The Margao Municipal Council has protected the 118 years old heritage civic building with rain wear in a bid to stop water from entering the building passages and corridors.
City fathers and Babus may have to answer a simple question with the monsoon round the corner – has the civic body checked the health of the dozens of dilapidated and old buildings dotting the commercial capital ahead of the ensuing monsoon?
The previous two monsoons had seen a portion of an old building giving way at the entrance to the Gandhi market. Last year saw another incident wherein cement debris from a dilapidated building came crumbling down on the busy Pimpalkatta road in the new market area, leaving some people with minor injuries.
Against the backdrop of these incidents, then South Goa district Collector Jyoti Kumari and chairperson of the South Goa district Disaster Management Committee had directed the Margao civic body to update the list of old and dilapidated buildings dotting across the city.
Over six months down the lane, there seems no change in the ground reality. Inquiries, however, have revealed the exercise of identifying the old and dilapidated building is still underway.
A senior Municipal engineer told The Goan that the junior engineer entrusted with the task of updating the list of old and dilapidated buildings has not yet completed the task.
Questions, however, are being raised in the Municipal corridors why the technical section has not moved with alacrity to conduct the survey of old buildings and update the list of dilapidated buildings.
Indeed, the issue relating to old and dilapidated buildings dotting across the commercial capital has not attracted the attention from the local civic body and the district disaster management authority till date.
Just a ride around the city would reveal the number of old buildings standing tall, virtually abandoned by the owners and tenants. Do not be surprised if one comes across thick vegetation growth on these buildings and in some instance trees protruding out, and concrete and steel rods exposed to rains.
Former Margao Municipal chairperson Savio Coutinho pointed out that the Margao civic body is not at all serious in updating the list of the dilapidated buildings because of vested interests. “With two incidents of building collapse in the last two years, the least one expected from the civic body was to at least update the list of the old and dilapidated buildings, but in vain,” he said.
MMC officials in the know, however, pointed out that the issue is not as easy as it appears, reminding that the civic body can declare a building as unsafe only after complying with a laid down process.
“One of the requirements of declaring a building as unsafe is that it should be subjected to structural stability test. Such a test is being done by agencies after the payment of fees, in the case of the old and dilapidated buildings, the question that comes to the fore is who will foot the stability test fees. We have come across instances wherein neither the building owners nor the tenants are interested in conducting the stability test,” informed an engineer.
The engineer added by saying the job of identifying the old and unsafe buildings would have been better executed by the district Disaster Management Authority by involving concerned departments such as the SGPDA, TCP, PWD, besides the local civic body.
