Church fabrica to give more land for Aldona mkt: MLA

Panaji: Pursuing his plan to create a bigger market for Aldona, Congress MLA Carlos Alvares Ferreira on Wednesday held preliminary meetings with various stakeholders and discussed the possibility of getting more land for the new market building.
Ferreira said that the existing market complex is dilapidated and needs to be demolished. He met with existing vendors, the church fabrica and village panchayat members to discuss the proposal to rebuild the market with better facilities for vendors and buyers alike.
After the meeting, the MLA told reporters he has scheduled meetings with several other stakeholders, including the church fabrica and other bodies, after which a concrete proposal will be prepared and submitted to the state government.
“The Aldona market is one of my priority areas. I called the market vendors to explain the modalities. They will have to move out of the market if it is to be demolished. And in the meantime we have to make an alternate arrangement for them,” Ferreira said.
The MLA said that the church fabrica is ready to provide additional land for the Aldona market.
“We had a meeting with the fabrica and they said they want to give us more land. If we have more land we can develop it better and build a good market. So many questions were asked, we gave clarifications -- we told them what is being done and what is not being done,” he said.
Ferreira said that he has already spoken to chief minister Pramod Sawant who has promised to approve the project as soon as the proposal is submitted.
The MLA also said that he has met Goa state infrastructure development corporation (GSIDC) officials who said that there is no proposal currently to demolish and build a new market structure in Aldona.
In 2014, a group of students of Goa Engineering College, after conducting a study, had declared that the dilapidated market structure is unsafe and dangerous for use.