As the construction of the 5.15 km six-lane elevated corridor along the Porvorim stretch of NH 66 kicks off, the residents along the route keep their fingers crossed in anticipation of undisclosed horrors and guessing what the future has in store for them. Life will definitely never be the same again for those who live in the vicinity of this concrete monster.
What is scary is the silence of the residents who are likely to be adversely impacted socially, economically and environmentally in the long run with such infrastructure. Sometimes, it appears as if citizens are so intoxicated with the ‘politician ki guarantee’ that they can hardly distinguish political abuse and violence from people-friendly governance and genuine progress. Loyalty to politicians blinds them from recognising their day-to-day miseries of erratic water and power supply, treacherous roads, floods, landslides, crimes and galloping vector-borne diseases, all related to the haphazard and unscientific infrastructure development driven by political greed and corruption.
The Porvorim flyover project, according to media reports, will involve construction of a single row of 86 piers and 87 spans impacting 4 Village Panchayat areas, but none of the Gram Sabhas have been taken into confidence by the government to discuss the project and get the collaboration of the community. The only information that citizens are being entertained with are the theatrics of a local MLA blowing hot and cold, while nothing concrete is apparent when it comes to the traffic management and minimizing of the possible nuisance to the residents of the locality.
The idea for the construction of a flyover in Porvorim to ease the traffic congestion was floated way back in and around, 2007-2012, during the tenure of a Congress government. Some public meetings were organized by the then MLA of Aldona Constituency to gauge the public support for the project. That was at a time when Porvorim was not yet a separate constituency. It was at one such meeting held at Porvorim that a senior citizen had questioned, “Your government has put our traditional houses in a pit by encouraging high rise buildings all around which block our air and light, is the proposed flyover a lid on our grave?” It was the same Aldona MLA who had earlier drawn the government’s attention to a fact that the traffic chaos in Porvorim was caused by punctures every few meters from internal lanes opening onto the highway. Sensing a possible resistance from the public the flyover proposal was put on the back burner by the government.
The link between the menace of infrastructure projects and political corruption is well known to the public. Since 1990, the traffic chaos along the Porvorim route has been systematically engineered to make the need for a flyover appear inevitable. To begin with, all alternatives of proposed bypasses provided in the RP 2001 were scrapped to free up spaces for real estate. Multi-storeyed enclaves and bungalows mushroomed along these stretches. Simultaneously, construction permissions for commercial and residential purposes were cleared within the proposed set-back area for widening of the existing NH; on a mere undertaking that these structures will be demolished for highway expansion when the need arises.
Adding to the confusion were the traffic signals installed at some locations with disregard for IRC codes. It would be worth noting that the plans of some housing complexes had shown their entry-exit onto the Chogm road to obtain EIA clearances. So also, the highway was broadened in patches creating bottlenecks every few meters. Authorities turned a blind eye to traffic violations along the highway outside showrooms and supermarkets. Such vicious political tactics ensured that the situation appeared unmanageable. It was in such a climate that the bait of a flyover promising ‘Amritkal’ got swallowed by the public without questioning.
Worldwide it has been realised that flyovers are an out-dated 20th century concept which neither solves traffic congestions nor improves road safety. They only displace the problem from one location to another, besides being environmentally damaging and an eyesore. Creating affordable public transport systems and discouraging the use of private vehicles are now seen as the sustainable solution the world over. We already see how the construction of the Atal Sethu Bridge and flyover has not prevented traffic jams on the service roads leading to the Malim junction below. It has further contributed to the traffic chaos at the Merces junction and at the KTC bus stand.
If the experience of the Cortalim, Bambolim and Bastora flyovers and service roads are any pointer to the poor road engineering and safety, along with the horrors of water logging and the losses for small businesses, then the infrastructural trauma from a flyover in a populated and commercially thriving locality like Porvorim could be far worse. With traditional waterways disrupted and the destabilizing of hill slopes from excavations and drillings for the flyover construction, the settlements along the highway and downhill could witness landslides, flooding and health problems related to increased air and noise pollution. The threat from this development is far beyond 3 banyan trees and 15 coconut trees.
Now that the construction of the flyover has already been kicked off, the scope for citizens to push for other alternatives is no more. Now, the community needs to be vigilant that people-friendly sidewalks and pedestrian crossings are provided to the residents along the service roads below. They need to ensure that the drainage water from the flyover is not released on the citizens who use the service roads. Most of all, citizens need to realise that prevention is better than cure. Reacting after a crisis has struck is futile. The unprecedented rainfall has already shown the pain and misery which lies in store for Goans from such skewed development.
(Soter D’Souza has worked with community initiatives in Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention, HIV/AIDs Prevention, Panchayati Raj, Anti-Corruption, Environment Protection and Social Justice)