PANAJI
The State government has been granted four weeks to detail the measures it has taken to ease mounting traffic congestion along MG Road in Panaji, as the High Court of Bombay at Goa continued hearing a suo moto case on traffic mismanagement linked to ongoing Smart City works.
Advocate General Devidas Pangam told the Bench that authorities had initiated certain measures to streamline vehicular movement on the arterial stretch and sought three weeks to file a detailed report. The Division Bench of Justice Suman Shyam and Justice Amit Jamsandekar granted four weeks to submit the response.
In 2023, the then Bench of Justice M S Sonak and Justice Valmiki Menezes had taken suo motu on the chaotic conditions amid dug roads, traffic congestion and other related issues in the capital city.
The Bench subsequently conducted a site visit along the stretch from Dona Paula jetty to the Panaji Bus Stand junction, covering Dayanand Bandodkar Marg and the riverfront jetties. It recorded a “complete lack of coordination” among government agencies, observing that no authority appeared to have prepared or implemented a coherent traffic management plan.
The Court had also noted that permissions granted by tourism or port authorities to cruise and casino operators were issued in isolation, without factoring in their impact on traffic, parking and pedestrian safety. It also flagged poor coordination between civic bodies, police, fire services and other emergency agencies. Ongoing works by the PWD and Smart City authorities were found to have compounded congestion.
Describing the situation as a collapse of traffic management, the Bench observed that citizens’ right to road safety and a safe road system is protected under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The Court said its intervention was not because it claims to have any expertise or solutions for such problems. “Still, this cognizance is to activate the agencies and the experts in finding a resolution at the earliest so that there is some semblance of orderly traffic management along these all-important areas in the City of Panaji. This situation of every authority blaming the other and consequently none of the authorities or the agencies assuming any responsibility must stop...” it said.
