Team Herald
MARGAO: Hailing the moment as the first in the State for development with consent, Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardessai launches the work of relocating the St Francis Xavier chapel at Madel by the side of the National Highway after the KTC bus stand and agreed to help build a community hall adjacent to the new chapel.
The work of constructing a new chapel at a cost of around Rs 20 lakhs has been awarded to Race Constructions and is expected to be completed within six months. The new chapel will have 45 sq mts of built up area as against the existing 22 sq mts and will be relocated opposite the existing site on municipal land that has been filled up.
Holy Spirit Parish Priest Fr Avinash Rebello who blessed the foundation stone asserted that since the municipality has transferred the land admeasuring 700 sq mts to the Holy Spirit Fabrica the chapel committee will have to function under the guidance of the Fabrica.
Ankit Prabudessai the consultant who designed the chapel said they have studied the heritage churches in Goa and accordingly designed the chapel retaining the Baroque and Neo Roman style with cornices, columns and height ratio being maintained as was present in the old structures to retain the heritage look of the area.
The chapel will be an RCC construction with Mangalore tile roofs and will look like the old churches. The cost of the Cross and Bell has not been included as that will have to be decided by the chapel committee.
The Chapel Committee President Judas D’Costa while recalling that the old chapel was not allowed to be demolished for road widening thanked the Margao Municipal Council for giving them the land for the new chapel and appealed to have more land nearby to construct a community hall which was needed by the people.
He said the chapel committee had around Rs. 10 lakhs that they were willing to invest in construction of the community hall. Responding promptly to the request Vijai not only agreed to help them get the land but offered Rs. 10 lakhs from him to construct the hall.
Margao Municipal Council Chairperson Dr Babita Prabhudessai said the credit for relocating the chapel goes solely to Vijai Sardessai who pursued the matter relentlessly so as to resolve the people’s long pending demand.
While recalling that during his earlier term as MLA he could not convince the government about the relocation of the chapel he said he joined the government at present precisely to get the work that was not done started and completed.
Vijai said the relocation of the chapel was done purely to ease bottleneck that the existing chapel was causing on the national highway. “Development also means easing bottlenecks and that is what we are doing,” he said.
He also announced that the St Francis Xavier Chapel at Gogol junction will also be relocated and the work is already tendered. That chapel is also estimated to cost around Rs 20 lakh and an additional around Rs 28 lakh will be spent on erecting a retaining wall.
At Madel besides the chapel there will be multi level parking buildings constructed on the remaining land and a food court is also being planned in the area according to officials who however did not wish to go record as the plans are not yet finalised.
