the goan I network
PANAJI
The spectre of serpentine vehicular queues and hours of getting stuck in irritable traffic jams at the Agassaim-Cortalim stretch of the National Highway on the Panaji-Margao route may return to haunt office-goers, students and other commuters as much as managing the chaos will stretch the Goa administration on Monday.
Patchwork to repair pot-holes on the National Highway stretch was executed over the weekend after top brass of the administration including the Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma, DGP Muktesh Chander and CM’s principal secretary P Krishnamurthy surveyed the troublesome areas and zeroed in on remedial works.
Much of the traffic chaos, the authorities believe is caused due to the pot-holes which impede vehicle speeds and also due to failure of vehicle drivers to maintain lane-driving discipline. The bottlenecks caused by narrowing of the highway due to the ongoing works on the Zuari bridge are an added impediment.
The administration has ordered deployment of additional police personnel to enforce lane-driving discipline besides other on-site traffic control measures.
Over the last couple of weeks, traffic has been thrown into complete chaos with commuters forced to spend up to one-two hours stuck in traffic jams on the Agassaim-Cortalim stretch where the highway is damaged and traffic diversions introduced due to work on the new Zuari bridge and its approach roads.
In the resultant chaos, students are struggling to reach their colleges in time and office-goers have been suffering.
Also affected are ambulances transporting emergency patients and others who secure with much difficulty appointments for clinical procedures at the State’s premier healthcare institution, Goa Medical College but cannot reach in time. Another section affected are people missing flights.
Meanwhile, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Girish Chodankar, has suggested introduction of ferry service between Agassaim and Cortalim to partly ease the congestion on the Zuari bridge and its approach roads.
In a letter to the Chief Secretary, Chodankar also suggested use of internal road on the Agassaim side as well as the Thana-Verna road on the Cortalim side for traffic that may use the ferry service if introduced. Another demand put forth by Chodankar is the setting up of a Pontoon Bailey bridge across the Zuari river since the ongoing construction of the Bridge is expected to take another one year.
“We also request you to install a Pontoon Bailey bridge across Zuari River since construction of this bridge will need at least another year and people should not suffer, in case the congestion is uncontrollable,” Chodankar said in his letter to the Chief Secretary.
