Team Herald
PANJIM: The vehicular traffic on the ‘killer’ Chimbel Junction might be back to normal, days after a speeding truck crushed a 72-year-old pedestrian to death on the spot. The village has however still to overcome the deadly late-night mishap.
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Their anger against the government on a fateful night, which came in support of the grieving family of deceased Venkatesh Karapurkar, forced the authorities to install rumblers at the junction.
The National Highway that cuts the village in two halves has become a deadly zone for the villagers, who have been commuting along this road daily.
The village has often been a witness to some major accidents at the junction as the highway keeps broadening.
“My whole Chimbel village is angry. They killed our villager. Unmanned junction. The trucks are a menace. We have to beg even for a signal,” Deepali Desai, a Chimbel resident, currently living in Delhi, said in an emotional Twitter post soon after the accident shook entire Goa mid-last week.
Though Desai lives in Delhi for professional reasons, she visits Goa often to meet her family and friends.
With her house exactly near the busy highway, Desai recalls the ordeal they face every day and night. The good old days are gone when the village was living in peace sans the deadly highway.
“I sleep with the highway noise. The view from my house has disappeared owing to the expansion of the highway, ruthless construction, and demolition of old houses,” she lamented while speaking to Herald.
Not just her, many remember the good old days when the highway did not disrupt their routine. “We as kids would walk through the village without any fear of being hit by a vehicle. The elderly citizens too spent their evening walking around the village with their friends of the same age group. But in the current situation, every village is scared to cross the highway,” she said.
The heavy and rental vehicles have been playing a menace along this stretch while the erratic signal has turned into an unfruitful system.
“The signal is out of order most of the time, and when it works, it doesn’t give that time between the Red (stop) and Green (go) signal. it has become a dangerous zone for every child who crosses the road to go to school, to vegetable and fish vendors, and people who walk till Patto-Ribandar to board the Panjim-bound buses,” one of the oldest vegetable vendors from the village told Herald.
She recalled that walking through the village to sell the perishable products was bliss, which has now turned into a nightmare. “I have been sitting at one place to sell the vegetables. I am not that energetic to cross the busy highway and neither can I challenge the speeding vehicles,” she said.
The village was a witness to another deadly accident in 2019 when a chemical tanker plying from Old Goa to Panjim mowed down seven vehicles that killed one two-wheeler rider and injured over half a dozen others. This was the second accident within three days.
The villagers have also been demanding the presence of traffic police personnel to avoid such mishaps. Their demands have fallen on deaf ears.
“We demanded a traffic signal, yes, the demand was met after a lot of hue and cry. The signal serves no purpose and the accidents are the examples. We have been demanding for the deployment of traffic cops so that there is discipline on the road, but the department has not shown any interest,” Vithal, another villager in his late 70s, told Herald.
Vithal recalled his childhood memories when there were no restrictions on the movement around the village. In fact, walking through the jungle and seaside was his and his friends’ favorite pass time during summer breaks. “Not now. I can’t send my grandchildren to even step out of the house alone. The highway has caused a nuisance. We are not opposing the highway but we are also not happy how authorities have taken the accidents lightly,” he said.
Many have had a narrow escape at the site, especially the small kiosk owners.
Desai, who has also spent her schooling days in Chimbel, said they were excited that a highway was being built not realizing it would be a killer belt in the future. “When the highway was coming up, a lot of us were very happy because we thought that going for novenas in Old Goa would be easier. The old route from Ribandar to Old Goa still exists but the highway would have decongested the road. We were wrong. It has turned out to be a killer belt owing to the negligence of the authorities,” she rued.
Desai also emphasized that the flyover was not stalled because of the Church but in fact, the authorities did not take any interest. “There are pillars but no slabs,” she added.
“If there are cops placed at the junction all through the day instead of just one hour when the CM’s convoy passes through, it will largely help villagers,” another villager, Nandini said.
