Panaji, Feb 15 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways General V K Singh (Retd) held meeting with Goa Minister for Transport Mauvin Godinho and Minister for Public Works Department (PWD) Deepak Pauskar in the city on Friday.
The objective of the meeting was to review ongoing construction work of national high way, condition of roads and improvement of road network in Goa.
The state minister while interacting with the Union Minister said although Goa was a small state but there was increase in vehicles day by day which had led to traffic congestion further creating need of expansion of roads.
Besides Goa being tourist destination the increasing inflow of tourists also added to the problem andd therefore proper and safe road network was need of the hour, he said.
Stating that India had planned to achieve the target of five trillion economy for which he stressed on the need of full use of Mormugoa Port, he said the Government had a vision to further expand road network in Goa for which adequate financial cooperation from the central government was required.
He urged the Union Minister to consider Goa differently in comparison with the other states and be generous with regard to extending financial cooperation. He thanked the Union Minister for his visit and for showing his concern towards the road development in Goa.
General Singh in his discussion with the ministers got acquainted with the problems and issues with regard to improvement and construction of roads in Goa. He said better roads led to greater public accessibility. In Goa, he said, land was less so there was pressure on land. Construction of new roads or expansion of roads, parking of vehicles would be a problem in future. Therefore, he suggested to use available land properly. To solve parking problem, he advocated underground and vertical parking system.
PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar, while interacting, brought to the notice of the Union Minister various issues with regard to expansion of roads in Goa. The increasing number of vehicle paves way for better road accessibility in Goa. He said Goa had a vision to complete National Highway with the stretch of 110 km by the year 2021 for which he urged the Minister to provide adequate fund to take up further road improvement works in the state.
Chief Engineer, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, Anshumali Srivastava, Principal Chief Engineer, PWD, Uttam Parsekar, Collector North Goa, R Menka, Collector South Goa, Ajay Rawat, Managing Director of Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC), Venancio Furtado, OSD to Chief Minister Padhye, Officials of PWD and Transport Department were present on the occasion.
UNI AKM 1103