Gaude assures flyover in front of Safa Masjid

Ponda: About a year-and-a-half after the opening of the Ponda-Khandepar bypass road, co-operation minister

Govind Gaude

has given assurance that a flyover will be constructed in front of the

Safa Masjid

at Shapur,

Ponda

, and provisions made for parking space for devotees.

A part of the mosque’s water tank wall collapsed on Thursday after the soil was inundated with rain water.

Repair work on the collapsed part was taken up on priority by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Gaude inspected the same on Saturday.

The demand for the flyover was raised during the construction of the bypass road.

However, local MLA and then PWD minister Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar had said that a flyover was not possible at the spot since the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) does not allow any elevated structure in front of protected monuments.

The mosque committee’s president, Murtuza Shaikh, however, blamed the vibrations created by heavy vehicles passing on the highway stretch in front of the structure for the wall developing cracks, ultimately leading to a portion of it collapsing on Thursday.