Locals in Chinchinim, Goa oppose purchasing further land to widen NH66

The Chinchinim residents have voiced their opposition to the additional land acquisition for the National Highway 66 widening project from the Navelim bypass to Cuncolim. The land losers have reaffirmed their request to the government to build the bypass route rather than opting for road widening while making a modest plea to the Special Land Acquisition officer to abandon the proposal to acquire further land.

One of the land losers argued that the government should stop acquiring their ancestral land while pointing out that the government had already acquired their land for the widening of the national highway about twenty years ago. All the landowners whose property has been proposed for acquisition for the NH 66 expansion have voiced their opposition, according to Sarpanch Valentino Barretto. He asked to know whether it was appropriate for the government to purchase more land after previously purchasing it for the construction of the Highway.

The sarpanch reported that Dandeavaddo's people in Chinchinim had been calling for a road bypass rather than the construction of a flyover along the highway section that runs through the village. "We had suggested building a road bypass from Sirlim to Sarzora, where it would connect to NH 66. The people of Cuncolim have also been demanding a road bypass running parallel to the Konkan railway tracks,” he said.

However, he bemoaned that the Union Surface Transport Ministry had recently completed plans to expand the NH 66 along the existing stretch without taking the requests of the Chinchinim and Cuncolim communities into account. “The locals of Dandeavaddo-Chinchinim have been calling for a road bypass, but the PWD has proposed a flyover. The future traffic needs would have been met by a road bypass, but the PWD and the government seem determined to build the Navelim-Cuncolim section of the highway on the existing route without a bypass,” Valentino continued.