of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the experts expressed grave concerns about the damage to Goa’s heritage homes, villages and human habitation, and the health and wellbeing of communities- apart from the impact on the State’s biodiversity. Lester Silveira, an architect from ‘The Balcao’, has been photo-documenting the damage to these classic structures that are unique architectural and cultural embodiments of Goan culture, as part of a series called ‘Heritage at Risk’. He says of the letter to the WII Director, “We have got many architects and planners onboard and aware from all across India of the irreplaceable damages and unviability of the double tracking project. WII and the Goa Government must pay heed and consider our formal expert recommendation seriously.”
Veteran architect Dean D’Cruz asserted, “In 2021, I was part of a submission to the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court along with 178 other architects about these three destructive linear projects. It is obvious that WII should concur with the well-deliberated findings of the Central Empowered Committee. Citizens shape our development- that cannot be forgotten by any institute.”
Quoting the CEC report, the letter points out that doubling the track, while causing harm to Goa’s heritage architecture and its unique ethos, will not yield the benefits its proponents expect: “The doubling of the railway line will not improve the efficiency of train movement at all, and the doubled line, if allowed, would operate with the same severe limitations as the existing line.”
