A white elephant at Mala

By GLENN COSTA
Posted on 2008-09-08
PANAJI - The proposed market complex at Mala in the city has turned out to be a white elephant. The building, which has been built with public money, has been lying forlorn and unutilised, and is surrounded by overgrown plants for more than two years on St Cruz-Panaji road.
The proposed complex has come under the CAG scanner. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India castigated the state government charging that the “poor project planning by the North Goa Planning and Development Authority has resulted in the delay in execution of work on the market complex at Mala and consequent idle investment of Rs 1.94 crore on incomplete work for over two years.”
Mr Manoj Joshi, a Mala resident, recalls that in his childhood the area was a paddy field before it was prepared for the proposed market. Stating that the structure (market complex) has been lying idle for a long time, Mr Joshi observed that this was a criminal waste of public money. The CAG report said that in August 2007, the NGPDA stated that though 85 per cent of the work was completed the market complex could not be put to remunerative use. The Authority asked for additional funds from the government.
However, residents on the condition of anonymity say that the complex should be cleaned up and used in the existing state as everything was ready. They asked the authorities to conduct an inspection and see for themselves.
“I had requested the then MLA of Panaji, J B Gonsalves, that instead of a market it (the place) should have been made into a playground as there are more than five schools in the area which did not have any playground as such,” says Mr Joshi, showing his disapproval at the turn of events.
The CAG report alleged that the NGPDA approached the government for additional funds of Rs 56 lakh to complete the ground-floor work in 2005 but the government in turn directed it to complete the work in all respects in the first instance and sell the shops by formulating a scheme and getting it approved by the government; the income derived from the sale of ground-floor spaces be used to complete the balance work.
The NGPDA worked out a proposal but also asked for a grant-in-aid of Rs 56 lakh to complete the ground floor. However, the CAG report says the government neither approved the proposal nor sanctioned the grant-in-aid.
The NGPDA had decided to construct a market complex at Mala to ease the pressure on the existing municipal market at Panaji and the work was supposed to have been done in two stages; the piling work and the superstructure work.
The NGPDA was supposed to do first phase of the work with its own funds and the work for second phase was to be done with government help.
The piling work was awarded to Premier Builders in August 1997 for a sum of Rs 47.25 lakh. The contract was terminated in August 2000 after a work of Rs 41.38 lakh was done allegedly due to paucity of funds.
In November 2001, the government sanctioned Rs 1 crore.
In February 2002, the NGPDA got administrative and expenditure sanctions for the balance work of piling and superstructure costing Rs 1.83 crore, and the tender was awarded at Rs 1.54 crore. The time for completion mentioned on the work order was February 4, 2002. The electrical installation work at a cost of Rs 23.75 lakh was also awarded.
In February 2004, the NGPDA asked for further sanction of Rs 85 lakh for completion out of which the government sanctioned Rs 40 lakh.
However, the contractor stopped the work in January 2005 due to non-payment of bills. According to the government, the work physically completed is up top 85 per cent.
The total expenditure incurred on the market complex till January 2005 was Rs 1.94 crore.
And the building still lies unutilised and forlorn by the roadside.