HC moved over work on Miramar-Dona Paula road

  • 01/05/2014

  • Times Of India (Goa)

While social activist Aires Rodrigues has approached the high court of Bombay at Goa against the proposed concretization of the Miramar-Dona Paula road alleging that public funds are being squandered, the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) will discuss the issue threadbare at its general body meeting on May 13. Panaji mayor Surendra Furtado claimed that the whole council was kept in the dark while commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues granted permission to the Goa state infrastructure development corporation development corporation (GSIDC) on his own. Since the corporation was not informed about the project worth 66 crore, he said the councillors will propose for recall of permission granted. Rodrigues, who is also managing director of the GSIDC, is currently on a month-long leave and could not be contacted for his comment. Furtado raised a question as to whether one requires 66 crore for a road, when instead, many other works could be done with that "huge amount", for the city. That stretch of the road was hot-mixed only a few months ago after it was dug for laying a sewerage pipeline. Rodrigues, in his PIL, which was mentioned before a division bench on Wednesday, pointed out that the road was hot-mixed only in January 2014 at a cost of 1.3 crore and has now been dug up again to be concretized at a cost of 66 crore. The PIL also accused Rodrigues of issuing an NOC in his capacity as commissioner of CCP.