KG Thomas, the contractor who apparently contrived to get this lucrative job, quoted Rs 2,60,000 to supply 13 concrete benches that will be placed on the footpath being built. So, now you will have vagabonds sleeping on these benches at night creating a nuisance for people waiting for the last bus to Margao.

November 14, 2008

The only "renovation" that happened

Last week you read how Rs 1,59,68,204 tax money is at this moment being wasted on a project mysteriously called ‘renovation of the garden at Rua De Ourem’ in Panjim. There is no garden really, but that’s old hat now. You also read how a cable duct is being built at a cost of Rs 77 lakh but whose real purpose is to showcase it to various agencies. That was the first part conceived for the project. The second part described here, costing all of Rs 82 lakh, was conceived to create an additional pathway for pedestrians by extending the footpath/garden by 90 cms into the dirty creek. This will be achieved by constructing reinforced concrete cement beams and slabs. And there still won’t be a garden.

Led down the garden path
After all how much money can you make on plants etc? It is the concrete aspect that solidifies this and makes the big bucks move, if you get my drift. The funny thing as I said before, nobody uses this side of the road because it is sun-drenched. Those who do walk in this rather isolated area, use the opposite footpath shaded by a long line of buildings etc. This is the side too where people park their cars because it has buildings and shops etc. Therefore, I don’t see anybody using the car park planned on the other side. Why? Because, the narrow road, approximately 8-9 m wide simply won’t accommodate cars parked either side. On the other hand, since drivers give a hoot where they park, this could create one hell of a parking problem. I asked GSIDC, the perpetrators of this imbecilic idea if they had ever thought about shifting this equally misplaced parking lot to an appropriate place, they answered they had never thought of it. How can you, when you don’t hire an architect, and do things on impulse.

Benchmark

Call it that, because KG Thomas, the contractor who apparently contrived to get this lucrative job, quoted Rs 2,60,000 to supply 13 concrete benches that will be placed on the footpath being built. So, now you will have vagabonds sleeping on these benches at night creating a nuisance for people waiting for the last bus to Margao. Or, the Corporation of the City of Panjim might just be convinced to shift the raddiwallahs from the sacrosanct Azad Maidan and also persuade the cricket team of migrant workers to shift their club grounds from there to this new venue. There, could of course be worse uses for this. And meanwhile, amidst the costly extravaganza, the creek will continue to stink and be a breeding ground for mosquitoes because nobody thought of cleaning it.

Of monolithic malls

Parsvanath, the builder of monolithic shopping malls across India announced it will build a 5-star hotel in what is left of Patto Plaza (Panjim) despite the Economic Development Corporation’s MD assurance to me a long time ago that no hotel would be allowed to come up at there. Now, Parsvanath claims it has approval to build a hotel on 3,150.20 sq m. Here’s a shocker, the Panjim Planning & Development Authority says it has approved plans for a mall with a food court only. Parsvanath which has already gone to great expense to fence out (and stationed security guards inside) its huge Patto Plaza property also cleverly erected an equally huge hoarding showing (but without actually saying so) that a huge shopping mall will be built.