MAPUSA: Some 13 heavily silted nullahs in and around Mapusa will have a new lease of life soon as the water resources department has decided to de-silt the rivulets falling under the jurisdiction of the Mapusa municipality.
Minister for Water Resources Vinod Paliencar inspected a nullah on Saturday, assuring the civic body of completing the de-silting works by May.
MMC chief officer Clen Madeira had recently written to the water resources department requesting it to take up de-silting of the major streams.
The body had also submitted a list of around 13 nullahs which hold rainwater during the monsoon.
In his letter addressed to the department’s engineers, Madeira had emphasised that the nullahs play a crucial role in draining the rainwater during the monsoon. Hence they need to be de-silted.
Acting upon the letter, Paliencar on Saturday inspected the nullah near the Mapusa police station along with Madeira, MMC councillor Sudhir Kandolkar and engineers of the department and the MMC.
The minister directed the engineers to prepare estimates and start the process for tendering.
The nullahs to be de-silted are those that flow from Ganganagar-Khorlim to the Bodgeshwar temple, from the police station to Morod, from Keniwaddo up to Tar river and the stream flowing at the municipal garage.
The other streams are those which flow from Remanso Hospital to the area near old Asilo Hospital, from Gaunsawaddo to river Tar, from Shetyewaddo to the Cunchelim spring, the nullahs running at the Galaxy Hospital, Landmark Supermarket (Duler), and at Khadpawaddo, and also the streams that flow at the Bandekar petrol pump and at the Dattaprasad Colony.
Paliencar assured municipal officers that the department will take the de-silting work on priority basis.