The Miramar-Dona Paula concrete road that courted controversy is taking shape, albeit at a snail’s pace. When work on the proposed three-lane road, to replace the four-lane road that had been recently hot mixed and tarred after a sewage line was put in began, there was much hue and cry. However, even as part of the concrete road is completed, the contractors have started digging the other side of the road.
The Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) has tendered a contract for over Rs 66 crore to replace this road by excavating it out and replacing it with a three-lane concrete road as recommended as per the Master Plan for Panjim.
For the road from Dona Paula to Miramar only the stretch from Miramar to Kala Academy has been marked as four-lane.
Though the government may deny there is a resource crunch, evidence points otherwise. Due to the large amounts of outstandings, contractors are doing the work almost in phases. Officials, however, deny it and no contractor is willing to come on record on this.
GSIDC Managing Director Sanjit Rodrigues denies that work at the jetty and the concrete three lane road from Miramar to Dona Paula has been slow.
“The work is still on. We are trying to finish the maximum work before the coming monsoon season. We will fill the portion (dug up) before monsoon. We don’t want to cause inconvenience to people during the rains,” Rodrigues said, adding, “The balance work would be taken up post monsoon.”
The work on the concrete road from NIO Circle, Dona Paula to Raj Bhavan has been completed.
The road was dug up over six months ago to concretize and put footpaths. But now, just a passage to the Governor’s residence has been completed while the rest remains a mess.
The reason that the then chief minister and present Defence minister Manohar Parrikar had put forward for the project was that there would be no reason to touch it again for another 50 years. Any repairs would involve removing the pavers on the footpath and then putting them back on.
The road is now slated to be completed by end 2015, delayed from the ambitious initial deadline of Dec 2014
