the goan I network
VASCO
Now a regular occurrence, a massive traffic jam at Cortalim on Saturday evening left motorists fuming.
Motorists have reacted with outrage as vehicles were held up for several hours along the Cortalim-Agassaim stretch of the highway.
Vehicles were lined up for several kilometres along the site of the bridge construction work and teams from Goa Police and Traffic Police struggled to manage and regulate the huge queue of vehicles.
Many speeding taxis and two-wheelers aggravated the situation by jumping the queue and creating bottlenecks at junctions. Utter chaos prevailed at the Cortalim Circle as traffic was stuck on all four sides, including a small bypass road moving towards Loutolim.
A 1 km route near the Agassaim bypass junction took as long as 1 hour, leaving motorists fuming with rage. Serpentine queues of vehicles were seen as queues of vehicles leaving from Vasco almost reached Sancoale while the queue of vehicles arriving from Margao was seen as far as Verna.
A motorist Paresh Naik said. “This is getting out of hand and is become a regular affair now. I travel the Vasco-Panjim route everyday and this is becoming a part of my daily schedule. I had left Vasco at 3.30 and it’s 5.30 now and I have not yet crossed Cortalim. This is frustrating and we are helpless as no one is bothered and no one seems to be doing anything about this issue,” Naik said.
A taxi driver, Maxi Fernandes, said he had been stuck at the Agassaim bypass while returning from the Airport. “Authorities should work out a permanent solution to resolve this mess. It took me one hour just to cross a small area which could have been covered on foot within 15 minutes,” Fernandes added.
With vehicular movement almost coming to a standstill, frustrated passengers of various Kadamba buses were seen walking on the roads to the other side in the hope of reaching home early after waiting in the bus for over one hour.
