PANAJI/PORVORIM
It was a harrowing day for most commuters especially between the Mapusa and Panaji stretches as well as in the area around Panaji bus stand as a combination of factors led to day-long traffic snarls along the roads leading up to the two Mandovi Bridges.
While the police including personnel from the Porvorim Police Station, the Calangute Police Station and the Panaji police station were involved in easing traffic through, the jams remained for most of the day reminiscent of October 10, last month when a similar day-long traffic jam threw normal life out of gear.
This time too the traffic police blamed minor road accidents which occurred near the new Mandovi Bridge on Friday morning for throwing traffic out of gear in the morning and evening at Porvorim.
A rider one Daniel D'Mello met with a self accident on the old Mandovi Bridge at 9:30 after he skidded. His vehicle was then hit by a Swift Dzire car driven by one Alinto Coelho driving in the opposite direction. This accident began the traffic slowdown.
Hundreds of commuters heading towards Panaji from Mapusa, Saligao and Calangute were stuck in serpentine queues. Many vehicle owners tried to use the Service Road parallel to the highway, but the service road also got blocked in quick time.
To add to the mess the police disallowed vehicles emerging from Betim to turn at the traffic circle just ahead of the Mandovi bridges and instead forced vehicles to drive back to the Gauri petrol pump only adding to the mess.
As the mess got worse, the traffic police also sealed the old Mandovi bridge from vehicles moving towards Panaji forcing all vehicles onto the new bridge. Several commuters who attempted to bypass the traffic jam by using the Betim road were in for a rude shock as they had to travel all the way back to where they were diverted.
The worst affected were the office goers in the morning while students escaped due to the ongoing Diwali vacations.
The traffic police had a difficult time in controlling the massive traffic that built up near the Mandovi bridge. North Goa Superintendent of Police Umesh Gaonkar and Superintendent Traffic Suman Goel were on the road in a bid to ease the congestion. However with an increase in the number of vehicles owing to a long weekend on account of public holidays in the neighbouring states the roads were overwhelmed.
The traffic police however also sought to pass the buck among jurisdictions
When contacted for details regarding the traffic congestion, Porvorim Police asked The Goan to contact the Calangute Traffic Cell.
A Calangute Traffic Cell Hawaldar on duty said PI Salim Sheikh was on leave and added that the charge had been handed over to Mapusa Traffic Inspector Roy Pereira.
When contacted, PI Pereira said he was attending court matters and requested The Goan to contact Panaji Traffic Inspector Brandon D’Souza.
D’Souza said he was on duty at Dona Paula near National Institute of Oceanography and said details would be available with the Panaji Traffic Police.
Finally, Traffic DySP Darmesh Angle clarified that three accidents had taken place near the new Mandovi bridge in the morning.
“By the time the matter was sorted out, there was a heavy traffic jam along the Mapusa-Panaji road. Being Diwali vacations, a lot of tourists have landed in Goa and this increased vehicular traffic on the road. Several traffic police have been deployed at Porvorim to monitor the traffic,” said DySP Angle.
A journey between O Coqueiro circle and the Panaji KTC bus stand took as much as three hours during the height of the traffic jam and several roads including internal roads of Porvorim as well as roads from Betim and Britona leading up to the Mandovi bridges witnessed bumper to bumper traffic as commuters tried to avoid the stretches affected by the construction of the new Mandovi bridge only to be caught in jams elsewhere.
The Panaji Betim ferry too was overwhelmed by the number of vehicles including cars which used the service leading to congestion on both the ferry ramps. Slow moving traffic from Mapusa towards Panjim continued till around 8:30 pm with the after effects being felt even later.
