Name Goa's 2 bridges after Bandodkar, Sequeira: Cong urges PM

The Goa Congress has demanded that the upcoming bridges on the Mandovi and Zuari rivers be named after the state's first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar and iconic leader Dr Jack Sequeira.

The party Friday sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to consider the demand of naming the bridges after the two late leaders from the state.

The Goa government and the Centre are jointly constructing these two bridges. Union minister Nitin Gadkari is scheduled to inaugurate the third bridge over the Mandovi river on Sunday.

"The third bridge over river Mandovi would be thrown open to traffic very soon. Another bridge over river Zuari may take a year or two to complete. The bridges over rivers and other water bodies signify joining of two separate entities," Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) chief Girish Chodankar said in the letter to Modi.

"Naming them (these new bridges) after eminent Goans of yesteryears would be the perfect bridge for Goans connecting to their past and help future generations remember the history," he said.

"As the clamour grows over naming the bridges after eminent Goans, who have during their lifetime contributed to the greatness of our state and our country, two such eminent Goans stand out...," he said.

They are - late Dayanand Bandodkar, Goa's first Chief Minister and late Dr Jack de Sequeira, father of Goa's opinion poll that helped the state retain its identity, the letter reads.

"We would like to assert that our urge reflects the popular sentiments of Goans...Naming bridges after them will also give these pioneers of Goa due recognition, which we owe to them. Your step would be well appreciated by every Goemkar (Goans)," Chodankar said in the letter.

The party, however, refrained from specifying whose name should be given to which bridge.

Bandodkar was the first CM of Goa after the Liberation from Portuguese rule, while Sequeira was the first Leader of Opposition who also spearheaded the movement to save Goa from being merged into Maharashtra during the historic 1967 opinion poll.