The last deadline the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) set for itself to demolish the sheds and edifices currently housing the fish and meat vendors and get on with the construction of ‘phase III’ of the Panaji market was January this year.
Long past that date, there seems to be no sign of any action either on ‘ground zero’ where the fish vendors occupy the space between the iconic Dempo House and the market or in the corridors of power at the CCP headquarters.
Originally planned to take-off in 2012-13, the phase III of the CCP market meant to house the fish and meat vendors, the project which is to be constructed by the GSIDC, resurfaced on the capital city’s civic body’s to-do list last year in April. And finally plans were drawn to build phase III after demolishing the existing building which is said to be unsafe. Plans were drawn to demolish the building built in the Francisco (Bashick) Branco dominated era of the CCP in its ‘Panjim Municipal Council’ avtaar of the 1980s -- infamous for the comical architectural blunder of a building sans a staircase -- but there is no sign of any action there more than a month later.
If sources in the CCP are to be believed, what has held up the work is the question: where to house the temporary structures where fish and meat vendors can continue doing business until the project is executed.
A tender has been floated to construct temporary stalls for the fish and meat vendors at an estimated cost of Rs 15-odd lakhs.
When the old municipal market building was demolished to start the construction of the phase-I of the new modern market back in 2002-03, the plan was to construct it in three phases.
Phase I of the market like most of the work in the market area leading up to the first edition of the International Film Festival of India hosted in Goa in 2004 was completed at break-neck speed. Even Phase II was completed in a relatively short time in 2007. It’s quite another matter that in their hurry to utilize the newly built market the authorities botched up by locating the market tenants there without executing fresh lease deeds leading to the CCP not getting even a single penny in rent all these years.
How soon will phase III for the fish and meat vendors be taken up and completed is difficult to say as a few occupants of the old building set to be demolished are yet to be officially dealt with and evicted. Only then, can work to demolish it begin and prepare the ground for actual construction of phase III, the sources said.
