MARGAO
It’s a story of two flyovers, each costing approximately around Rs 100 crore proposed by the Goa government to the Centre last year, to connect and complete the decades-old Margao ring road project and streamline traffic in the commercial capital.
The good news is that the Centre has given its approval for the Victor Hospital-La Flor hotel flyover, which would finally help connect the long-delayed decades old ring road project.
Many a Madgavkar in particular and student community in particular, however, may be left disappointed as the Goa government’s proposal to build another flyover near the Comba railway crossing “ a dire need considering the acute traffic congestion, has still not received the Centre’s nod.
Both the Victor Hospital-La Flor and the Comba railway flyovers figured in the priority list of road projects mooted by Principal Chief Engineer, PWD U P Parsekar to the Director General (RD) & Special Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, New Delhi in a letter dated November 20, 2023.
While the Victor hospital-Hotel La Flor flyover was proposed to be taken up under the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund, the Comba railway flyover project was proposed under the Centre’s Setu Bandhan.
However, call it misplaced priorities or otherwise, it is feared in local circles that in the absence of a flyover near the Comba level crossing, traffic bottlenecks will only aggravate around the railway crossing once the ring road between Victor Hospital and La Flor is complete and commissioned via the flyover, bringing all traffic towards the Comba railway crossing. Take note the La Flor hotel is located just few metres away from the Comba railway crossing. A report
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These hutments and structures near Cine Lata, Margao, which were coming on the ring road alignment, will get relief with the construction of the La Flor hotel-Victor hospital flyover. (pic 2)
The Victor Hospital-La Flor hotel flyover (sub head)
Work on this flyover was proposed to the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, New Delhi by the Goa government last year to take up the project under the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF). Estimates prepared by the PWD had pegged the total construction cost of the one kilometre long flyover to around Rs 95 crore.
The avowed objective of the flyover proposal was to complete the missing link of the Margao ring road project between Victor hospital and La Flor. Once commissioned, the flyover will help complete the Margao ring road project, connecting Aquem at the Power House junction to the Colva road near the Old market junction.
The Victor hospital-Hotel La Flor flyover project will also ring in good news for the inhabitants of the migrant colony near the Cine Lata, but for a different reason. The hutments near Cine Lata were all coming along the ring road alignment, as a result of which the road had hit a dead end near the 'basti' all these years.
For, construction of the flyover will imply that not a single residential structure at the migrant basti will go for demolition and neither will any of the inhabitants will be displaced, thus ruling out their rehabilitation.
PWD officials informed that the flyover will start metres away from Hotel La Flor before it wends its way above the hutments, enter into the railway property before descending near the Victor hospital.
A site inspection of the alignment was carried out recently by the PWD on the Margao ring road along with KRCL officials and representative of M/s Madhav Kamat and Associates who are appointed as consultants for the work.
It was decided to find out the total area of property owned by Konkan Railway Corporation and South Western Railway that would be required for the flyover construction and to seek NOC from SWR since the flyover alignment passes through their property.
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Vehicles rush to cross the Comba railway crossing after the opening of the gate. Traffic snarls a routine feature on the Comba railway crossing-Subway stretch of the ring road. (pic 3///pic 4)
Comba flyover (subhead)
When Chief Minister Pramod Sawant laid the foundation stone for the six-lane Rawanfond bridge, Margao last year, he promised Madgavkars that his government will take up construction of the Comba flyover on highest priority.
The Chief Minister repeated his promise on the floor of the House, reassuring Madgavkars in particular and Saxttikars in general that the traffic woes in and around Comba will end once the flyover takes space over the railway tracks near the railway crossing.
In fact, a team of PWD officials led by then Executive Engineer, Prasad Panandikar, who retired last month as Superintending engineer, had not only prepared the feasibility of the Comba flyover, but had done the ground work, putting in place a plan and design of the proposed flyover at the Comba railway along with the estimates.
Perhaps for the first time in recent years that hopes were raised that the traffic snarls at the Comba railway crossing would end and that students and parents, besides motorists need no longer wait at the crossing nor take the subway to make it to other side of the tracks.
Officials in private say both the Comba flyover and the Victor hospital-La Flor hotel flyovers are equally important to ensure ring road connectivity. When it comes to priority, however, officials bat for the Comba flyover over the Victor hospital-La Flor hotel flyover, for the simple reason that the traffic situation at the Comba railway crossing has aggravated over the years, what with Comba emerging as the city’s education hub, with educational institutions imparting education right from KG (Kindergarten) to PG (Post graduation).
That’s not all. With the railway crossing closed for vehicular traffic every time a train runs on the railway tracks, it is feared in local circles that the Comba railway crossing will be hardly open for vehicular traffic with the number of trains, including coal wagons set to increase in the near future.
