With Panaji’s Patto Plaza already witnessing incessant and perennial flooding, the government needed 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 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, was it the right location for the government to set up its mammoth 75m tall administrative block?
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 long as the stress, fractures, fissures and corrosion in standing buildings indicate. Many are sinking inch by inch but no one has cared to do a structural audit. No lessons have been learnt from the sinking Museum building which had to be demolished.
Authorities should have threaded very cautiously on such a mega project as it would drain hundreds of crores of taxpayers’ money and end up being another sinking white elephant. For a project of this magnitude a proper environmental impact assessment was imperative. Decision on this project should not have been a political one but strictly guided by experts. Nature’s fury knows no bounds. You cannot build a great building on a weak foundation as we need a solid foundation to have a strong superstructure. Property value of everything standing at Patto Plaza would be Zero as already the stress is seen in sinking of roads and cracks in the Central library building which is corroding fast.
This 75m tall building will turn out to be a true epitaph for our sinking Panaji city but those responsible may not be around to see the mess they leave 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.
