Staff Reporter
Margao
The South Goa district collector and chairperson of the District Disaster Management Authority, Egna Cleetus, on Tuesday directed the deputy collector, South-I, to issue orders to demolish two buildings—Indira Apartments and Cabecca de Calconde—in Margao.
This decision followed a meeting chaired by the district collector to address the public risk posed by old, dangerous, and dilapidated buildings in Salcete taluka. The urgency of the meeting arose after parts of slabs from two buildings—one near Pimpalkatta and another near Cine Lata theatre in Margao—collapsed recently.
“The Chief Officer, Margao Municipal Council, submitted that two orders are pending for execution and that in the case of Indira Apartments, out of 26 occupants, three families are yet to vacate the premises. With regard to Cabecca de Calconde, the matter is currently under legal challenge in the High Court for non-execution of the demolition order issued by the district collector, South. Further, it was submitted that only one occupant is expected to vacate soon,” said the collector.
He added that the Margao Municipal Council chief officer has also stated that the council lacks sufficient funds, machinery, and technical expertise to undertake the demolition and has sought support from the District Administration.
“The deputy collector was therefore directed to issue orders to PWD to execute the demolition orders and recover the cost from the building owners,” said the collector.
Additionally, two structures with floating roofs—the Bank of Baroda building near Gandhi Market and the comunidade building near Margao Municipal Council—were identified as unsafe. The collector directed officials to demolish these sections promptly and recover costs from
owners.
A list of 21 unsafe buildings was also presented during the meeting.
MMC Engineer Vinay informed that the building owners had not submitted the mandatory Structural Stability Reports (SSR). He further said MMC was unable to obtain SSRs from Goa Engineering College, Ponda, due to financial constraints. The chief officer requested the Collector’s assistance in acquiring these reports.
The Collector directed the Deputy Collector to write to PWD officials to obtain the SSRs within a week.
Cleetus also directed the MMC Chief Officer to submit a fresh report on the number of pending cases related to unsafe buildings within a week so the District Collector can move a file to the government or instruct GEC to conduct the SSRs and take necessary action.
During the hour-long meeting, officials including Additional Collector II Ramesh Goankar, Deputy Collectors Mohd Shabir, Velton Tellis and Ganesh Bharve, Mamlatdar Rahul Desai, Margao Municipal Council (MMC) Chief Officer Melvin Vaz, MMC Junior Engineer Subhash Phaldessai, and Assistant Engineer Vinay Dessai discussed the execution of demolition orders.
