the goan I network
PANAJI
PWD Minister Ramkrishna Sudin Dhavalikar will on Friday chair a high-level meeting at the Secretariat which is likely to take a call on the traffic diversion plan at Cortalim to facilitate work on the eight-lane Zuari bridge.
TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai and Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho will also participate in the discussions.
P Krishnamurthy, the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and several other top bureaucrats from the relevant departments, including PWD, Transport and Police will be part of the discussions.
Dhavalikar is on record that a nearly 4-kilometre stretch of the NH-66 (formerly NH-17) between the Cortalim junction and the Toyota showroom at Kesarval will have to be closed for at least eight months to enable the contractor, Dilip Buildcon, carry out the next phase of work on the eight-lane signature bridge.
Accordingly, govt is proposing to divert traffic on the crucial Panaji-Margao route with a nearly 18-kilometre detour through Chicalim.
“Friday’s meeting may not take a final decision. The meeting is called to take inputs from various stakeholders to help the government opt for the best solution,” an official in the PWD minister’s office told The Goan.
Meanwhile, Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho said when infrastructure work of this magnitude is being carried out, some amount of “pain” will have to be borne by the people.
“We will take the best option to ensure the pain is minimal for both, those commuting between Panaji-Margao and those residing along the diversion,” Godinho claimed.
Thousands commute between Panaji and Margao, arguably the most important of Goa’s cities socially, commercially and culturally, besides being the headquarters of the two districts.
Traffic diversion at Cortalim is bound to lead to chaotic situations in addition to significantly spiking travel time between the two cities.
