Coastal locales reel under bad planning

This is what happens when tourism lies in the hands of the department and not in the hands of the Panchayat. The revenues go to the department and the brunt of tourism has to be borne by the local panchayat.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Coastal-locales-reel-under-bad-planning/articleshow/54318812.cms

Years of haphazard, unplanned development have returned to haunt the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt as the North Goa Planning and Develoment Authority (NGPDA), headed by Calangute MLA Michael Lobo attempts to do some belated ‘planned development’ and bring some order to the prevailing chaos.

 Recently, the NGPDA started the process of clearing road setbacks in Candolim to create more space for parking. While this has been supported by the Candolim panchayat and most residents, it has resulted in water pipelines getting ruptured almost everyday. Neither the Candolim panchayat, public works department ( PWD) nor the NGPDA has information on the location of the numerous pipelines of the different resorts and homes which have been connected to the main PWD pipeline along the arterial Calangute-Candolim road.
Besides water pipelines, telephone cables are also getting cut all the time, not just in Candolim, but also in Calangute where digging has been going on for the underground sewerage network. While the sewerage pipeline network is expected to be completed in a few weeks time, the next stage will see resorts and homes being connected to the sewerage pipeline, which will mean more digging.
Lobo said that this should have been done years ago, but infrastructure work suffered because of political rivalry between the earlier MLAs and the various panchayat members.