Two shops gutted in fire at Margao’s new municipal mkt

Margao: Two shops inside the new municipal market, Margao — a beverage shop and a tailoring unit — were gutted in a fire that broke out during pre-dawn hours on Saturday.

The fire was first spotted by a security guard and a sopo collector, who alerted the fire brigade. The market is currently under renovation due to which firefighters had to cut open the tin-sheet roof to douse the flames.

The incident has laid the spotlight on the long-pending construction of an overhead water tank near the market, which vendors say is essential to make the fire hydrants in the area functional.

Significantly, a reply to a legislative assembly question in the recently concluded session revealed that MMC has been awaiting a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the chief town planner to construct a 640sqm overhead water storage tank at the pickup stand. Despite the MMC’s chief officer writing to the chief town planner for the NOC, the clearance is yet to come.

The demand for expediting the tank’s construction has grown louder after Saturday’s fire. The two markets have remained vulnerable to fire for years, a concern that came under scrutiny when a major fire broke out at the new municipal market in Dec 2023. Yet, adequate firefighting infrastructure is still to materialise.

The PWD works division IX, Fatorda, has since taken up the laying of fire hydrants and construction of the tank — but, as it turns out, the missing TCP NOC has become a stumbling block.