THE heart of Panaji is in very good shape. I am not referring to the damage inflicted by the Smart City Projects (Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Ltd). Admittedly, not just the roads but the power lines, the internet, and tally links, and even the water supply and drainage pipes have suffered severe damage due to the smart city projects. All the arterial roads, including commercial hubs like 18 June road are in a sorry state.
Everyone remembered Ram Manohar Lohia and other freedom fighters on June 18, which is observed as Goa Revolution Day. It is an irony that on June 18, 2025 this historical road was aggravated by the flooding and poor drainage. It’s been happening year after year and getting worse development or no development.
Historically, the heart of Panaji has been the Hindu Saraswat-dominated Mala and the Catholic colonies around Miramar. Including La Campala Colony, St Mary’s Ccolony and many other smaller colonies where Catholics built either villas or three-story buildings. I am familiar with the area because our “Goan Observer” office was located in the La Campala Colony for many years.
Most of the buildings, both in Mala and in the Catholic colonies around Miramar, are very old. On average, they were built more than 50 years ago. Many of them are in very bad shape. The residents of these colonies are mostly senior citizens. Their sons and daughters have either migrated or moved to newer homes in the Models or Adwalpalkar or Kamat or Raj Deep housing complexes or mini townships. The Adarsh Colony is perhaps the oldest housing complex colony in Panaji. There is an urgent need for the re-development of the old colonies in Miramar. This is possible as dramatized by the total re¬¬-development of Adarsh colony.

OLD COMPLEXES, NEW COMPLEXES
MORE recently, a part of the Campal housing complex has been re-developed into the Kamat Towers, a luxury apartment complex. The land in the old colonies, like La Campala and St Mary’s, is still very valuable. Re-development would be very profitable both for the residents and the builders. This will also solve many of the infrastructural problems that the residents face. Most of the buildings in these colonies still depend on septic tanks and are not connected to the underground sewage system.
Regrettably, none of the MLAs of Panaji, ranging from late Manohar Parrikar to Atanasia Babush Monserrate, have done anything for the old colonies of Panaji. Never mind that it is the Catholic residents of these colonies who repeatedly voted Manohar Parrikar as the MLA of the Panaji constituency for some years. Babush, of course, has not been either willing or able to develop Panaji as he has done in the case of Taleigao where his properties are.
THE tragedy of Panjim or Panaji is that even the new housing complexes set up by builders like Models have been very poorly planned. Unlike Kamat and the original Alcon builders, few of the new builders have paid any attention to creating proper infrastructure. In the first place Panjim and Goa had and have very narrow roads and streets. The inner road between Miramar and Dona Paula continues to remain, shall we say under developed, unlike the Miramar Mandovi riverside road, which used to claim to be the Marine Drive of Panaji. But even the grand buildings of Shalom and Serenity, which are considered luxury apartment residential blocks, have become quite old and have developed infra problems.
There was no planned development of either the main Miramar-Dona Paula stretch or the later Dona Paula building boom. Ocean Park has become a huge luxury slum. Though Panaji city has expanded north, south, east and west, the infrastructure has not kept pace. Water availability infrastructure has not been put into place in accordance to increase in population. Similarly, there are no enough transformers for the lighting infrastructure which is constantly in bad shape especially during the monsoon months and with the illegal tampering going on by private players.

PANAJI POPULATION
THE population of Panaji which used to be maximum 60,000 in the 80s has now crossed over a lakh if not more. A large part of the old city is very old and urgently needs re-development. There also needs to be a freeze on further development in some areas of heritage city Panaji. Every area has a holding capacity. Panaji has long since reached the limits of its holding capacity. The road network cannot take the load of mega construction.
With more and more luxury housing complexes coming up all over Goa, the demand for parking has become unbearable. Unfortunately, citizens who will pay a crore for a flat will not pay money for a parking space. Panaji is also affected by the fact that many of the older residents have either migrated abroad or moved to newer colonies. There has to be a halt to the development of Panaji city. All the open space lungs of a once upon a time gracious Panaji city will disappear as the need for housing increases.
Most everyone wants a flat in Panaji because it is the most developed city in the state, besides being the capital, where all the main government offices are located. The Secretariat has moved to Porvorim but the offices of the RTO, the Headquarters of the Police, Directorate of Accounts, the PWD, Electricity department head offices all are in Panaji. It may be remembered that many of these offices have shifted to business district Patto Plaza across the Rua de Ourem creek. But the EDC Patto complex is very poorly planned, with sinking roads and floods every monsoon. What was intended to bring relief in pressure in Panaji has become another headache. This although the EDC has made a lot of money on the Patto Complex, it has not provided even minimum structure.

CITIZENS SPEAK OUT
THE residents of Panaji should stand up and speak out. The highly educated residents of Panaji should demand their rights. They should demand that the state government respond proactively to the needs of Panaji. The smart city projects, which was aimed at creating better infrastructure, have made things worse. The people of Panaji were not taken into consideration for the smart city project. The smart city project only benefited the contractor, particularly Venkiah Rao, who is supposed to be related to the former vice president Venkiah Naidu.
The Goa Chamber of Commerce, which was located at Panaji, should perhaps take the initiative to develop a master plan for the renewal of Panaji. The first step should be a ban any new constructions and focus on the redevelopment of areas like the Campal, Mala and large parts of St Inez areas.
Government quarters occupy a large part of old Panaji. The government quarters at St Inez and Patto are scrambled and need to be redeveloped. Similarly, many government buildings like Junta House, the old Excise Commissioner’s Office, the Directorate of Accounts, all of them are falling down and start leaking during every monsoon. All this also needs to be re-developed.
All Panaji needs is re-development and strengthening of the infrastructure. Shifting everything to Porvorim will not work as Porvorim has become overcrowded and is full house now. Panaji is expanding in the direction of Merces and Santa Cruz, but none of these developments are really planned in consultation with all concerned.

MISPLACED PRIORITIES
THE government’s priorities are misplaced. Let us avoid projects like the Unity Mall coming up at Chimbel. Indeed, the large slum colonies in Chimbel must be re-developed on the lines of the Dharavi projects in Mumbai. Dharavi, which is home to over 50 lakh slum dwellers, has been very enviously re-developed. The formula for re-development is simple. If the existing floor space index is single storied or one plus two or three, private builders are offered the facility of building eight or ten storied or even higher buildings.
On the condition that they will offer housing flats to people who are displaced with the re-development. We hope that the long suffering residents of Panaji will vote and elect an MLA who cares for Panaji city in the next assembly election. Except for the late JB Gonsalves unfortunately, none of the Panaji MLAs have been residents of Panaji. Former chief minister, Manohar Parrikar, never stayed in Panaji but went back home to sleep at his residence at Mapusa. Babush Monseratte is resident of Taleigao.
Among the very few Panaji residents who contested and won elections from Panaji are Sidharth Kuncalienker, a protege of the late Manohar Parrikar, who has been appointed general secretary of the BJP. Sidharth was given the BJP ticket when Manohar Parrikar resigned his seat to become the defense minister in the Modi cabinet. Sidharth won the election but was not re-elected the election after Parrikar’s death as he could not counter Babush Monserrate, who shifted from Taleigao to Panaji.
BUT times have changed and it is unlikely that the large minority vote in Panaji will vote for a saffron Babush in the forthcoming assembly election. Better a loyal BJP member than a perennial defector.