PANJIM: The Smart City roads have snuffed out four precious lives over the last one year. Lives of these families have been shattered of the families of the victims. Many more are left many injured due to the shoddy and careless manner in which the work is being executed. Only after the death of a youth in Panjim, did the government director the contractor of the Smart City works in Panjim to put warning signboards and lights.
On Saturday, Former Politician and social work Emidio Monteiro of St Estevao, who injured himself from his two wheeler, on the Ribandar Smart City road, injured his head seriously. The accident occurred at 7 pm on 7 November. He succumbed to his injuries, after fighting for his life at Goa Medical College at Bambolim on Saturday November 16. The family and friends are shattered. This is the fourth death linked to Smart City works.
Wilson D’Souza from Ribandar said, “Monteiro’s family should file a case and sue the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Ltd for negligence. It was not an accident but a murder by the Smart City. Ribandar road is in bad shape and many accidents have occurred there. The family should fight the case and get justice for Monteiro.”
The death trail linked to shoddy and unsafe Smart City works started on New year’s day itself. On 1st January 2024, early morning, a 21 year old Ayush Halarnkar, a second year BCom Student of Dhempe College of Arts and Science died after his motorcycle fell into a trench near People’s High School, Panjim. The sewage trench did not have warning signboard and no warning lights.
The deceased's father, Rupesh Halarnkar, a former councillor of the Corporation of the City of Panaji, said, "I do not know what happened. We are in a state of shock." No warning lights were put at the trench.
On 23rd July 2024, teenager Arati Gond from Uttar Pradesh, who was on her bike was crossing the road when a huge tree fell on her near Gracia de Orta garden leading to head injuries. She was trapped under the tree and was declared brought dead to hospital.
Reacting to the death of the teenager, Revenue Minister and Panjim MLA Atanasio Monserrate raised concerns about whether the incident, along with two other recent tree falls near Panjim Church, could be linked to the ongoing Smart City activities.
Monserrate expressed remorse at the death of the teenager saying, “I am deeply sorry for what happened.” He said this which interacting with mediapersons outside the Goa Assembly Complex at that time.
On 17th October 2024, a 28-year-old labourer Angad Kumar, a native of Bihar who was trapped under a pile of soil at a Smart City work site in Ribandar, died. Kumar was trapped at around 7:30am when the soil slid into a trench where he was laying a sewer pipeline to connect it to a sewerage chamber. The work on the first phase of the project, a less that one km stretch from Vithal Mandir to old Goa Institute of Management, commenced on October 13, 2024. The labourer was reportedly not provided with safety gear.