The ongoing sewerage works in Panaji.
Photo Credits: Narayan Pissurlenkar
PANAJI
The new sewerage system and the 'smart roads' are the big two projects of the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCL) which have made life hell for residents and visitors to the capital Panaji since 2021.
Now, with both these projects nearly 25 per cent incomplete, its contractors are in a race against time to complete all 'Smart City' related work by the March 31 deadline set by the Centre.
In fact, the IPSCDL has already conceded that the work is unlikely to be completed before the deadline and has officially set a new deadline in May.
A senior IPSCDL official told 'The Goan' that the two major projects which are currently being worked on involve connecting the new sewerage chamber network to the old system for which certain stretches of the city's roads have been excavated again.
The second project involves redesigning footpaths, laying pavers and landscaping which the IPSCDL is confident will be completed by the end of January.
On the sewerage project, a major hurdle faced by contractors is the final stretch from the Caculo Mall up to the Sewage Treatment Plant at Tonca. Here, the trenches to lay the sewage pipes have to be dug really deep, cutting through difficult and frequently collapsing sandy soil. The water table here is also very high posing more difficulties, the official said, adding, however, that this work too is expected to stretch up to the March 31 deadline.
Meanwhile, in an ongoing public interest litigation being heard by the Bombay High Court at Goa, the State government has said all Smart City work will be fully completed by May this year. The assurance was given to a Division Bench of the High Court by Goa's Advocate General Devidas Pangam.
Pangam also told the court that the three stretches of roads where work is being executed -- M G Road from Don Bosco junction to Caculo Island, from road stretch from Geeta Bakery to the D B Road t-junction at the 2STC headquarters and the road from St Inez Junction to Taj Vivanta junction -- will also be made motorable by the end of next week.
