Construction work of 5 railway over-bridges in South Goa to start soon.

Minister for Public Works Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar recently informed the state legislative assembly that the work for five railway over-bridges would be taken up soon in South Goa.

“We have already received NOCs from the South Western Railway for four out of the 5 over-bridges,” he maintained while replying to a related question from the Cuncolim MLA Clafasio Dias, during the Question Hour at the state legislative assembly, adding that all efforts are being made to obtain an NOC for the fifth railway over-bridge coming up at Chandor.

“The total estimate for all these projects is Rs 500 crore,” Dhavalikar maintained, stating that once the NOC is obtained for the railway over-bridge at Chandor, its work would be completed after 12 months from the date of issue of work order to the contractor. “We will issue work order for the same following appointment of a consultant and completion of the tendering process,” he added.

It was also informed that the state government and the South Western Railway would complete all the over-bridges, including the Chandor over-bridge by sharing their 50 per cent costs each.

The Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the alignment for the approach roads to the Chandor over-bridge needs to be taken up and finalised first, as there is always some opposition to such alignments. “In fact, the South Western Railway is going to share only the Rs 3 crore cost of construction of this over-bridge, and not that of the approach roads,” he observed, maintaining that the land acquisition for approach roads is not an easy process.

Parrikar also offered to call a meeting of the Minister for Public Works, MLAs concerned about the particular over-bridge and the public works department officials on July 27, to discuss the alignment and other aspects linked to the over-bridge.

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