PANAJI
Traffic police department continues to be in a jam owing to failure of transport and public works departments to cooperate in correcting the layout of Goa’s roads.
With these departments sitting on proposals and communications from the traffic department, steps have yet to be taken to change street furniture. Plans of systemic overhaul also appear to have been shelved owing to this state of inactivity.
Proposal for installation of 53 traffic signals, 20 pedestrian signals and 73 blinkers is lying dormant for over two years. During this time, the vehicular population of Goa has skyrocketed to 11.5 lakh.
Numerous of these signals have been proposed on major cross-roads and T-junctions in Panaji, Mapusa, Ponda, Porvorim, Vasco, Margao and Valpoi and recommendations were forwarded by the traffic police headquarters to the department of transport two years ago.
However, in the absence of any action by PWD and transport department, regulation and management of traffic has turned into an uphill task for the State’s traffic cops.
Sought for his comments on this stagnant state-of-affairs, Director General of Police Dr Muktesh Chander stated, “We are the enforcing authority and we have already forwarded several letters to PWD and transport department. But things cannot be expected to change overnight.”
The plan to suspend licenses for up to three months for traffic offences such as overspeeding, drunken driving, jumping signals and using mobile phones while operating vehicles from July 1 has also suffered a setback due to ‘procedural delay’ with the police awaiting response from transport department.
DGP Chander is of the opinion that the miniscule fine amount makes it tough to manage traffic and change the outlook of citizens towards road safety.
DGP Chander further said that there is an urgent need to update the licensing regime by introducing aspects such as electronic database of offenses assigned to each license, e-challaning and so on.
“We issue fines but the amount is so small that it does not affect people. The fines are not a deterrent and things can improve only with amendment to the Motor Vehicle Act,” he stated while observing that the fine amount has remained unchanged despite the value of rupee increasing steadily.
