PANJIM: As the tourism season reaches its peak on New Year’s Eve and thousands of tourists have already arrived, one of the roads that will be most used on this night – the new Miramar to Dona Paula road – is in complete darkness.
There are no street lights nor any kind of illumination on the entire stretch, and it is not just locals who are affected by this, but also the thousands of tourists using the road to reach Dona Paula jetty, one of the city’s most popular of tourist spots.
“Street lights are very important not only for smooth traffic movement but also to curtail law and order situations and other anti-social activities,” local resident Naresh Salgaocar said. There have been complaints by local residents of nuisance during the night in the absence of street lights.
However, Corporation City of Panaji (CCP) Commissioner Dipak Desai said that the corporation has been continuously writing to Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) to expedite the pending work. “Even after I took charge I have written at least thrice to GSIDC,” he said.
Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado who travels on this road on a regular basis said, “This is the worst road I have seen. I have never seen such a shoddy job.”
However, GSIDC Officer Sandip Chodnekar said the work of illumination has been tendered and they are waiting to give work order.
M Venkata Rao Infra Projects Pvt Ltd are contractors for the project and LKS Consultants have been the consultants. The project consists of construction of concrete road, cycle track, walkway, landscaping for the stretches from Miramar Circle to NIO Circle and from NIO Circle to Dona Paula Jetty and Raj Bhavan.
The road’s concretisation has been embroiled in controversy since being haphazardly tendered despite opposition from the then ruling CCP panel.
