Team Herald
PANJIM: The River Navigation Department temporarily suspended ferry services operating on Volvoi-Surla-Maina route in the wake of a red and orange alert being issued by the Indian Metrology Department (IMD) and rise in water level of the river.
Stating that the ferry services are suspended for the last four days since Tuesday, July 5, Niraj Verekar from Velguem who travels via this route daily lamented that due to the absence of the ferry, he has to travel via Usgao-Ponda which adds 30 km distance to-and-fro to his journey.
He said “Every day, this ferry route sees around 250 commuters. My companion who works at the Electricity Department in Savoi-Verem takes a route via Amona Bridge.”
He further informed that many students studying at the Agriculture College in Savoi-Verem also faced similar problems.
Ruchi Vaze from Surla, a student of Goa College of Engineering who travels to college daily via this ferry, said that due to the irregularity of the ferry, she left travelling via this route. It was the fastest possible route for her to travel from Surla to Ponda.
When contacted, MLA of Priol constituency and Minister of Art and Culture, Govind Gaude said that he is aware of the difficulties faced by the commuters. “The ferry service has stopped due to the rise in water. I am aware that many commuters use this ferry as their mode of transport to curtail the travel distance to a minimum. We are in the process of floating the tender for building a Surla-Volvoi connecting bridge,” he added.
He further said that the process of constructing a connecting bridge from Surla to Volvoi is on top priority. “We have already taken the consent from land owners and No Objection Certificate has also been received from the concerned authority for the acquisition of land. Furthermore, the designing and planning of the project is under process. There are a couple of hurdles which are crossing the way; we will float the tender at the earliest, once these are resolved,” Gaude stated.
He also added that the project is part of Priol and Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant’s constituency (Sanquelim) and that the CM is positive about this developmental work.
