MAPUSA
While the traffic signals at the Mapusa court junction were put in operation from Friday morning, it created more chaos and inconvenienced motorists, especially during peak hours.
Long queues of vehicles were seen on all four sides of the roads especially during the rush school hours in the morning and at noon.
The queue of vehicles moving towards Duler was seen near the Satya-Heera Hotel while on the other side, the queue of vehicles wanting to move towards the Mapusa town touched right up to the Duler petrol pump.
Similar was the story on the roads coming from St Xavier’s College and the North Goa District Hospital.
The traffic cops stationed at the court junction were seen struggling to control the chaotic scene at the crucial cross-road
The motorists were seen fuming against the traffic mess created by the traffic signal.
“What is the use of the traffic signals if it creates such traffic snarls? I have been stuck in this traffic chaos for the last 20 minutes. The movement of traffic was much better without the traffic signals,” said Peter D’Sa, who was returning after dropping his son at St Britto’s High School in the morning.
Several motorists also hit out at the Mapusa municipality for failing to get its act together in installing the traffic signal before the rains.
“If the traffic signals were installed before the start of the academic year then we would have not witnessed this mess. During the rains people bring out their four-wheelers, which adds to the chaos,” said Sharmila Telang, another parent.
According to the Vice Chairperson of Mapusa Municipal Council, Viraj Phadke, the operation of the traffic signals was the responsibility of the traffic police and not of the civic body.
A Mapusa Traffic Police official informed that the traffic signal was not yet completely synchronised and therefore some teething problems will be there.
“We are still trying to synchronise the signals depending on the volume of the vehicular movement. Once that is done things will stabilize,” the officials informed.
