the goan I network
PANAJI
Goa and the capital city in particular turned into a river, literally, with the nearly five inches of pounding from the South Western monsoon. To say life was thrown out of gear is a huge understatement to describe the trauma of the Goans on Friday.
Roads were flooded to knee-level and even worse in several areas making commuting a nightmare. Office-goers and parents dropping their kids to schools were the worst hit as rain kept pounding the State continuously since dawn.
The work in progress on several big-ticket projects like the third Mandovi bridge, the second Zuari bridge, the Western bypass in Salcete besides many other ongoing projects across Goa further worsened the situation.
The Margao-Arlem highway road was submerged as was the roads hugging the Nehru stadium on the western side.
Fortunately there were no reports of rain-related human casualties or any major damage to property until late Friday evening although the firemen were kept on the toes through the day.
Fire and Emergency Services officials said their men rushed to at least 15 locations in Panjim to help citizens clear uprooted trees and in some cases rescue them from rising flood waters.
Across Goa, the firemen were called in to help in around 75-80 locations, the official said.
The Meterological Department, meanwhile, continues to forecast very heavy rainfall till Sunday.
The state recorded 122 mm (approximately 5 inches) of rain, the highest this year. The Ponda region got the highest 205 mm of rain in the last 24 hours, according to M L Sahoo, director of the Goa Met office in Altinho.
Citizens cursed the authorities for the flooding which caused them immense hardships. In one instance, a youth actually went kayaking along the flooded national highway in Bambolim where the road is being concreted near the Shrine of the Holy Cross, as a show of satirical protest.
But to be fair to the administration, there were also instances where authorities stepped in, in the nick of time, to avert potential disasters.
Three families were evacuated from their homes in low lying areas of Bicholim while in Assonora, where the river was in spate, timely intervention avoided a flood-like situation in Moitem, although several residents saw water gushing into their homes
In Vasco, the mamlatdar has issued instructions to occupants of four houses to vacate as the heavy downpour has heightened the risk of landslides.
In the capital Panaji and its outskirts, where multiple agencies are engaged in minor and major infrastructure related projects, water logging saw roads buried in knee-deep water at Caranzalem, Miramar, Campal and St Inez.
Panjimites were hit hard on their way to work, to drop their children to schools and it was impossible to ride bikes or even navigate the water-logged roads with cars. Serpentine traffic jams and complete chaos were the order of the day.
The iconic 18th June Road in the city was worst hit and business establishments there had to shut shop with water gushing in. Pot-holes on roads all over the city was an added hurdle for vehicle users to overcome.
Sean Faia, who commutes daily from Old Goa to Caranzalem and reached two hours late to work said: “There was a huge queue of cars on the Campal Road. It was impossible to figure out where the road ended and the side drains started. One car with an elderly couple in it got stuck in a ditch.”
Annette Po of Caranzalem said she had to abandon her car and wade through knee-deep water to drop her child to school in Miramar. “The road from Caranzalem to Adarsh Circle was completely waterlogged,” she said.
Panjim Mayor Vithal Chopdekar, meanwhile, claimed that the civic body has been diligent in clearing the nullahs but admitted that their connection to the river and sea is in some places blocked. This, Chopdekar said needs to be fixed and admitted that lack of co-ordination with other State agencies has impeded the work.
Former Panjim MLA, Siddharth Kuncolienkar however, differed with the mayor and blamed Firday’s mess in the city on the unprecedentally heavy rains and simultaneous high tides.
“No agency will be able to manage this kind of volume of rain and situation,” Kuncolienkar, who as vice-chairman of GSIDC and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s trusted lieutenant oversees the constituency work, told The Goan.
