OLD GOA
A portion of the Ribandar causeway caved in on Wednesday night. Luckily, no untoward incident occurred as no vehicles were moving along the collapsed portion of the road when the incident occurred.
When The Goan visited the site, it was seen that a portion of around 5 metres, located towards the River Mandovi, caved in after a supporting concrete wall collapsed.
When the incident was notified to authorities concerned, barricades were placed near the collapsed portion to alert road users about the danger.
As it was a night of Narkasurs, a large number of vehicles were seen using the road throughout the night and the barricades helped in alerting of the danger.
Locals lament that this historical bridge, probably the oldest in India, has remained neglected for years though it still stood strong, connecting the capital city Panaji to its sleepy suburbs like Ribandar. Adorned with jetties taking the natives to neighbouring islands Chorao, Diwar and Juvem (St Estavam) in Tiswadi, Ribandar causeway has survived for decades as it withstands only light traffic.
Built in 1634 during the Portuguese viceroy Conde de Linhares Dom Miguel de Noronha for horse driven carts, the heritage landmark bridge earned reputation as an engineering marvel, but has suffered neglect all these years, say locals. Though considered as unsafe for heavy vehicular traffic now, a heavy vehicle damaged one of the culverts on the Ribandar side, over two decades ago.
Originally spanning 3.2 km from the General post office in Panaji the causeway included the Patto bridge with approach roads on both sides and the straight Patto bridge on the southern bank river of Mandovi. The Regional plan 2021 had included this oldest bridge in a list of heritage landscapes. The narrow bridge is now an accident-prone zone and has to be protected from reckless riders who cross the speed limit of 40 km per hour, and also try to overtake other vehicles.
The bridge needs repairs and care, as there are visible cracks. A part of it has also started sagging. It was in 2014 that the PWD had done some repairs though stress lines keep reappearing from time to time. The late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had suggested that this causeway could be used by cyclists and pedestrians only, if and when a new parallel bridge would be constructed.
