It becomes difficult to understand how investing only in the building of bridges and flyovers, and highway expansions have contributed to the development of any region!
An interview published in “Construction Times”, makes it abundantly clear that bridges and flyovers are critical structures for an integrated infrastructure development strategy.
Goa in this respect is truly and well into the process of creating, financing, building, and maintaining physical structures that support the economy, society, and environment.
Or at least that is what the state is apparently engrossed in for the past few years, considering the frantic pace of the so-called development that it is in the throes of.
The recent round of ‘developments’ envisages the construction of a 5.15 km six-lane elevated corridor aimed at easing traffic congestion along the Porvorim stretch of Nation Highway 66. It will provide a much-needed relief to the heavy vehicular movement experienced in the area.
The work is already in progress.
The NH66 stretch from Cuncolim to Navelim is proposed to be developed into a four-lane highway with pedestrian footpaths. The government is believed to have acquired the necessary land along the Cuncolim-Navelim stretch of the highway.
Three years after the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways unveiled plans for the expansion of NH66 from Navelim to Cuncolim stretch, the project is gaining momentum now with officials of the PWD and National Highways proposing as many as three flyovers along this stretch.
But in the milieu of the development plans envisioned which purports to propel the state into a new era where every aspect of its economy will only be greatly enhanced; that these development innovations are incongruent with the existing ‘ground realties’ in the region is becoming all the more evident. For instance! The burgeoning automobile ‘population’ in the state is an indication of the appreciable market-share enjoyed by the manufacturers.
But the traffic jams that are a perennial feature of the Goan roads, the extensive road-widening exercises across the state notwithstanding, speak of the vast disparity between the number of vehicles plying the roads and the motorable space available.
It would appear that with each passing day the Goan roads and highways are not able to accommodate the rising vehicle influx. Moreover in the face of this boom, the insurmountable parking issue has been gaining new dimensions.
The effect of large-scale in-city parking has long been contentious. However, saturation of parking spaces as vehicles continue to outnumber the existing parking lots is indeed a cause of concern.
In the absence of parking spaces, it is all the more infuriating to have rent-a-car operators occupying most of the parking places available within the city and its outskirts. It is practically the same scenario all across the state.
It is not known whether these ‘lapses’ come under the purview of traffic police. But a strict vigilance by the department against such practices is actually called for. The nuisance created by interstate truck and container drivers in using the shoulders of expanded road stretches in city outskirts as ‘parking bays’ are not going unnoticed either.
But it is observed that there is a collective silence from the traffic enforcers on curbing such annoying practices.
It has been over nine years now since a multi-level parking plaza in the commercial capital of Margao has been envisioned to ease the acute parking woes plaguing motorists and visitors to the city.
Greeted by an inordinate delay in executing the project, there has been a lot of hullabaloo over the non-implementation of a pay-parking system in Margao on the lines of the one put into effect in Panjim. Not to say that commuters to the city are free from parking ‘distresses’ that they have suffered for so many years! But at least it is a decent beginning.
Furthermore, the manner in which residents of some of the housing complexes in the cities and suburbs conveniently use the adjoining roads to park their vehicles seems to have been overlooked.
What is the point in expanding roads and highways when the expanded portion serves to be nothing more than a ‘convenient arrangement’ for people in the vicinity to park their automobiles! Even the main roads are not spared!
With the other stretch maintaining its ‘status quo’ as the commuting section, the purpose of the road-widening remains a big mystery!
While on road-widening, it would be inappropriate to skip any mention of several of the thoroughfares in the state which continue to remain nightmares for motorists considering the close proximity of residential houses and shops that dot the sides.
Several futile deliberations later, the existing roads have shrunk further to accommodate the encroaching houses literally spilling out onto the streets. With national highways winding through cities and villages in the state, it becomes essential to either have wider roads or have by-passes that will divert the heavy traffic movement from the existing routes.
In this regard, the proposal to have as many as three flyovers in the NH66 stretch from Cuncolim to Navelim appears to be a sensible decision and one that was long overdue.
In the absence of street-parking facilities, construction of multi-level parking as a vertical solution to maximize the number of parking spaces in areas where horizontal space is limited should have been thought about long back.
There are several other instances of the evident myopia that afflicts the government while envisaging development works which has compelled one to believe that the growth of the state needs to be more inclusive in the sense that everyone benefits from it.
Consider this! We lack proper parking spaces but are being provided with state-of-the-art highways to drive on! Is the irony lost on anyone!
