VASCO: Stressing the need to take up long pending road over bridge (ROB) at level crossing number 25 at Arossim in Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim (CAC) panchayat jurisdiction, RDA Minister and Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha on Tuesday assured the affected people of Arossim that not a single house would be touched and only the compound walls of few property owners would be demolished to take up the project work.
She was speaking to reporters after a joint site inspection to ascertain as to how much land would be needed to acquire for the ROB project. Deputy Collector and SDM Mormugao Gaurish Sankhawalkar, officials from land survey department, GSIDC, TCP, PWD, BDO and the affected parties whose land would be acquired for the project were present for the inspection.
“There is a proposal for construction of road over bridge and all the departments today inspected the site to ascertain the areas that would be affected as per the ROB plan prepared by GSIDC. We found that no structures are affected and there are only a few compound walls, which are required to be removed. However, we have also informed the affected parties that we would reconstruct their compound wall leaving the setback area,” she said.
Alina said, “There is an urgent demand from the public to construct the ROB as early as possible as there is a level crossing and during emergency situation and even in normal situation, road users get caught at the crossing during train movements. Also this ROB is not only meant for the people of Cansaulim, but is going to be used by the entire South Goa people.”
Meanwhile, there were chaos witnessed during the inspection as few affected villagers claimed that the bridge should be constructed as per the earlier plan prepared by late Matanhy Saldanha.
Arossim villagers led by Evans Fernandes, Thomas Fernandes, Gerald Fernandes, Sebastiao Fernandes and others categorically stated they are not opposing the road over bridge, however they are demanding a pillar and deck type of a bridge be provided and not the ramp bridge suggested by the GSIDC consultant.
“The plan suggested by the GSIDC is very expensive and requires more land; the pillar deck engineering construction proposed by late Matanhy will bring down the costs and save the scarce land of the owners too, they added.
Revised technical drawings which were promised a year back by GSIDC through MLA’s office and village panchayat never saw the light of the day,” they added.
