Panaji: The Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) has said that failure of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) to hand over the site has delayed the commencement of construction of the new CCP office building.
Chief minister Pramod Sawant had laid the foundation stone on October 4 and CCP had then said that work will begin in a couple of days.However work on the building project has not yet started since the site has not been handed over, GSUDA said in a RTI reply.
CCP mayor Rohit Monserrate however said that non-payment of Rs90 lakh as infrastructure tax has led to the delay.
“There was an issue of who should pay the infrastructure tax to PDA, whether the GSUDA or the CCP. The senior officials concerned in the government opined that the amount needs to be paid by us. We will pay the amount in a week’s time and thereafter the work will start,” he said.
The new building will be built at the same location as the existing office, at an estimated cost of Rs75 crore.
A GSUDA official said that they are “hesitant” to carry out the work in phases as requested by CCP fearing that the project will get stuck if any legal matter comes up between CCP and the vendors at a later stage. “Earlier the plan was to construct the building in a smaller portion of land located at the center of the existing municipal building, the changed plan covers the entire area of 14,700sqm. We first want the CCP to get the entire municipal building vacated and not just the area occupied by them. The CCP should resolve legal issues, if any, with the vendors who are running commercial shops in the building,” the official said.
As per the new plan, the CCP office building will comprise a basement, four floors, and an open central plaza of 600sqm. There will be provision for parking 250-odd four-wheelers — 182 in the basement and 72 off-street. The building will have shops and offices, CCP’s office and the main town hall.
Chief minister Pramod Sawant had laid the foundation stone on October 4 and CCP had then said that work will begin in a couple of days.However work on the building project has not yet started since the site has not been handed over, GSUDA said in a RTI reply.
CCP mayor Rohit Monserrate however said that non-payment of Rs90 lakh as infrastructure tax has led to the delay.
“There was an issue of who should pay the infrastructure tax to PDA, whether the GSUDA or the CCP. The senior officials concerned in the government opined that the amount needs to be paid by us. We will pay the amount in a week’s time and thereafter the work will start,” he said.
The new building will be built at the same location as the existing office, at an estimated cost of Rs75 crore.
A GSUDA official said that they are “hesitant” to carry out the work in phases as requested by CCP fearing that the project will get stuck if any legal matter comes up between CCP and the vendors at a later stage. “Earlier the plan was to construct the building in a smaller portion of land located at the center of the existing municipal building, the changed plan covers the entire area of 14,700sqm. We first want the CCP to get the entire municipal building vacated and not just the area occupied by them. The CCP should resolve legal issues, if any, with the vendors who are running commercial shops in the building,” the official said.
As per the new plan, the CCP office building will comprise a basement, four floors, and an open central plaza of 600sqm. There will be provision for parking 250-odd four-wheelers — 182 in the basement and 72 off-street. The building will have shops and offices, CCP’s office and the main town hall.