PANAJI
In October last year, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had laid the foundation stone for the new Administrative Building of the Corporation of the City of Panaji with much fanfare and solemnity -- with Catholic, Hindu and Muslim clerics chanting prayers.
Now, more than one year later, not a single brick has been laid yet, the project stuck in bureaucratic red-tape and nagging problems related to relocating the administrative setup of the CCP to an alternative temporary premises and vacating the tenants.
The Rs 75 crore project has been entrusted to the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA)
Interestingly the project has been lying in limbo since November 2021, when a foundation stone was also laid by the then Urban Development Minister Milind Naik in the first term of current Mayor Rohit Monserrate. The project had then been estimated to cost Rs 35 crore.
Now, according to sources in both the CCP and the GSUDA, the project has failed to take off yet because the idea of building it part by part has been junked.
“Earlier. one building was to be built on the cleared part of the plot. It has been stalled because now the plan is to build the whole project in one go,” said a top CCP official.
The project is planned over the entire 14,700-odd square meters but much of this property’s periphery is the older, Portuguese-built Praca do Commercio, where several commercial establishments including Cafe Aram, Farmacia Salcete among others which operate there are several decades old and getting them to vacate is a complex proposition for the CCP.
Six months ago, CCP commissioner Clen Madeira was optimistic that work will gain pace after the current building is fully vacated and the administration shifts to a temporary location elsewhere in the city.
Madeira had said in early June that the Old High Court building formerly occupied by the Commercial Taxes Department and the Excise Department was where the CCP administration was to move, but lack of clarity from the State government on whether to occupy the whole ground-plus-one building or just the top floor has delayed it.
The government has also rejected the CCP’s demand to be allocated the premises next to the old Patto bridge currently with the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCL).
GSUDA, meanwhile, has already completed the tendering process and issued the work order. However, other than demolishing a portion of the old building on a stretch along the Atmaram Borkar Road, no further work has been done for the last more than one year.
The project envisages a four-storey building with a basement and a central open space of about 600 square meters.
The four-storey building will accommodate the CCP’s administrative building, a town hall and shops and offices.
Delay due to tenants?
Another reason for the delay are the quasi-judicial proceedings to get the tenants of the ‘Praca do Commercio’ to vacate their premises being conducted by the CCP’s Estate Officer Victoria Gonsalves.
Most of these businesses are popular outlets almost synonymous with Panaji’s ethos and recent history and are running commercial operations which the CCP may find near impossible to come up with a compensation formula for the duration of their displacement.
