MARGAO: The Western Bypass in Margao has now become a distant dream as both the State and the Central governments are reportedly unwilling to spend huge amount of money for the road over stilts.
PWD sources said that the stretch of road from fish market to Varca road has been removed from the scope of the work of the present tender.
According to the PWD sources, building the 2.75 km stretch of road with an elevated structure will cost at least Rs 600 crore. However, the Centre as agree to give only Rs 40 crore and the State government will have to foot the balance bill.
Since this stretch of road is now removed from the scope of the present tender, the work of additional waterways development along this stretch will have to be retendered so that the road is completely connected.
Since the completion of this road is now at a dead end, the line departments have along with the police inspected the stretch of the roads which are complete. The Police along with the PWD will develop a plan of traffic diversion for convenience as well as to make the best use of the road which has been completed.
Executive Engineer L B Naik said that the government was looking at the best possible options to connect and complete this road as soon as possible.
The problem of the inundation of the areas around the Western Bypass has been age old. It is being attributed to the exhausted capacity of the Sal River and its tributaries to take in more water during monsoons.
Even as the ex-CM late Manohar Parrikar placed a proposal of having big water channels to avoid flooding of low lying areas, the plan was rejected by some people for want of road over elevated structure on stilts.
