Team Herald
PANJIM: Already facing unprecedented hardships for last few months due to indiscriminate digging of roads in Panjim under the Smart City Mission, the woes of Panjim residents and the visitors is likely to get compounded during the rains as while on one hand the CCP has begun desilting drains, the work on dug up roads continues under the Smart City Mission, putting a big question mark on the capital city’s monsoon preparedness.
The work of laying sewer lines is one of the major works currently going on under the Smart City Mission and it is being carried out in a “haphazard” way, particularly in the St Inez area, where sewage from deep dug up pits was seen overflowing on the roads.
Looking at the current state of affairs, citizens and opposition Councillors claim that neither the ongoing Smart City works, nor the work of cleaning all the drains in the city will be completed before the onset of monsoon.
They fear that this will result in major flooding in most parts of the city during the monsoon.
“Monsoon is around the corner and work still continues in the city. A job half done is as good as none. The authorities have failed to utilize their time in an optimum way, and it’s because of them we will suffer during the monsoon,” Rochelle Fernandes, a city resident said.
Though head of the Smart City project and Panjim’s Mayor independently assured that their stretch of work would be completed, locals had very little faith in the Smart City component being completed
“There is no doubt that the stretches where smart city work is currently in progress will see major flooding, it will be better if the state government should consider submitting its requirement for the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) with the Central government for monsoon. We may need them to rescue us,” Deepak Pandit, a resident of St Inez said.
Former Mayor and senior-most councillor, Surendra Furtado said that the pre-monsoon work by CCP and the ongoing smart city works are being executed at a “slow pace”.
“Presently, there are no G20 related events going on in the city, yet they are doing the work at a snail’s pace. Panjimites should prepare for the worst because I don’t see any major preventive measures being taken either by the City Corporation or the Smart City,” Furtado said.
Speaking to O Heraldo CCP Mayor Rohit Monserrate said that City Corporation will complete the pre-monsoon work by mid-May.
“CCP workers are desilting the drains along the stretch where smart city works have been completed and we aim to cover all those stretches by mid-May. The drains along the stretches where currently Smart City works are going on will be cleaned by the respective contractors and the government departments, who are executing the work. We have put in additional manpower and are giving our best in preparing for the monsoon,” Monserrate said.
Vijaykumar Honawad, Chief General Manager of Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Ltd, assured that contractors executing the works under the Smart City Mission will clean the drains before the onset of the monsoon.
“Contractors will use the services of their labourers to clean the drains on the stretches where they are currently carrying out the Smart City-related work. To my knowledge, at some locations, the cleaning of drains has already started. They will complete it before the monsoon. The drains in the other areas of the city will be cleaned by CCP,” Honawad said.