Wrecking Portuguese charm of Goa's Panjim is not smart

The Australian acacias towered over the raging chaos below them in Goa’s capital city of Panjim. The sprightly white stork waded through the afternoon drizzle to perch itself on the highest branch of one of the Acacia trees, rotating its gaze all around.

Images of the past and present flickered in its eyes. It began with an ornate palace in a fortress majestically standing on the banks of Mandovi, only to transform into a colonial structure amidst an idyllic surrounding, warmly lit by the golden glow of lanterns.

Next, a picture of a neatly built causeway between Ribandar village and Panjim formed in the Stork’s eye, flipping over to an image of a site of massive land reclamation work, where drainage systems and other public works projects were being designed and executed. They still worked under the ochre flames of lanterns.

Each visual, in the stork's eyes, was unveiling, slide by slide, the emerging magnificent city of Nova Goa (now Panjim) – Fontainhas, Sao Tome and Altinho were being chiselled into the shape of charming localities.

There were sketches of towns coming up around the square of resplendent Church of Immaculate Conception, profusely adorned in Portuguese baroque style. The stork saw an enchanting riverside boulevard. There were rows of villas with whitewashed, thatched red-tiled roofs, arched high windows and doors around parks with gazebos.

Pictures in its eyes were of charming avenues resembling European countryside with cobbled pathways, overhanging balconies on houses, quaint taverns and cafés, shining bright in the evening light and the hearth.

Every flicker of its eyelids revealed images of the clean and well laid out wards of Panjim that contained institutional and commercial building without encroaching on residential spaces. By now, most pictures had ornamental electric lamps illuminating the city streets.  

There were trees everywhere – along the streets, in public squares and parks, in the back and front yards of villas, in the commercial centres, hospitals and courtyards. From its perch, the stork could see the city swathed in green canopy. It felt a jerk with the sudden rip in time, the old images turned sepia-tinted.

New images began flashing by – images of swanky new buildings cropping up in place of old structures, derelict spaces and monuments in want of care, streets with unregulated swelled up traffics, old culverts filled up with sewage and garbage, thin tree canopy over the city, the riverside boulevard was scattered with casino lobbies and an impressive and glitzy hanging bridge ran across the Mandovi.

The stork's stunned eyes watched pictures of dug-up and cratered roads, streets to homes and offices blocked by piled-up soil and pits, aged (over 200 years) trees being ruthlessly axed, people spilling into the streets with haphazardly parked cars.  

In place of red sand, the stork saw grey dust blowing across the city as high commercial towers tried to touch the sky and bigger and latest cars filled the streets. It watched the altered bleak images in horror, choking with sorrow and as tears blurred its vision, it could not see them anymore.  

The old images were washed away in the deluge of its tears, and then it did not feel any shock on watching the new images.

The stork tuned its vision to them. This is what we have done to ourselves. As we condition ourselves to the ravaged cityscape, inflicted on us in the name of Smart City Mission, we have numbed ourselves to express or feel our horror.

The Panaji Smart City initiative was launched in Goa on October 14 in 2015. The goal of the mission was to enhance the quality of life of the people of the city and propel overall economic growth in the State. These objectives remain only on paper.

On the ground, it has been nothing but a nightmare for the people in the city since the government formed Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) in 2016. The project has moved at snail’s speed and is being carried out in an unplanned manner with little thought given to people’s convenience.

As it rampaged through the city, it left a trail of destruction in its path – not just destroying structures but also the ecology, heritage, aesthetics and the very essence of Panjim.

The government’s sanction for Goa’s Smart City Mission is reportedly Rs 935.90 crore for 35 projects, of which 20 projects worth Rs 404.20 crore have been executed while another 15 projects valued at Rs 531.70 crore are underway.

This huge spend on smartening up Panjim’s amenities and services is visible nowhere but in its destruction. Who is answerable for this failure? Wouldn’t it have been better to spend on maintenance and beautification of the existing infrastructure and services.

The city needs to put thought into well-planned development. Instead of crowding the city with more public buses and building infrastructure for more vehicles, it would work so much better if some areas were marked as pedestrian streets with cobbled pathway with only golf carts ferrying around people.

The city, as does whole of Goa, needs a respite from indiscriminate development. Being a touristy State, Goa needs to retrieve its natural charm. The Portuguese have left behind an aesthetically developed State, let’s not thoughtlessly wreck it.