Smart City: Panaji faces brunt as road digging begins again

PANAJI
Already having borne the brunt for nearly a year due to the Smart City projects taken up since October last year, residents and commuters are staring at another spell of nightmarish experiences driving in the capital city as contractors have again begun digging up the roads.

Since Sunday, dozens of workers have dug open one side of a stretch of the road from St Inez (Taj Vivanta) junction narrowing it and causing traffic snarls along the busy thoroughfare, especially during peak hours.

The purpose of the digging is not known but an official who did not want to be identified said, it was related to the incomplete Smart City projects.

Efforts to get verified information on the nature of work being carried out and why the roads were being dug up again proved futile as officials of the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) did not revert.

The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), meanwhile is unaware of the work being carried out in St Inez. One top CCP official told The Goan that the civic body has not issued any road-digging permission and no intimation has been given by government departments or the IPSCDL.

Panaji had been ravaged for nearly a year since October last year as multiple projects of the IPSCDL were being executed simultaneously.

Roads were dug across the city, making commuting a nightmarish experience. All the work was abruptly halted in June and the State government hurriedly re-soled the streets with a fresh hot-mix carpet but almost every resurfaced road has caved in at multiple spots which are being patched up off and on.