A stretch of road at the busy St Inez junction dug up for Smart City works.
Photo Credits: Narayan Pissurlenkar
PANAJI
The battered condition of the city's roads and the inconvenience it causes to residents and commuters visiting the city has been the subject of much public criticism and discussion for nearly three years ever since Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) began executing in 2021, two of its major projects -- Smart Roads and the new sewerage network.
The noise hasn't stopped till date what with 'smart city' contractors resuming work and resorting to excavation of several stretches of the city's roads again.
From January this year, Panjimites and the many visitors to the capital faced the brunt of trenches having been dug on every other road to build the new sewage chamber network in the city.
So unbearable was the inconvenience, some resorted to knocking on the doors of the Bombay High Court at Goa, where two Public Interest Litigations were instituted in March, related to the condition of the roads and the high levels of dust pollution in the city.
During the course of hearing these petitions, the two judges hearing them -- Justices Mahesh Sonak and Valmiki Menezes -- reached a point where they decided to themselves inspect all the Smart City work sites and verify for themselves the claims of the petitioners and counterclaims from the government and the IPSCDL.
Sonak and Menezes actually walked some of the streets of the city and did conduct the promised inspection on April 2. But, as feared by most Panaji residents, the frenzied activity of the contractors and IPSCDL to put in place anti-dust pollution and other safety measures appeared to be targeted only at the two judges' inspection.
For, barring the area at St Inez near the Taj Vivanta junction there were no measures taken to alleviate the dust pollution like sprinkling water in other areas of the city.
Days before the scheduled inspection by the judges, most of the areas where work is being executed got their due in terms of anti-dust pollution measures and other interventions to ease the inconvenience to traffic and commuter movement. However, after April 2, these measures were implemented only around the St Inez junction near the Taj Vivanta hotel.
Even the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) took action only after the judges fixed the inspection. Ambient air quality monitoring vans were placed at some of the sites, which it never bothered to do for over two years. Months later, however, none of these vans are anywhere to be seen in Panaji.
Monsoon break
Then came the time for the work to be halted due to the likely onset of monsoons in June and the Bombay High directed that all work be stopped by May 31.
However, IPSCDL began work on the final leg of the new sewerage system between the Caculo Mall junction and the PWD's sewage plant at Tonca only on May 16.
However, the work of laying the main trunk line and manholes from the Fire Services headquarters to the Tonca STP encountered problems with high water table and collapsing mud impeding the work. So despite having committed to stick to the deadline, the work spilled over beyond May 31. The work was finally wound up by mid-June.
Monsoon fury
Once work was halted, several sections of the roads were then re-carpeted with a fresh coat of hot-mix but the fury of the monsoon washed away patches of the bitumen and tar mix leaving gaping pot-holes all over the city which the CCP and PWD were struggling patch.
One stretch of road which was freshly re-laid but was destroyed by the rains was the one from the TB Hospital at Tonca to the SFX Chapel in Bhatlem. Repeated attempts to fill up the potholes didn't help much, forcing the authorities to pave a whole 50-100 metre stretch with interlocking tiles.
Similar was the fate of several other internal roads in the city which had been freshly relaid with a carpet of hot mix soon after the 'Smart City' contractors covered all the dug-up trenches for the monsoon break. Once the westerly monsoon hit in the later part of June, the roads began to sink in sporadic locales ending up with gaping potholes all over the city.
Now, Panjimites stare at problems again
With more than 20 per cent of the Smart City work still pending, residents and visitors to the capital city now face the prospect of going through the same hardships of the previous two years.
Contractors have begun digging up roads again to finish some of the residual work, especially related to the two major projects -- sewerage and smart roads.
In several places in the city, trenches have been dug and workers are seen working on building ducts to connect the newly built network of sewerage chambers to the old system. Elsewhere, trenches have been dug along footpaths which are being redesigned with interlocking pavers, ostensibly to lay service and other utility pipes and cables.
The only silver lining for city residents and visitors now seems to be the March 31, 2025 deadline set by the central government to finish all smart city works, even if staying true to such deadlines in case of government projects is a rare occurrence.
