PANJIM: Rains continued to lash Goa for second consecutive day on Monday, throwing normal life out of gear across the State.
Water entered several houses and shops in Panjim in areas like 18th June Road, Kundaikar Nagar and also at Ribandar where Smart City work has been taken up. Landslide and protection wall collapse were reported on NH 66 at Malpem-Nhaibag yet again. Traffic was diverted via the old route. Due to the landslide, huge boulders came crashing down on the road at Dhargalim. The protection wall was significantly damaged. The recently hot mixed road at Usgao-Ganjem caved in, causing a traffic jam on the busy route.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert till July 12.
“Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall very likely at isolated places with strong surface winds over North Goa and South Goa districts of the State on July 8, 2024,” the IMD said in its forecast.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that in view of the rains, he took a review of the situation in the State from both the Collectors.
“The Disaster Management team is working on the ground, WRD is pumping out water from flooded areas. The Collectors have recommended names of a few members of the public, who helped save lives of others by putting their own lives at risk. These persons will be felicitated,” he said.
The Disaster Management teams are on the field and handling the situation systematically, he said, adding except for one or two low-lying areas, flooding has not occurred anywhere in Panjim.
“Yesterday, I too was in Panjim. Flooding was only at two places,” he said.
Panjim MLA and Revenue Minister Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate said, “Rains are heavy. Now we can blame it only on the rain. Let us see. It is testing time. We will get to know what is wrong or what went wrong as far as Smart City works are concerned.”
When he was asked what was the point of spending so much money on infrastructure development, he said, “I too feel the same.”
“Let us rectify the mistakes which have been committed. I cannot say anything right now. Let us assess what happened. Whoever is the contractor, in the tender, it must have been mentioned what has to be the quality of work. MD (Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited Managing Director) will assess the damages and then responsibility will be fixed,” he said.
However, he said that it is the responsibility of the consultant for the damages and added that the illegal structures at St Inez will be removed.
Meanwhile, on July 8, between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm, Old Goa received 1.2 inches of rainfall, Panjim (0.9 inches), Mormugao (0.6 inches) and Goa Biodiversity Board (0.4 inches), the IMD said.