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A traffic personnel tries to regulate traffic near Balli bridge as a huge queue of vehicles were seen heading to the DefExpo site on Monday morning.
MARGAO
Goa’s narrow National Highway and the internal roads witnessed traffic snarls on Monday as the four-day DefExpo got underway on Monday with thousands of vehicles carrying delegates and officials headed to the Naqueri-Betul plateau since early morning.
While the huge and spacious Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) acquired land hosted the DefExpo, the narrow highway and the internal road could not take the additional traffic load. In fact, traffic snarls were literally the order of the day on the Cuncolim-Chinchinim stretch of the National Highway on the north and the Cuncolim-Balli stretch down south, besides the road leading to the Expo site from the Balli road junction.
In fact, the five km busy Cuncolim-Dandeavaddo-Chinchinim stretch of the NH-17 witnessed a serpentine queue of the vehicles since early morning. Public and private transport plying on the highway were caught in the traffic jam as vehicles ferrying delegations to DefExpo site jammed the NH-17 along this stretch.
City-based lawyer, Adv Cleofato Coutinho, who was proceeding to the Cuncolim Church for the morning mass, said it took him nearly an hour to reach Cuncolim from Margao. “The huge queue of vehicles had reached Sarzora, resulting in traffic snarls," he said.
DySP Traffic Prabodh Shirwaikar said the stretch of the NH-17 at Cuncolim was affected after a car broke down on the road. “Besides, this stretch of the busy highway has a number of crossings and junctions. In addition, the peak hour traffic, transporting people to Margao also clashed with the additional traffic heading to DefExpo," he said.
Replying to a question, DySP Shirwaikar said around 4,000 vehicles must have ferried delegates or moved towards the DefExpo site on Monday morning, contributing to the traffic snarls, which he said were promptly cleared by the traffic personnel.
Sources in the know said that overwhelmingly majority of the vehicles transporting the delegates had taken the NH route to reach to the DefExpo site, avoiding the Velim-Betul-Cananguinim route as a precautionary measure. Even those vehicles transporting delegates putting up in the starred resorts along the Cavelossim-Varca belt, has taken the NH-17 via Cuncolim after crossing the Cavelossim-Assolna bridge.
