PORVORIM: Are you in Mumbai and that too in the worst possible traffic traffic in suburban Andheri? But your google map shows you are in Porvorim Goa. Barring the location shift there's no difference.
Motorists have to sometimes spend 45 minutes in Porvorim to get to Panjim or to move onwards towards Margao.
The worst nightmare would be the traffic congestion caused when the flyover project at Porvorim starts.
In Porvorim, poor signal calibration, and lack of traffic management are major causes of traffic congestion due to which commuters have to spend hours in traffic. With the increase in tourists and the rains in Goa, traffic congestion has spiked up rapidly.
Porvorim has huge traffic blockages at the O’Coqueiro circle with traffic converging from Panjim going towards Calangute and Mapusa; traffic from Mapusa proceeding to Panjim and onwards to Margao or Vasco and traffic coming from Calangute, Saligao and Sangolda towards Panjim or Margao and Vasco.
Additionally there is traffic congestion at Mall de Goa, where a huge number of shoppers are seen crossing the road or halting their vehicles on the highway. Vehicles from Panjim crossing over to the Directorate of Education Porvorim, also cause traffic congestion. The third traffic congestion hotspot is at the
signal near Housing Board, Porvorim.
All these three traffic congestion points considerably slow down traffic on the National Highway almost nullifying the construction of the Atal Setu and even the new Zuari Bridge which were ambitious projects built to cut travelling time from the North of Goa to the Southern-most point. The culvert work at Guirim is also causing traffic congestion.
Activist Sanjay Barde, said, “Goa has a high vehicle population. In addition to this, there are loads of tourist vehicles coming to Goa. There is also a shortage of traffic police personnel too. Huge traffic congestion can be expected at Porvorim while building the flyover and at Guirim while constructing the drains."
"They should have done this work before the monsoons. The engineers have to plan this in advance. They are drawing fat salaries. Now they are doing laterite soling on the cemented highway,” Barde said.
Anil Vasant Pednekar, “Being residents of Porvorim we face whole lot of problems due to traffic congestion. There is loads of traffic coming from the tourist belt of Calangute. The traffic signals in Porvorim are not properly calibrated. There is traffic congestion even at the Holy Family Chapel Porvorim. We are so fed up we can’t use four wheelers. We are using two wheelers. My appeal is to the Porvorim MLA to keep traffic police on the ground and ensure systematic flow of traffic.”
Sanjit Kandolkar, Police Inspector Traffic, Porvorim told O Heraldo that whenever there are long queues at the signals, they switch off the signals and use traffic police to improve traffic management. He also stated that culvert work is going on at Guirim due to which there is traffic congestion. “The work will be completed in two days and traffic there will ease.”
SP Traffic Rahul Gupta was not available for comment.