Goa: Corruption main cause for 'poor' road engineering on Atal Setu, alleges AAP

Goa Minister Nilesh Cabral on Thursday said the state government asked IIT Madras to find out the reasons for the recurrence of potholes on the Atal Setu bridge that is located between Panaji and Porvorim in the coastal state. He also said that the Public Works Department of Goa will try to introduce a new machine which can fill up potholes even during the monsoon.

This comes after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) cited corruption as the main cause of the poor road engineering on the Atal Setu Bridge, which has become an accident magnet in recent days. Reacting to this, AAP Goa unit vice president Valmiki Naik, in an official statement, said that the road on the Atal Setu has been damaged due to the usage of substandard adhesive.

"The L&T company was aware that the inferior adhesive would cause damage to the road. Despite this, they were obliged to utilise inferior adhesive. I wonder if the suppliers' proximity to the central government influenced their decision to purchase this adhesive," Naik said. "The government has been fooling the Goans for the last two three years by repeatedly fixing potholes," AAP vice president remarked.

"The guarantee term will expire in the coming years, and the government will once again employ public funds to construct the road. As a result, the only solution to this problem is to remove the existing asphalt and replace it with adequate adhesive", he added. Meanwhile, AAP leader Sunil Signapurkar said that contractors have to bribe officials of the Public Works Department from issuance of work orders to hot mixing.

"Officials of the Public Works Department are not concerned about the lives of the people, but rather are more interested in estimations. We are therefore seeing substandard work," Signapurkar stated. AAP leader Cecile Rodrigues said, "There are a lot of issues pending which need attention from the PWD officials, however, the government has set aside 22 crores for a new building at St. Inez. PWD stands for Public Work Department. Their primary duty is to serve the public." (ANI)

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