With Panaji’s Patto Plaza area already witnessing incessant and perennial flooding, the government needs to conduct a proper professional research and ecological study before venturing in its lofty mission to set up Goa’s tallest building on this eco-sensitive reclaimed land. Lack of proper planning while cluttering of environmentally incompatible new constructions all over without the much needed infrastructure has landed Goa in its current State of chaos.
Given what we have been witnessing in an already congested Patto Plaza, is it the right location for the government to set up its mammoth 75m tall administrative block?
The Patto Plaza has come up on marshy, swampy, acidic and highly corrosive silty subsoil and experts have opined that no construction there will survive for more than a few years as the stress, fractures, fissures and corrosion in standing buildings indicate. Many are sinking inch by inch but none has cared to do a structural audit, while no lessons have been learnt from the sinking Museum building there which had to be demolished.
It would be prudent for the authorities to thread very cautiously on such a mega project as it would waste hundreds of crores of taxpayers’ money and should not end up being another sinking white elephant.
For a project of this magnitude a proper environmental impact assessment is imperative. The decision to erect this project cannot be a political one but must be strictly guided by experts in the field. For nature’s fury knows no bounds. It is not rocket science to realise that you cannot build a great building on a weak foundation. You must have a solid foundation if you want to have a strong superstructure.
The property value of everything standing at Patto Plaza will be Zero in coming years. Already the stress is seen in sinking of roads and cracks seen in the Central library building which is corroding fast.
The 75m tall building at Patto Plaza would turn to be a true epitaph for our sinking Panaji city but those responsible may not be around to see and face the brunt of the mess that they left behind.
It is not the beauty or the height of a building that you should look at, it is the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.
