MARGAO: A senior citizen from Colva sustained injuries on Saturday morning when he tripped over a slab placed unevenly on the small pedestrian bridge at the touristy Colva Beach.
He has now put a sandbag at the spot to warn others but he has criticised the condition of the bridge.
This is the latest mishap at Colva Beach, where a tourist was electrocuted a few months ago and, in another incident, a lamp post fell to the ground and nearly hit the people standing below it.
“Every day at 6.45 am, I go for my walk. This morning, I had a nasty fall on this refurbished bridge, which was repaired only after our constant reminders. However, there has been no further inspection of this shoddy work. The contractor has laid a 90 x 80 cm granite piece right in the middle of the slippery slope, where I had my fall. I hurt myself, injured my back and was bleeding too. I hope there are no internal injuries on my back. I am in quite a bit of pain,” said Laurente Rodrigues, the senior citizen.
“As a precautionary measure, I have laid a bag of sand in front of the granite piece on the bridge so that other people who walk on the bridge don’t fall while they proceed downwards. This issue has to be highlighted and the contractor should be booked for his negligence and unprofessionalism,” said Rodrigues.
Another beach-goer remarked that the problem with any work undertaken by government departments or their contractors is that there is always something that remains incomplete. “Even if a road is laid fresh, or a new flyover is commissioned with great fanfare, there is always construction rubble and debris left on the side. Nothing ever has a clean, neat finish,” he complained.
“Very recently, a tourist lost his life due to the negligence of the Tourism Department and the contractor concerned. As a citizen of Colva, I wish to prevent another disaster from happening,” added Rodrigues.
