The Goa government has informed the Legislative Assembly that more than 100 government buildings across eight talukas are dilapidated and structurally unsafe — including the Pimpal Katta complex in Margao's Gandhi Market, which has already partially collapsed onto parked cars twice (October 29, 2022 and May 24, 2025) and remains open for business. The state's official mechanism is Clause 49 of the Disaster Management Act — a provision designed to compensate victims after structural failures occur, i.e., after the building has fallen on someone.
Goa's Junta House in Panjim accommodates around 150 people every day, was declared unsafe years ago after slabs began falling on the sixth floor, and is currently 'marked for demolition' rather than demolished. It is also, by some distance, no longer Goa's most embarrassing dilapidated government building. Across eight talukas, more than 100 government and private buildings have been formally classified as death traps — 21 in Margao alone, and 23 in Panjim (up from 12, after monsoon rains caused a partial collapse at St Inez and forced authorities to look harder). The list now extends to the Old Secretariat, schools, health centres, police stations and courts — places citizens are required to enter to obtain essential services. The state's chosen instrument is Clause 49 of the Disaster Management Act, a provision built entirely around compensating victims after a structure has failed. The Pimpal Katta building in Margao's Gandhi Market has obliged the law twice already, dropping pieces of itself onto parked cars below in October 2022 and again in May 2025. It remains open for business. Demolition orders for Indira Apartments and Cabeca de Calcondem have been challenged in the High Court; structural audits have been outsourced to Goa Engineering College; tenders for non-destructive testing have been floated. The buildings, in the meantime, are settling, shifting and shedding concrete in silence.