MARGAO
These traffic sign boards bare it all “ a sign board signalling a speed of 80 kmph speed, followed by two sign boards just metres ahead, cautioning motorists to slow down and finally stop.
All these sign boards have come up the Nuvem wholesale fish market stretch of the Western bypass, leaving travellers and motorists a confused lot.
For, these sign boards have been found erected at a distance of hardly few metres, raising questions why the sign board with a 80 kmph speed is being erected if the very next sign board installed just few metres away caution motorists to slow down and finally stop near the T-junction.
Well, motorists have raised this question, fearing that vehicles travelling at great speed may lose control and crash land on the ongoing bypass bridge site.
Questions are being asked whether the 80 kmph speed signboard was installed much before the government took the decision to build the bypass on stilts between the wholesale fish market and the Mungul bridge.
Social activist Avinash Tavares wondered whether the speed limit sign board tallies with the two other sign boards and whether it is appropriate to allow driving at a speed of 80 kmph when the vehicles are required to take a T-turn, just metres ahead. “I feel the PWD should rectify the lapse by replacing the 80 kmph speed sign board. This may result in a major accident involving outstation vehicles travelling on the bypass for the first time”, Tavares said.
Residents of Seraulim travelling on the Seraulim-Margao road have also called for measures, including widening of the existing road, especially at the turns to avoid accidents. A citizen from Fatorda, Alison Morenas, who is a frequent user of the Seraulim-Margao road, has called for proper illumination at the T-junction for the benefit of the road users. “There was an accident just last week when a vehicle went off the road near the turn. The road ought to be done properly and illuminated before any mishap could take place”, he said.
He added: “The road at the T-junction needs to be properly streamlined for traffic. We have come acros traffic bottleneck at the T-junction. The entire stretch needs to be properly illuminated to avoid accidents”.
The government had commissioned the Verna-Nuvem wholesale fish market stretch of the Western bypass over a year ago. But, before the PWD could take up the work on the balance 2.75 km stretch from the wholesale fish market road to Benaulim, the government accepted the recommendation of the expert committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal to build the stretch of the bypass from the wholesale fish market to the Mungul railway bridge, admeasuring around 980 metres, on stilts.
