MLA: Over 1 crore being spent to prevent flooding in Margao

Margao: The work of improving a few nullahs in the state’s commercial capital commenced on Tuesday.Margao MLA Digambar Kamat said that the works, totalling over Rs 1 crore, would help prevent flooding along certain stretches through which the nullahs passed. To prevent waste from entering the nullahs, concrete slabs have been installed as covers in residential areas.Chairperson of Margao Municipal Council, Damodar Shirodkar, said that all pre-monsoon works undertaken by the civic body were nearing completion.In the areas where the work was progressing at a slow pace, more workers would be deployed to complete the task in time, he said.MMC’s pre-monsoon works include cleaning drains and gutters, desilting nullahs, cutting and trimming tree branches, identifying low-lying areas prone to flooding, clearing illegal hutments, and preparing plans to accommodate people affected by monsoon calamities.Shirodkar said that the water resources department (WRD) would soon take up the task of cleaning the 10-12 nullahs across Margao and Fatorda. Speaking to reporters, Kamat said that the work of laying underground sewerage lines was almost complete and that the work of releasing connections to households was also receiving a good response.The work of replacing an old sewerage line with a new one at Sirvodem would be completed within a few weeks, he said.MMC’s pre-monsoon works have always invited criticism from the public for their inefficiency. A few years ago, the Lokayukta questioned MMC over the estimates prepared by it, which had uniform amounts for all the desilting works.