The Sateri temple at Bhoma, which is facing the axe for the expansion of Panaji-Ponda highway.
Photo Credits: The Goan
PANAJI
In the battle between development and faith, Bhoma village stands as a poignant example of how Goa’s road expansion projects clash with deeply held local beliefs and traditions.
The widening of the highway between the capital Panaji and Ponda has failed to take off along a significant stretch in the jurisdiction of the Bhoma-Adcolna village because almost the entire 3,000-strong community there fears the destruction of the four temples which define and shape their religious beliefs, their culture and even their daily life.
It is among the smallest of Goa's villages whose inhabitants are rooted in simple but grounded village life and are willing to pay, even with their life, to retain its originality, much of it linked to the rituals and feasts celebrated in the four temples the village hosts. These temples are dedicated to the deities Mahadev, Nagzarkar, Sateri and Sati, one of them said to date back to the early 19th century.
So when the project to widen the highway between Panaji and Ponda, which runs through their village, was first proposed, the residents opposed it holding agitations and demanding that Bhoma be skirted with a bypass. The demand was steadfastly resisted by the government, both politicians and bureaucrats.
The confrontation of sorts reached a zenith in 2022 and 2023 when the villagers began holding public demonstrations and angry protests, even often getting into skirmishes with top politicians including Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude, who represents them as their MLA from the Priol constituency.
In fact, in the run-up to the 2024 Parliamentary Elections, Bhoma became the epicentre of the narrative that destructive and big-ticket projects are being bulldozed in Goa against people's wishes. So heated was the campaign that it became one of the first issues that MP Viriato Fernandes raised in Parliament through a query in December last, although Bhoma isn't part of his South Goa constituency.
The query evoked a positive response from Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari who assured that no religious structures in Bhoma will be affected in the work of widening the Ponda-Bhoma stretch of National Highway (NH) 748.
Gadkari said in his written reply in Lok Sabha that the widening has been finalised along the existing alignment in such a way that there is a bare minimum impact on existing structures/ water bodies. "No religious structures are affected and the elevated structure in the built-up area has been proposed within available Right of Way (RoW)," indicating that the plan now involves an elevated road instead of going for a bypass.
According to Gadkari's reply, the proposal submitted by the State government after local consultations requires the acquisition of just 4.53 hectares.
The 9.6-km stretch of the highway from Ponda to Bhoma has been sanctioned Rs 557 crore for the widening work. Work hasn't commenced yet and the ground reality of the nearly decade-long controversy at Bhoma will now be known when contractors actually begin to roll their bulldozers through the village to execute the work.
