Exactly three years down the line and the old railway station premises continues to be a neglected and in dilapidated condition. Any stranger passing by the Old Station road will mistaken the old building as a ghost house with thick and wild vegetation grown all around – offering a perfect hub for anti-socials operating from the area.
After the commissioning of the new Margao Railway Station, the Konkan Railway had converted the old station premises into a staff quarters. But, the building has now been vacated, not to make way for the commercial hub, but for an additional railway line with a platform.
Says KRC Sr Public Relations Manager, Baban Ghatge: “The Old Station premises have been vacated. We are laying an additional railway line close to the premises with a platform. The old dilapidated station premises and the eye sore will go once the railway platform takes concrete shape,” he said.
Ghatge has no idea whether the promised commercial hub will finally take shape at the old railway station, but he said the additional line and the platform is being laid for want of land at the main Margao Railway Station.
A visit to the old railway station premises revealed that a lone sodium lamp proved grossly inadequate to illuminate the entire area. The adjoining footbridge — connecting the city to Calconoda – is also poorly lit with just two tube lights, notwithstanding that the footbridge has been a hot spot for chain snatching incidents in recent times. And, inquiries with the power department have revealed that the concerned division has prepared estimates for the footbridge illumination.
