Nerul comunidade won’t give up land for ropeway

TEAM HERALD
PANJIM:  The Nerul comunidade on Sunday rejected the government’s proposal asking for land for the proposed ropeway from Reis Magos to Panjim.
Citing scarcity of land and the Supreme Court’s observations on community land, the general body meeting of shareholders rejected the Tourism Department’s proposal requesting the comunidade to allocate around 31,000 square metres of land at Reis Magos.
The meeting also warned that in case the government tried to forcefully acquire the land there would be serious consequences.
Sunday’s meeting saw shareholders arguing absolutely against the proposal. The department had written to the comunidade after the high-powered monitoring committee of the government had cleared the proposal and discussed and finalized one of the three sites earlier shortlisted for setting up of a ropeway.
According to officials, the Sports Authority of Goa ground at Panjim has been selected for setting up the ropeway facility on the capital city side while on the other side it would be the Reis Magos fort.
The committee had also asked the consultant to prepare a detailed project report by taking the selected sites in mind and put it up for the final approval.
The ropeway is supposed to have 40 cars that would ferry people and is projected to cut the time required to reach Reis Magos from Panaji to just 7-8 minutes as against 15-20 minutes now by road. The sites on either side would have a capacity for parking of 300 vehicles.
The government is supposed to invite global tenders for selection of a joint venture partner for the project in the next few months and the project is to be completed in about 18 months from the date the joint venture partner is selected and given permissions to undertake the work.