VASCO
Cortalim MLA Antonio Vas on Monday morning along with government officials and Quelossim panchayat jointly inspected the road near the Toyota showroom at Kesarval, which has become an accident-prone zone.
While people explained the difficulty in moving towards Quelossim as the internal road connecting the highway had no access, the PWD later suggested a Service Road connecting villages within six months.
Vas appealed to people not to take shortcuts but to use a long route and take a U-turn till the Service Road is ready.
"We had a joint inspection because there is an internal road leading to Quelossim and is used by many people. But this road cannot be used from the other side of the highway and people have to move all the way near Pajentar and come back to use this road,” Vas told reporters.
“Motorists frequently drive in the wrong lane to enter this road and accidents are reported. Since there is no access and there is no traffic island or an opening in the meridian, we have planned to close this road.”
Stating that authorities have now decided to close this road and instead have a service road from Kesarval hotel to Quelossim bypass road, Vas said he has requested the panchayat to have a body meeting and hand over this resolution so that he can follow up with authorities.
“Motorists from Verna side will now have to travel around 1 km as of now and take a U-turn from Pajentar to go to Quelosssim, but I appeal to people not to take shortcuts and instead travel this distance because life is extremely important.”
“We need to have patience for the next six months till the PWD gives us a service road," said Vas.
Quelossim Biodiversity Chairman and ward panch Lopinho Xavier said authorities wanted to close access to the internal road to prevent accidents as many people were seen coming from the wrong side.
"Our panchayat has written to the Collector to provide a traffic island at this spot for smoothing crossing over from the highway to the internal roads or at least to have a signal for crossing to Quelossim.”
“We have now been offered a solution by PWD to have a 3-metre service road and it will be completed in six months. We have now asked to have a temporary solution to set up a traffic island temporarily to offer people the choice of crossing from the highway to Quelossim," said Xavier.
