MARGAO
Will the Chandor railway station emerge as the terminating station for the south central railway in the event the state government does not accord the green signal for the Margao-Vasco line
doubling project?
After Alina Saldanha showed the red card to the doubling project during her tenure as Minister, and with the MLA now retaining the Cortalim seat in the 2017 Assembly election, the Railways are keeping their fingers crossed and are indeed weighing various options to overcome the road block to ensure the double tracking project remains on the right track.
No doubt, railway officials plan to again knock the doors of the newly-elected Parrikar-led government, seeking a green signal to take the line doubling project right up to the Port Town of Vasco.
Officials of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd that is executing the doubling project, in private, however, say the Railways will have to explore other options, including making Chandor station the terminating station in future if the Goa government does not give the agency the approval to take the doubling project to Vasco.
Presently, the state government has accorded its green signal for the line doubling project up to Margao from Colem. The reason: Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha has stood like a rock in the way of the Railway’s plan to take the doubling project to Vasco, prompting the previous Parsekar-led government to turn down Rail Vikas Nigam’s proposal. And, if Alina is to be believed, she along with the people will oppose the line doubling project tooth and nail.
“The government is planning the doubling project only to benefit a handful of industrialists to transport coal to the hinterland to Karnataka from the MPT port. The track doubling project will destroy not only the ancestral houses coming in the way of the tracks, but houses dotting all along the line due to vibrations as well. People had in the past surrendered their land for the Railways to lay the track, but the Railways have again come back for additional land,” she said.
Alina expressed confidence that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will see reason and not give the green signal for the doubling project. “I know Parrikar. He sees reason. He will not give the green signal at the cost of the people of the villages along the railway line, especially the villages falling in Cortalim constituency,”
Alina added.
Says Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, Additional General Manager, Sashibhusan Sahoo: “With a new government in place in the state, a delegation of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd will soon call on Chief Minister and submit the Margao-Vasco doubling project proposal. We hope the Goa government will give its green signal so that work on the stretch takes off at
the earliest”.
Sahoo, however, said the Railways will have no option than to make Chandor the terminating station in the event the Goa government shoots down the Margao-Vasco doubling project.
Information obtained from the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd revealed that the railways will require additional land admeasuring around 28,158 sq mts in the villages of Majorda, Cansaulim, Pale, Issoricm, Dabolim, Chicalim and Vasco.
The railway has also identified around 85 houses that may have to go to make way for the line doubling project. Alina, however, says the 85 houses are only those which come in the line doubling project. “What about the numerous houses dotting right along the tracks and may fall one day due to vibrations,” Alina asked, while pointing out that promises made by the Railways in the past to building flyovers, underpasses and footbridges to facilitate people to cross the tracks have been only confined to the
record books.
