Panaji: The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) will move to restrict commercial and large-scale entertainment events at the Sports Authority of Goa’s Bhausaheb Dayanand Bandodkar Ground at Campal following the traffic chaos caused by Oktoberfest, mayor Rohit Monserrate said on Monday.Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that he would look into the chaos caused by the events and if necessary review the situation with the relevant authorities.The civic body is working on guidelines to regulate events at the ground in the interest of public convenience and traffic management.Monserrate said the CCP had taken serious note of the traffic congestion, disruption of vehicular movement, parking difficulties and inconvenience caused to residents, commuters and the public during the Oktoberfest event, which paralysed DB Road.He said that while the civic body recognised the importance of promoting tourism, cultural activities and public entertainment, these could not come at the cost of public convenience, traffic discipline, residents’ quality of life and the normal functioning of the city.Under the proposed policy, the CCP would ordinarily not grant permission or issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) for beer festivals, food and beverage festivals, large-scale musical concerts, DJ nights, entertainment shows and ticketed commercial programmes.However, the civic body would consider allowing literary festivals, book exhibitions, poetry readings, art exhibitions, heritage-related activities, cultural workshops and non-disruptive cultural events such as Serendipity, Monserrate said.The mayor had earlier maintained that the CCP could not prevent state govt from organising events in the city.
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