Repair of Ribandar causeway delayed

Panaji: Seven days after major damages were noticed to the base of an archway of the nearly 400-year-old Ribandar causeway, work of assessing the damage has been delayed due to public holidays and lack of labour during the Ganesh Chaturthi festivities.
On August 29, a group of youth had gone to clean up a spot used for Ganesh visarjan near the causeway and noticed that large chunks had fallen off from the base of the archway of the historic structure.
Photographs of the damage circulated by the youth quickly went viral and the PWD shut down one lane of the causeway for traffic to reduce load on the bridge.
The PWD was to procure a canoe, which would allow them to navigate below the bridge and assess the actual damage. But the work has been delayed by seven days now.
Even after the assessment of the damage is done, the PWD will require permission from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to carry out repairs as the causeway is a nearly 400-years-old heritage structure.
The nearly 400-year-old bridge still continues to serve as a useful link.