PANJIM: The villagers of Corlim and Bhoma have reiterated their demand for a bypass for the National Highway 4A traversing fallow fields, instead of the existing destructive flyover alignment cutting through the villages.
The Village Panchayats of Corlim and Bhoma have unanimously passed resolutions opposing the present alignment as proposed by the PWD and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and have forwarded the plans for the Bypass Highway to the PWD. According to the villagers, the Bypass Highway is 2.5 km shorter than the existing route alignment and connects the NH4A at Old Goa-Kadamba Plateau to the NH4A at Kundaim.
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The village claimed that the Bypass Highway will have multiple benefits as it will be shorter in length, at 7.5 km, when compared to the existing 10.5 km NH4A alignment.
Also, the cost of land acquisition will be less, they added. They further said that the Bypass Highway will protect 116 houses in Corlim and 50 houses in Bhoma from land acquisition, destruction of compound walls, structural damage from road digging, dust and air pollution.
The Bypass will also protect two temples located in Bhoma village from structural damage and degradation due to proximity to the NH. The Bypass, if built, will give scope for future expansion in width, without the need for mass destruction of houses and relocation of Goan residents.
The villagers further said that other villages of Goa are also facing similar land acquisition and highway routing issues including the villages of Chinchinim and Cuncolim, for NH 66. Bypasses should be preferred when Highways pass through such densely inhabited villages and towns, in order to avoid destruction of houses and livelihood of people, they added.
