MARGAO
A new academic year starts on Monday for the students studying at the Margao city schools, but there seemed no positive changes in the traffic and parking front seen on the ground ahead of the school reopening.
The Margao municipal traffic and road safety committee meeting with the representatives of city-based educational institutions had brought to the fore a host of traffic and parking issues plaguing the city during peak school hours.
Sadly, the ground reality remains unchanged to date in the heart of the commercial town, at the Comba railway crossing-road underpass stretch and the road heading towards the Presentation Convent high school adjoining the South Goa district hospital. A report.
Pedestrianisation of roads around
Loyola, Fatima convent schools
With the decision to block the Loyola road for traffic near the Margao police canteen during peak school hours paying dividends, a suggestion has been made to extend the concept along the Woodland hotel-Margao police station road and notify the old bus stand as a drop and pick up point facility for children during peak school hours.
The suggestion requires the Margao civic body to clear the old bus stand of the eyesore, including the gaddas and the overflowing waste bins, repair the pavers and drains along the bus stand-police station road, and renovate the bus shelter.
To ensure that the huge bus stand space is utilised entirely for the drop and pick up of children heading to the Loyola and Fatima schools, it was suggested that the district authorities notify shifting of the buses outside the bus stand during the peak school hours. This suggestion is to ensure the entire road from Margao police station via the Gomant Vidya Niketan right down Hotel Woodland is converted into a pedestrian zone.
A visit to the old bus stand, however, has revealed that the area continues to remain an eyesore with gaddas, which are supposed to be towed away to the residence of the owners after business hours, left parked on the sprawling bus stand. The bus stand continues to be the home for the mangled remains of the accident vehicles in the jurisdiction of Margao police station. A waste disposal facility set up on the bus stand by the Margao civic body is craving attention.
Leave alone converting the old bus stand into a drop and pick up point for students, the entire area is craving attention, with sources saying the situation does not augur well when thousands of children will be crossing the bus stand from Monday.
Presentation Convent school, Ambaji
An avowed objective behind the shifting of the Presentation convent school from the Holy Spirit area to Ambaji was to decongest the old market area of the city. The school shifting has indeed helped to decongest the old market area, but the commissioning of the Hospicio South Goa district hospital at Ambaji has been causing traffic snarls on the school road. For, double parking of vehicles on the school road along the hospital has been a norm than an exception almost every day, barring the weekends. Resultantly, traffic to and fro the school has been adversely affected, with traffic snarls literally the order of the day around the Hospicio-Highway road junction.
Parents as well as PTA members have been knocking on the doors of the authorities for relief, with a plea to ensure there’s no double parking of vehicles, including buses on the school road, but in vain.
This is one issue that figured prominently at the traffic and road safety committee of the Margao Municipal Council held over a week ago, but the ground situation remains unchanged.
The traffic police conceded that the Presentation school road is a traffic bottleneck during the peak school hours, but has expressed its difficulties in physically manning all the points for want of manpower.
Comba railway crossing and subway
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s announcement that the government has proposed a flyover at the Comba railway crossing at the request of Margao MLA Digambar Kamat may ring in good news for the locals, parents of students and representatives of the educational institutions located at Comba.
It may, however, take years before the flyover becomes a reality with the Centre yet to commit dedicated funds for the T-shape flyover.
Comba comes to a halt whenever a railway runs on the tracks, necessitating the closure of the level crossing. With the Comba subway having outlived its utility with increasing traffic, including traffic heading to the educational hub and traffic entering from Salcete’s coastal belt, the situation may not be different around the level crossing-subway area.
Sources, however, say the authorities, including the PWD and the Margao Municipal Council, can help mitigate the hardships and remove bottlenecks. Sources said the roadside from the level crossing to the sub-way should be levelled and developed for parking or for vehicles to manoeuvre during the peak hours.
The fate of the PWD drives to remove the gaddas along the roadsides, including those near the Comba level crossing remains unknown. PWD officials have attributed the delay in action against the gaddas to the absence of a go-ahead signal from the powers that be.
That’s not all. The roadside drain right opposite the level cross on the Comba side is craving attention, with the drain not covered by slabs. Locals say the drain could have come in handy for the students and the public to walk if the same was covered with concrete slabs.
Is Margao Traffic Cell ready to tackle traffic challenges?
THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO
Is the Margao Traffic Cell geared up to meet the traffic challenges in the commercial capital in the new academic year? This is a question that may come to haunt the men-in-Uniform, citizens and educational institutions.
For, representatives of city schools attending the Margao Municipal traffic and road safety meeting a week ago were heard making a plea to Margao Traffic Cell in-charge, PI Gautam Salunke to depute traffic personnel around the educational institutions to regulate traffic and parking.
PI Salunke was overheard saying that the Margao traffic cell is understaffed to meet the requirements of the schools. The ground reality seemed to have not changed for the better over the last week with the cell grossly understaffed to spare personnel for traffic regulation.
While the Margao Traffic cell is headed by a Police Inspector and other officials, the Cell is grossly understaffed as far as constables are concerned. The deputation of Home guards must have helped the Cell to manage the situation, but sources say that unless the sanctioned strength of police personnel is filled up, traffic regulation around the educational institutions and the Comba level crossing may be a far cry in the coming academic year as well.
A senior police officer pointed out that the situation is further aggravated when the home guards, who are daily wage personnel, play truant, leaving the task of regulating the increasing traffic load next to impossible.
“The Margao Traffic Cell has not received additional manpower so far. We will be left with no option than to work with the available staff,” remarked a traffic police official.
