Goemkapronn desk
CANACONA: Half of Khotigao village remained cut off from the mainland after heavy rains triggered a landslide, caving in the village’s main Road at Avem in Khotigao village on Sunday afternoon.
The Disaster Management Team (DMT) led by Canacona Mamlatdar Manoj Korgaonkar reached the site and immediately ordered the presence of PWD and Electricity officials/staff, and requisitioned the presence of Police force to keep away the large turnout of inquisitive villagers rushing to the site.
The village Sarpanch Anandu Dessai also reached the site and was coordinating with the Disaster management team.
The road was finally restored, after the DMT worked tirelessly, bringing and emptying boulders and mud with the help of Tipper trucks and JCB late in the night, resuming the traffic normally since early morning of Monday. The Police personnel guarded the roadside overnight and were regulating the traffic which included plying of buses and trucks on the road on Monday.
According to sources, amidst the heavy downpour, a landslide was triggered bringing down the roadside retaining wall into the violently flowing roadside Nullah. By afternoon time, soon, the road began to cave in, and more than half of the road had already been washed down, with clear signs of the remaining portion of the road widening the huge Crater already exposing the underground laid pipelines and cables.
With the village’s main road at Avem caved in, half of the Khotigao village especially residents of Bardem, Avali, Yedda, Kuskem and Nadkem and the far-flung areas into the village were cut off from the mainland.
With no time remaining and in order to stop the further escalation of the landslide of the entire road, the Disaster Management Team immediately took up the restoration and re-filling works on a war footing to temporarily resume the road traffic.
Rocky mud and Boulders began to be transported and dumped inside to bury the Crater, caused by the landslide and violently flowing flood water through the roadside nullah.
While going to the press late at night, workers closely watched by Mamlatdar Korgaonkar supervising the works, the road is reportedly partially restored temporarily resuming the traffic but at a great caution to the satisfaction of the villagers.
While filing the report, the workers were still putting the final touches to enable the restoration of the village’s main road of Cotigao.
