BASURI DESAI
Try finding parking in the vicinity of the casino jetties, especially at night you’ll end up playing a game of chance and if you gamble with your luck and get lucky, you may, just may find a place to park your two-wheeler.
Most of the time, parking slots, meant for office goers in Panjim, are occupied by vehicles of the casino customers.
Traffic Cell of Goa Police (Panjim) has booked 320 violation cases for the month of March itself. A team has been formed and designated only to check the violations of no parking near casino areas, the team “The team is working 24 hours to attend to the complaints and monitor the traffic only at the casinos’ stretch”, said Police Inspector (Traffic), Brendon D’Souza.
But this has had another adverse spill off effect. The casino visitors have now started parking the vehicles in the parking areas of the MG Road adjacent to the jetty. But due to this the locals as well as commuters have been adversely affected.
People have complained that the guides of the casinos are making the spaces available for their clients anywhere on the MG Road causing severe inconvenience to the commuters.
“You come and see one day what is happening and how the guides are flexing their muscles in front of the common man. You cannot remove your bike parked after five minute as double and triple parking has been encouraged by these guides”, said Vinayak Chodankar, a local resident.
He said that there is a complete mess near the Old Secretariat building every evening that prevents smooth flow of traffic.
The entire area of MG Road till Hotel Mandovi is literally packed with the vehicles of the casino clients. Officer goers have complained that a vehicle is often seen parked at a place more for than 24 hours – only occupying the slot.
“Though the fact that the parking is done in the designated parking area the vehicle remains at one place sometimes for more than 48 hours causing great inconvenience for us”, said Numan Sheikh.
It is evening it is worse, because the touts for the boat rides are also seen on the street soliciting customers. They often stop two-wheelers with tourists on the street and try to coax them to enjoy a boat ride. This also often causes traffic snarls said one commuter who comes to work on night shift in the city.
The recently started sixth casino in Panjim has not only added to the parking problem but also put the commuters into inconvenience as long queues and a huge crowd has been noticed every weekend.
The vehicles are also seen in no parking in some of the areas except the main Miramar-Panjim road.
Another commuter to the capital says that the casino visitors often cross the streets without looking if any vehicle is approaching. “You will suddenly find a group of casino visitors in the middle of the road, discussing loudly what happened at the casino, paying no attention to the vehicles approaching,” said a visitor from Marra-Pilerne.
But lest we forget, there is a multilevel car park which was meant solely for the purpose of parking of vehicles in that area. That remains virtually empty and there appears to be so pressure on anyone to go and park there. One of the most beautiful areas of Panjim is now choked with parked cars of casino goers.
