FLOATING JETTY MIGHT CREATE HAZARD ....PHOTOS ENCLOSED Stephen Dias Dona Paula
In earlier times Bombay steamers used to dock at the Capt of Ports jetty. Later casinos and cruise boats took over. Now we see a floating pontoon which is in line with the jetty. It seems it is first of its kind in India. The distance from the original jetty to the end point of the pontoon is almost 100 metres. It is parallel to the National flag post near old Secretariat. The vacant sea area is around 6,000 square metres from the floating jetty to the land wall. An enclosure at the jetty already exists which has offices for the Big Daddy Casino. It had reached beyond footpath and due to public demand, the CCP as well as the MLA of Panjim had to intervene to clear its way for the public to walk in the footpath. This floating jetty has already been inaugurated by a Central Minister after due approval from an Authority of GCZMA. Normally an authority takes a collective decision although that decision might have been proposed by one member expert of the said authority. When agreed upon by the entire GCZMA, the decision becomes a collective decision. With the approval from GCZMA the floating pontoon is inaugurated. It appears that this project is the first kind in India. Nobody knows now, what may appear in the vacant sea area between the pontoon and the land wall. The area is around 60 x 100 metres unless it extends beyond that upto another fixed structure called WATERMARK which is another 100 metres from the end point of floating jetty. Once this project is completed the casino traffic will get started docking in this new jetty. The ball will be now with the Captain of Ports to decide to allow this area to be used or not. The Casino lobby is sure to claim use of this vacant area of the river whether for parking vessels or construction similar to the terminal building at CoP which is subjudice. Other traffic like cruise vessels and mining boats will suffer due to the decrease of width of the river. The congestion and pollution at river Mandovi will further increase on account of docking casinos on all these jetties and chances of accidents are high. Stephen Dias Dona Paula 9422443110 24.2.2020