Kamat eyes central funding for T-shaped overbridge at Comba

MARGAO: In the late 1990s, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat persuaded the then Konkan Railway chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) E Sreedharan to change the original alignment of the railway overbridge at Margao to save a few houses from imminent demolition, which eventually resulted in the construction of the signature S-shaped flyover.
Over two decades later, Kamat hopes that his good offices with Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari will help get a T-shaped overbridge at Comba sanctioned by the Centre with no financial implications for the state.
At a recent meeting he had with Gadkari, Kamat said, considering the high construction cost, he requested the latter’s intervention in taking up the project under the ministry of surface transport as the flyover is linked to the national highway. “Most probably I should be able to get it sanctioned through the ministry of road transport and highways,” said Kamat. The original idea was to share the project cost between Konkan Railway and the state government on a 50:50 basis. However, Kamat said, the high cost of the project prompted him to seek Centre’s help in financing the project.
Nevertheless, Kamat recounted how the 50:50 cost sharing concept proposed by Sreedharan for the Margao railway overbridge and promptly accepted by the then chief minister Pratapsing Rane had bailed him out of a difficult situation over two decades ago.
The original plan was a straight elevated road that took off from the Govind Poy Raiturkar shop and landed on the other side. Kamat said people objected to the flyover as several houses faced the threat of demolition and he had to bear the brunt of their ire.