MARGAO: Curchorem-Cacora Municipal Council (CCMC) has set in motion the exercise of selecting a contractor for demolition of the old “unsafe” municipal market building in Curchorem by a competitive bidding process.CCMC had recently invited expressions of interest (EoI) from interested and experienced parties to undertake the work. “The contractor will be selected following the comparative analysis of the quotations received from the agencies,” chief officer, CCMC, Kapil Phadte, told TOI.Several months after the municipality had evicted all the occupants of the building after declaring it “unsafe”, the civic body was unable to carry out the demolition owing to bureaucratic delays.While the CCMC had appointed a contractor to execute the demolition of the building nearly three months ago, the directorate of municipal administration (DMA) declined to give its approval for the work insisting that the civic body invite quotations from interested agencies. The earlier contractor selected by the CCMC had offered to carry out the demolition with no costs to the municipality. This arrangement, CCMC sources said, was worked out to avoid any undue delay in the demolition work considering the rundown condition of the building. CCMC officials had also conducted an inspection and inventory of the building ahead of the scheduled demolition.Following the DMA’s insistence, the CCMC has now opted for the competitive bidding process for the exercise.Phadte said that all adequate safety measures have been put in place to ensure that the demolition work is carried out unhindered. “Six or seven shops which are located on the periphery of the plot will soon be relocated to a place near the GSUDA market complex, so as to provide easy access to machines and vehicles during the demolition work,” Phadte said.Following an order of the high court of Bombay at Goa, the CCMC had evicted 42 traders from the “unsafe” building. While some have been accommodated in the Goa State Urban Development Agency’s (GSUDA) commercial complex near the KTC bus stand, the rest have been allowed to erect temporary structures in the nearby plot owned by the municipality.The demolition of the building will pave way for a commercial complex to be built by GSUDA, tenders for which will be floated soon.

Stay updated with all the Latest Goa headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.