PANAJI: A day after a massive jam caught everybody off guard and resulted in over 100 passengers missing their flights, the Cortalim road was shut for traffic for a few hours on Sunday morning, this time because a crane turned turtle at the new Zuari bridge construction site on the Verna slope, near the Toyota showroom.
Instead of stalling traffic until the crane was removed and to avoid another chaotic situation, traffic police were quick to divert vehicles along the Margao-Panaji route, via Chicalim.
The 45-minute journey took a little more than an hour, forcing drivers to clock more than 20km through Chicalim instead of the 3km via the Cortalim road.
For Hanan D'Silva, who was driving from Chandor to Dona Paula on Sunday morning, the route he was asked to take through Sancoale turned out to be a nightmare. "We were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic until Cortalim. It was very frustrating. I reached my destination one a half hour later," he told TOI.
On his way back, he tried to take the road through Rassaim and Loutolim, but traffic wasn't permitted on that route.
"We have a very little carpet area to work with compared to the volume of traffic. We're helpless," a traffic cop said.
During the month of December vehicles on Goa's roads increase many fold due to the novenas, Feast of St Francis Xavier, ISL matches, the wedding season, Christmas and year end festivities, he said, adding that the frequency and volume of traffic along with the number of accidents is always significantly higher this month.
SP (Traffic) Dinraj Govenkar told TOI that a meeting was held on Sunday morning with the contractors and traffic police. The traffic police turned down the suggestion of the contractors to close a part of the Cortalim road for traffic to complete work on the bridge. "We told them to hold on till Christmas," Govenkar said.
"We are monitoring the situation and have also asked the contractors to put a barricade along the road to prevent lane cutting," he said.
M Fernandes from Benaulim was too traumatized by the three-hour traffic jam on Saturday to travel by bus to Panaji. She left an hour earlier at 3pm and coaxed her uncle to drop her. Luckily the traffic was free flowing and she didn't encounter any hurdles.
Jeanette Gomes was worried on Saturday evening when her 85-year-old mother was stuck in the traffic congestion while travelling from Panaji to Margao.
The traffic cell instead of issuing challans to those not wearing helmets should instead regulate traffic. "Cutting of lanes is turning out to be a regular feature and only adds to the problem. Enough traffic cops should be posted to ensure that people don't cut lanes. If people hadn't created multiple lanes, the police would have been able to reach the spot of the accidents quicker on Saturday and could have preventing the situation from escalating," she said.
Shimona Dias reached the airport on Saturday evening, only to see her Chennai-bound flight taking off and passengers screaming at the airport. Always a stickler for time she was upset with the turn of events and there was little she could do once caught in the jam. She had to shell out an additional Rs 4,700 after she received no refund of Rs 4,100 that she spent for the first flight. "The government should have made an announcement that the bridge work would cause some inconvenience," she said.
Instead of stalling traffic until the crane was removed and to avoid another chaotic situation, traffic police were quick to divert vehicles along the Margao-Panaji route, via Chicalim.
The 45-minute journey took a little more than an hour, forcing drivers to clock more than 20km through Chicalim instead of the 3km via the Cortalim road.
For Hanan D'Silva, who was driving from Chandor to Dona Paula on Sunday morning, the route he was asked to take through Sancoale turned out to be a nightmare. "We were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic until Cortalim. It was very frustrating. I reached my destination one a half hour later," he told TOI.
On his way back, he tried to take the road through Rassaim and Loutolim, but traffic wasn't permitted on that route.
"We have a very little carpet area to work with compared to the volume of traffic. We're helpless," a traffic cop said.
During the month of December vehicles on Goa's roads increase many fold due to the novenas, Feast of St Francis Xavier, ISL matches, the wedding season, Christmas and year end festivities, he said, adding that the frequency and volume of traffic along with the number of accidents is always significantly higher this month.
SP (Traffic) Dinraj Govenkar told TOI that a meeting was held on Sunday morning with the contractors and traffic police. The traffic police turned down the suggestion of the contractors to close a part of the Cortalim road for traffic to complete work on the bridge. "We told them to hold on till Christmas," Govenkar said.
"We are monitoring the situation and have also asked the contractors to put a barricade along the road to prevent lane cutting," he said.
M Fernandes from Benaulim was too traumatized by the three-hour traffic jam on Saturday to travel by bus to Panaji. She left an hour earlier at 3pm and coaxed her uncle to drop her. Luckily the traffic was free flowing and she didn't encounter any hurdles.
Jeanette Gomes was worried on Saturday evening when her 85-year-old mother was stuck in the traffic congestion while travelling from Panaji to Margao.
The traffic cell instead of issuing challans to those not wearing helmets should instead regulate traffic. "Cutting of lanes is turning out to be a regular feature and only adds to the problem. Enough traffic cops should be posted to ensure that people don't cut lanes. If people hadn't created multiple lanes, the police would have been able to reach the spot of the accidents quicker on Saturday and could have preventing the situation from escalating," she said.
Shimona Dias reached the airport on Saturday evening, only to see her Chennai-bound flight taking off and passengers screaming at the airport. Always a stickler for time she was upset with the turn of events and there was little she could do once caught in the jam. She had to shell out an additional Rs 4,700 after she received no refund of Rs 4,100 that she spent for the first flight. "The government should have made an announcement that the bridge work would cause some inconvenience," she said.
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