Traders told to leave unsafe Curchorem municipal bldg

Margao: Forty-four months after first serving notices to vacate premises on account of unsafe structure, Curchorem Cacora Municipal Council (CCMC) has once again served similar notices to the 37 traders occupying shops and offices in the dilapidated municipal building.

In the latest notice, issued last week, the chief officer of the CCMC, Pramod Dessai, asked traders to vacate the premises within a week. By the end of the week, however, it was business as usual in the rundown municipal building.

The building has outlived its estimated lifespan by nearly 15 years and is now in a condition not fit for occupation, sources in the CCMC informed. With a view to persuade traders to vacate the building, Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral had held a series of meetings them in early 2014.

The building was to be demolished to facilitate construction of a new building. Drawings of the proposed new market complex were revised several times following objections raised by the traders, who insisted on having more carpet area and additional height for the shops. The plan was first revised after the floor area ratio (FAR) was changed from 1 to 1.5 and, thereafter, at least twice, sources said.

The proposed new commercial complex has been planned to have basement parking arrangements, high capacity goods lift facility, in addition to lifts for public, toilet blocks, among other facilities.

Until the new building gets ready, traders affected will be temporarily rehabilitated at vacant shops in the Goa state urban development agency (GSUDA) market complex near the busstand, sources said. Once all the traders are rehabilitated in the new building, the remaining vacant shops and offices will be allotted by way of open auctioning, it was informed. The CCMC has urged the traders to see reason and cooperate with it.