Team Herald
VASCO: In order to shift the government offices housed in the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) building and bring them under one roof, Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida, civic body chairperson Deepak Naik and others inspected the Mormugao Port Trust-owned building opposite the Vasco railway station on Monday.
Officers from government departments were present during the site inspection, wherein it has been decided that crucial departments of state administration including deputy collector office, mamlatdar office, excise and health departments should be temporary shifted in one building.
Speaking to reporters, Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida informed that of several sites inspected on Monday, a MPT premises opposite Vasco railway station is suitable considering its location which is hardly 300 meters away from the MMC building. While shifting these crucial government offices, we need to ensure that people especially senior citizens and the disabled do not face hardship. Since the three floors in the MPT building are vacant, we feel that four important offices – Deputy Collector office, mamlatdar office, excise and health department can be temporarily shifted here.
MMC chairperson Deepak Naik informed that after site inspection, municipal engineer Manoj Arsekar has been directed to coordinate with the MPT estate officer to prepare the plan on how to accommodate these government offices in the building.
“Once the plan is prepared, then we would approach the Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar to intervene and ask MPT to lease out its building for a year. Also we would call for another joint meeting once the plans are prepared and hopefully all the government offices will have no issues in shifting to the temporary premises until the renovation and repair of our heritage structure is completed,” Naik said.
He further said, “With regards to the municipal administrative section, we have been looking for an alternate premises either at comunidade hall in Mangor Hill or at Anand Towers in Vasco, still after calculating financial implications we will take final decision and without any delay the work on municipal council building would start in October or latest by first week of November”.
