Friday witnessed yet another instance of hours-long traffic jam at the Cortalim-Agassaim route serving once again a reminder of the nightmarish experience that is likely to be increasingly common as Goa approaches the peak season of Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
As a consequence of the traffic -- said to caused by an increase of vehicles into Goa bringing with them tourists who were visiting the state for the weekend -- led to a shortage of buses at the Panjim bus stand for people heading to Margao and Vasco and hours long queues at the bus stand leaving commuters frustrated. The reason they were given was that the buses were also stuck in the jam and hence couldn’t reach their destinations on time throwing the transport system off schedule.
Another reason offered by the present government is that with the opening of the Zuari bridge, which they say is now only a few months away, much of the traffic jams on this stretch will be a thing of the past. While that may be true to a certain extent and one major bottleneck will be out of the way, it will not be the end of our troubles.
Studies have shown that the real causes of traffic, and traffic jams is in reducing the number of private vehicles on the road. However, Goa has gone in a totally opposite direction. While we have seen major investments in road infrastructure over the last one decade or so, Goa’s bus system has seen little to no investment over the past several decades, that practically forces people to use their own vehicles -- something that is not only dangerous in terms of risks but also takes away money from people’s pockets for fuel.
Decades of underinvestment have seen the number of private vehicles in Goa grow exponentially but the number of buses, both Kadamba and private, have grown insignificantly and even the number of people using them has not grown. This is a consequence of the poor quality of public bus transport offered by the current system -- that is both inefficient and inconvenient. No new routes have been devised despite the population having moved into newer areas, and newer areas of business importance having emerged. Buses to connect these new areas where people live and work have not kept pace with the development of these areas leaving the population forced to use their private vehicles.
Take the instance of the Atal Setu. It was touted to be the solution to the traffic problems at both sides of the current Mandovi bridges -- especially at the KTC circle on the Panjim side and the Betim circle on the Porvorim side. A look at the daily traffic on the Panjim side on the road leading in from Merces/ Margao and the lines are as long as they used to be prior to the bridge’s opening. There is some improvement on the Porvorim side, but entirely new areas of traffic congestion have emerged in Porvorim including new choke points at the Hyundai showroom, Voddakodde, the Coqueiro circle that have made the Mapusa-Panjim ride both ways during the peak hour a pain to get through. The new promised flyover will only bring more pain during its construction and once built a new set of choke points in what will be a never ending cycle.
In this situation it is of utmost importance that the government spends its money on real solutions, including ways to incentivize use of public transport and a means to discourage the use of private vehicles.
