With Parrikar’s return, Margao hopes to see better days ahead
- | Monday | 18th June, 2018
By October 2014, the engineers of the consultancy firm had paid four visits to Margao to understand the developmental needs of the city and provide inputs for the plan. Parrikar was keenly interested in the project as Margao badly needs holistic development,” Raiturcar said.Completion of the ring road project, finding solutions for bottlenecks on the Eastern bypass highway at Nuvem, Western bypass from Verna to Navelim, a transport terminus on the outskirts of the city, development of green areas, providing for recreation zones, cycling tracks, pedestrian streets, etc were among the concepts that were being planned for the city under the project. Interactions were held by the agency with various government agencies like PWD (sewerage and water supply divisions), South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA), land survey department, traffic police, etc, over issues concerning Margao’s development.However, the rapidly altering political situations led to ‘Imagine Margao’ being relegated to the backburner.Sources in the GSIDC said that while the master plan for Margao is in place, attempts were made to see “how best the various plans for the city could be integrated.”BJP leader Sharmad Raiturkar, who was keenly pursuing the project, sounded sanguine about its revival.“Now that he is back, I will pursue the matter with the chief minister. MARGAO: An air of anticipation in the BJP camp is palpable following the return of chief minister Manohar Parrikar to the state to take over the reins of the administration.Senior BJP leaders said that Parrikar’s “electrifying presence” in the state would help improve the development index of Margao that had remained neglected for quite a while.Political observers never tire to point out how Margao got a raw deal following Parrikar’s elevation to the centre as the country’s defence minister, and that when he dramatically returned to head the state government following the 2017 assembly polls, the compulsions of political alliance took centrestage, much to the neglect of the state’s commercial capital.Sources pointed out how Parrikar’s ambitious plans, during his earlier stint as chief minister, for effecting a holistic makeover for Margao city, grounded soon after his exit to Delhi to take over the reins of the country’s defence.The Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) under whose aegis the project was to be executed failed to take the idea any further.Days before Parrikar moved to the national capital in November 2014, the state government had decided to award the work for drawing a master plan for Margao to Spain-based LKS India Pvt Ltd – the same design firm that has drafted the master plan for the state’s capital city titled ‘Imagine Panaji .’ The ground work for the planning process for Margao had also begun in right earnest.
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