the goan I network
PANAJI
After demanding several times that the PWD take measures to ensure that traffic is not hampered at Cortalim on the Margao-Panaji route, the Congress on Tuesday gheraoed the Chief Engineer of the PWD Umesh Kulkarni. The Principal Chief Engineer was not available in his office.
The Congress had earlier asked that the government put into place measures to ensure that commuters on the National Highway were not hampered on a daily basis. However, commuters have continued suffering in traffic jams on the route.
Present from amongst Congress leaders were Sankalp Amonkar, Amarnath Panjikar, Janardhan Bhandari, Vijay Bhike, Pratima Coutinho, Varad Mardolkar, and Ahraz Mulla. As a token of protest, the party presented the official with a shawl, bouquet, sample road materials and a contaminated glass of water.
Following the event, spokesperson Amarnath Panjikar told the media that the Chief Engineer had assured the Congress that the PWD would hold a joint-inspection of the area where traffic jams occur along with Congress office bearers, the contractor, engineers and local representatives within the next two days.
Panjikar said that Kulkarni had given them several other assurances like irregular water supply to Bardez and other parts of Goa would be taken care of. “He also assured us that the PWD would repair all the highway expansion service roads and signages, signboards, reflection tape, and other safety measures would be put in place in the next fifteen days,” Panjikar said.
Meanwhile, Kulkarni is reported to have said that the contractor would be issued a show-cause notice for not following the guidelines of the National Road Safety Council and the State Road Safety Council.
The Congress however remained dissatisfied with their meeting with Kulkarni, as his answers were “not satisfactory,” said Panjikar. “We asked him many questions regarding the safety of the people/ public on roads but he was helpless and unable to give satisfactory replies,” he said.
