the goan I network
MAPUSA
With incessant power cuts and choked roads, residents of Calangute faced a nightmarish weekend, even as loads of Indian tourists made a beeline to the popular coastal village.
Calangute has been facing frequent power outages from Friday evening, with electricity playing hide and seek even during the day.
So frequent were the power interruptions that locals could not make use of their electrical appliances at several places in the village.
Many residents vented their anger against the power officials and the local MLA and panch members.
“What are you doing about the electricity problem in Calangute? Today is the eighth time that power shedding is happening and we cannot use our electrical appliances,” complained Denver D’Souza, a local from Gauravaddo, questioning the local MLA and the sarpanch of the village in a WhatsApp group.
“Let us knock the doors of the MLA or ask him for a meeting with the power minister,” D’Souza added.
Seconding him was Violet D’Souza who said power was not the only problem in the coastal village but water shortage was also an issue.
She attributed the problem due to increase in hotels and resorts in the village.
“Diwali is festival of lights but in Calangute, it is the festival of darkness due to frequent power cuts,” D’Souza said.
Ruskin Mascarenhas disclosed that in the last two days, power went off at least 50 times in Candolim and it continued even on Saturday.
Roads chock-a-block with outstation vehicles
MAPUSA: Most roads leading to Calangute, Baga and even as far away as Porvorim were packed with outstation vehicles from Friday evening and continued throughout the day on Saturday.
“For every one Goa-registered vehicle, we could see 2-3 outstation vehicles with Maharashtra, Karnataka or Gujarat registration plates,” said Peter D’Sa from Mapusa, who cursed his luck going to the coastal belt on Saturday.
Besides, there were a whole lot of young Indian tourists zooming on hired two-wheelers along the popular Calangute coastal belt.
Incidentally, the problem was not restricted to the Candolim-Calangute-Baga belt alone.
Long queues of vehicles, many of them inter-state and tourist cars and scooters, were seen along the highway at Porvorim, with vehicles caught up in continuous traffic jams near the Mandovi Bridge.
Ongoing sewage works on one half of the highway proceeding to Mapusa near Teen Building in Porvorim further restricted movement of vehicles at the site, adding to the traffic congestion along the route.
