No end to woes for Panaji’s 18th June road

PANAJI: Business establishments along Panaji’s iconic 18th June Road are no strangers to waterlogging caused due to heavy rain during high tide. While, every year, they have had to suspend operations for a few hours, the increased intensity of this week’s rainfall has forced them to shut shop three times in seven days.
“Operations at most shops along the road get paralysed when the road floods. Even if we decide to keep our respective shops open, we have no customers coming in as the entire street is waterlogged,” a businessman from the area, Gajanan Golatkar, said.
On Sunday, after the city experienced 113mm of rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm, the 18th June road, which is one of the busiest streets in the city, had to be barricaded in the morning to curb traffic movement on the inundated road. Motorists had to be diverted along alternative routes. Traffic was regularised after the water receded.
“People tend to abuse us for barricading the entire road. They don’t realise that driving through the flooded road splashes muddy water into our shops even as we attempt to drain it out,” one businessman said.
Senior businessmen in the area recall that the waterlogging was not as severe even until a decade ago.
“The water level in the Mandovi is very high this year compared to previous years. Once the water level increases and encroaches on the roads, there is no salvation for us. Irrespective of who takes over the city as mayor or MLA, our problems remain unsolved. Every year we submit a representation to the municipality, yet there has been no solution,” they said.