GUILHERME ALMEIDA
MARGAO
Goa Traffic police may have to finally withdraw the speed radars from the National highways as new speed limits stand notified along the stretch of the National highway passing through the state, superseding all previous notifications on speed limits.
Though the new speed limits notified by the Regional Officer, Ministry of Road Transport have come into force with immediate effect since late June, the traffic cops will have to wait for some time to enforce the speed limits.
For, enforcement of the new speed limits will now be dependent on the installation of speed limit signboard across the length and breadth of the state along the highways.
The Goan understands that it may take some time for authorities, including the traffic police to enforce the new speed limits for the simple reason that around 3000 speed limit sign boards have been proposed by the National Highways at a whopping cost of around Rs three
crore.
The question over which authority will foot the bill of the speed limit sign boards “ whether the district or state road safety committee or the Transport department -- remains undecided till date, with National Highway officials saying the work of installation of the speed limit sign boards will purely depend on the funds sanctioned by the government authorities.
An official has said speed sign boards have been proposed every 300 meters of the highway for the benefit of motorists.
A senior National Official told The Goan that pending installation of the speed limit sign boards, the traffic police will be literally barred from ascertaining the speed of vehicles via the speed
radars.
For, the rules mandate enforcement of the speed limits only after the installation of the speed limit sign boards, he said.
The official further pointed out that with the notification issued by the Mumbai-based Regional Officer, MoRT coming into force, all notifications and rules issued by the district and state authorities pertaining to speed limits stands superseded.
The NH official said that while the notification has fixed a speed limit of 100 Km/hour along the Birla-Titan-Airport road, the maximum speed fixed on the highways is around 70 Km/hour, with minimum sped of 30 km/hour on the bridges and flyovers and around 40 km/hour on the NH passing through the cities and towns.
The notification has restricted the Speed limits on the major bridges and flyovers across the state to 30 km/hour, be it the Mandovi and Zuari bridges, besides the Margao flyover. Similarly, speed limit has been restricted to 40-50 km/hour when the highway roads are passing through the populated towns. The new proposal has mooted speed limit of 70 km/ hour from Patradevi to Torsem and further down to the Soccoro junction, Porvorim, barring Torsem-Malpem garage and Malpem Garage-Dhargal where the speed has been restricted to 50 and 60 km/hour respectively.
In down South, beyond Zuari river, the proposed speed limit differs along the stretch from Cortalim to Nuvem. While the Cortalim junction-Kesarval motel will have a speed limit of 60 km/hour, a 70 km/hour speed has been mooted along the Kesarwal motel-Pirnim petrol pump junction.
