PANJIM: Three months have passed for the public to go through the arduous and gruelling journey, passing through Porvorim to reach Panjim due to the work on the six-lane elevated corridor. The flyover work has led to massive traffic congestion, dust pollution and poor condition of roads. In this edition of Street Voices, Herald TV spoke to people on whether they are prepared to wait for three hours daily in the traffic mess of Porvorim?
My daughter is married in Bastora. It takes more time for me to travel from Panjim to Guirim, then from Ambelim, in South Goa to Panjim. There is so much congestion, the traffic is so disorganized. The number of police manning that area is negligible. In Margao, at certain spots, there are at least four to five policemen. Porvorim we cannot see this being implemented despite the heavy traffic. That could be because of the infrastructure, could be because of the shortage of manpower or because of the lack of traffic sense among drivers. The final result is delay of hours. There is complete mess in Porvorim. If I suffer, when I travel once in 15 days, the locals of Porvorim or those who travel through Porvorim must be going through hell.
Anthony D’Silva, Social Activist
If there was adequate planning and guidance, there would not have been such bad traffic congestion in Porvorim. Precisely because of this reason we are asking for the Regional Plan. This congestion is going to be repeated in other village. That’s why the Town and Country Planning, PDA, Village Panchayats when they give permission without thinking, the general public has to suffer. We want development, but the new elevated corridor which is coming up, there is no place to divert the traffic. Some driver are not adhering to the traffic diversions, since they have to take a long cut. Lot of fuel, energy and time is lost in this mess.
Mariano Ferrao, Social Activist.