PANJIM: The State’s capital city continues to resemble a war zone due to digging of roads at several places which has forced Ponjekars and the businessmen community to undergo immense hardship.
The stretch St Inez Church upto Sheetal hotel has been dug while some roads are partly available to the motorists and the others stand completely blocked with heavy trucks and JCB parked there.
The businessmen are fed up with the constant digging activity and delay in completing the roads.
A businessman near Wolfango D’Silva Road said that there is no business. It has come to a standstill. I do not know what the government is planning now but earlier they were intimated when something was taken up. There is intimation for power cuts but no information about the road works. Even if the road work has been carried out the same is incomplete.
Another businessman who has his store situated Dr P Shirgaonkar Road, said, “Tourism season is the wrong time to take up work as we expect footfalls of customers to increase. However, now there is an 80 per cent decline in business.”
The businessman said, “There is no fixed time limit to complete the work. I have been observing that work is on for the last two years. Business in Panjim is not good when compared to coastal areas. Big brands can sustain because of their better financial back up, but it is not possible for the small businessmen whose business is affected for such a long period of time.”
“For us it is a challenge to pull on business for such a long stretch especially during tourism season. If it was during off season I could have understood but this time every businessman hopes to make at least some business. I am not against the work but it should be completed in a fixed time-frame,” the businessman said.
A businessman who has his store on Dr R S Road near the municipal garden said, “My business is affected due to the road digging activity. The road has been dug for the last three months. It was dug after Ganesh Chaturthi and it is still not clear when the work will be ready. The road is for one-way traffic only. Now with the road dug customers are finding it difficult to reach our shops.”
A businesswoman near Church Square said, “The work can be taken up with each road at a time. Complete one stretch and then take up the work of another stretch. But that is not being done. Customers are not visiting our shop due to the dusty roads on account of the digging activity. I have learnt that the road has been dug under the Smart City project. It is okay that the work has been taken up but why is it not being done in phases?”
A resident of St Inez where the digging of road work has been carried out right from Madhuban Circle to the St Inez Circle, said, “There is a famous church in the area which is visited by the faithful daily. Now, it’s almost year-end, the entire stretch in front of the St Inez Church has been dug for around two months. Just half of the road, which is already narrow, is available for motorists. It not only poses trouble for motorists, but has also resulted in dust pollution,” the resident said.
In April this year, the then North Goa District Collector and CEO of the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited had admitted that works under the Smart City Mission in Panjim were being executed at a ‘slightly slow pace’ and practical difficulties were being encountered by the contractors while undertaking the works.
Irked by the slow progress in Smart City Mission projects, the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited and the Public Works Department (PWD) had issued five show cause notices to the contractors for delaying the works related to water supply project and Geographic Information System (GIS)-based master plan for the State’s capital city.
However, the authorities continue to maintain their silence over the action taken against the contractors as works continue at a snail’s pace.