the goan I network
MARGAO
This road accident should certainly be a wake up call for the government authorities as it has occurred at a time when the state is observing road safety week.
Even as the RTO and traffic officials with NGOs in tow have hit the road to spread road safety awareness, three occupants of a car had a miraculous escape after the vehicle in which they were travelling landed in the River Sal near the Khareband bridge past midnight for want of a retaining wall along the banks of the river.
While the car driver and the two female occupants were later fished out by the people, the incident only brought to the fore the pertinent question over the failure of the PWD or other agencies to secure the river bank with a retaining wall, more so when two cars with occupants had met with a similar fate at the same spot when their vehicles had landed in the river.
People gathered at the Khareband bridge on Thursday morning as the vehicle was fished out from the river, demanded to know whether the government authorities are waiting for a major tragedy to happen at the place before they erect a retaining wall.
A resident of Benaulim, Roque Fernandes told The Goan that the incident should open the eyes of the authorities, including the PWD, to immediately put in place a retaining wall along the Khareband bridge to prevent vehicles from falling into the river.
“We had witnessed two similar incidents in the past, but no attempt has been made to repair the retaining wall or build a new one. I wonder whether the government is waiting for a major tragedy to occur before taking up the work,” Roque
said.
Incidentally, work on building a retaining wall and beautification of the Pedda-Khareband-Benaulim road undertaken by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) is in full swing, leaving the people to question why the government has not showed similar zeal to repair the retaining wall on the river side in the interest of the travelling public.
In the instant case, the Colva police pointed out that the car was apparently headed to Majorda from Benaulim and the driver must have got confused upon reaching the Khareband road junction just before the bridge, before the vehicle nose-dived into the river.
Interesting, though the Khareband bridge was commissioned around a decade and half ago, the traffic junction is yet to be developed till date for reasons best known to the authorities, including the traffic and PWD, though sources in the know say the Benaulim panchayat had in the past dashed off a host of letters to the traffic department to get a scientifically-designed traffic junction to regulate the flow of traffic to Pedda-Benaulim, Varca and Margao.
