According to the sources, in the north Goa coastal area, most of the hoteliers and restaurant owner facing the waves of the recession due to lack of foreigner tourist in the state and to add up to their agony the completely collapsed infrastructure is creating addition burden on them. Calangute area is frequented by the local tourists coming from the neighboring states and at the moment they are the major source of income for the north Goa hoteliers and restaurant owners, but according to the news, pitiable conditions of the roads in Calangute and frequent power failures are prompting the tourists to check out from the hotels causing the lose the business.
The recently published news in Goa Prism about the traffic jams in Calangute area due to flood of Desi Tourists (https://www.goaprism.com/desi-tourists-hopping-into-north-goa-coastal-belts-creating-traffic-jams/) in the north Goa Frequent power cuts in Calangute resulting into losing of business – The Report
The recently published news in Goa Prism about the traffic jams in Calangute area due to flood of Desi Tourists in the north Goa coastal belts has raised the issues over the functioning of government, who is unable to provide proper infrastructure to the visitors in Goa and now this additional burden of frequent power failures is resulting into expression of rage from the tourists.
Imagine the condition of the guest, who is coming to the state in search of blissful vacation and finds out that there are no proper roads to reach their hotels and finally when they reach to the hotel only to find out that the electricity is non-operative which again adds up to the heat and humidity and that originates the high level of frustration in them. The hoteliers in Calangute and Baga area are going through huge pressure as they are ready to welcome the guest for the new season and prevailing situation is not allowing them to do so.
The electricity department officials are accepting the power cuts scenario in Calangute area. According to the Executive Engineer of Calangute electricity department office, “The Calangute did witness the power cuts recently which was frequent but the same resulted out of the huge consumption from the coastal area which is putting excessive pressure on the jumpers and the same leads to tripping,” he explained. He also agreed that there were power breakdowns in Thivim and Nagoa substations which supply the power to Calangute. He also alleged that some of the hoteliers and residents in Calangute area carrying out the work of repairing by using the excessive power in a fraudulent way which puts more loads on the power grids resulting into the blackout.
The police department of traffic cell has its own explanation on this issue. According to PI Salim Shaikh (traffic cell), Dussehra holiday caused the hopping of the tourists in Calangute area in their private vehicles resulting the traffic jams all over the places. Police have done their job by deploying the additional police personnel to handle the situation in Calangute. “Additional 40 traffic police personnel have been brought from Ponda, Bicholim, Mapusa, Anjuna and Panaji. The cops from IRB and GAP have also been deployed on the duty to manage the situation and they were there on duty till 3 am,” he said.
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo has accepted the fact that there are frequent power cuts in the Calangute area and it is a major issue at the moment. He said that he is going to have the meeting with the power minister on this issue. According to him, “The power stations of Nagoa and Thivim needs an up-gradation, the transformers need to replaced with higher capacity. The recent power cuts were the results of overloading on the jumpers causing tripping and hence the independent power substation in a Calangute is need of the day,” he said. He said that it will take some time as the whole process of acquiring the land from Comunidade has not yet done.
Source: TNN
Edited by Goa Prism News Desk
