A couple of weeks ago, the Matsyaganda Express to Mumbai was delayed by over five hours. It was on the Sunday of the Republic Day weekend and there was a large number of tourists booked to travel on it, expecting to reach Mumbai in time to start the day’s and week’s work. The delay would not allow them to make it in time to office. The issue here is not just about the delay in the train’s arrival from Mangalore and its departure from Margao. It is how Goa’s public transport system is unfriendly to tourists, despite Goa boasting of being one of India’s main tourism destinations attracting tourists from across the country and abroad.
Awaiting to board the train was a group of tourists from Mumbai who arrived at the station a little before 8.00 pm for the 8.30 pm departure. The group was made up of all girls in their early twenties who had taken a weekend break in Goa. On learning that the train was delayed by over five hours they gave vent to their frustration, as all would miss their Monday morning assignments in Mumbai, some of them classes others work, but having experienced the Indian railways before accepted it. Trying to make the best of the delay they decided to explore the town or even make their way to a neighbouring beach for a dinner at one of the shacks. They had over five hours to kill, before settling into the train for a journey of around ten hours.
The first setback to the plan was learning the prices the cabs were demanding from them to take them to the neighbouring beach. The second was realising that once at the beach and having had dinner they would not easily get a cab to return to the station for the train that was now scheduled to depart at 1.40 am. With the absence of phone-a-cab services in Goa, they then decided to walk to the nearest restaurant, after placing their baggage in the cloakroom, only to find that the area outside the railway station was poorly lit and there were no decent restaurants walking distance from the station. With few options before them they returned and sat outside the station waiting for the train that was now further delayed.
Roaming around the station was another family of three who had gone looking for a cab to drive them to Mumbai but returned to the platform when they were told the price for the trip to Mumbai would be Rs 18,000. The only choice was to wait for the train and face the consequences of reaching late to a Monday morning’s work.
This is just an instance of how poorly organised the tourism sector in the State is. What Goa offers the tourists beyond the beaches can be enumerated on a scrap of paper. For years governments have exploited the natural beauty of Goa to sell the land to tourists across the world but have invested little time and money to create an infrastructure to make travelling within the State pleasurable or hassle-free for the visiting tourists. The public transportation system is one of Goa’s biggest drawbacks where tourism is concerned. It begins from the moment when one lands at Dabolim airport and finds that the only available means of transport from there to the final destination is the cab service. While there is the pre-paid taxi service available, there have been numerous complaints over the years of overcharging by the other cabs and this is not restricted just to cabs originating from the airport.
Why can’t a passenger, not just a tourist but even a local resident of Goa, on landing at Dabolim not be offered the choice of a taxi, autorickshaw, motorcycle pilot and bus service? Other airports in the country offer a choice of public transport services, including the phone-a-cab services that can be also availed of by phone apps and that are tracked on GPS systems by the service providing company. Goa has none of this, and not even a taxi service that runs on meters, but on fares quoted by the driver. In the past few years there have been attempts made to change the system but every time the government has backed down and allowed the taximen to have their way as the latter find reasons to protest the move every time. The political will to take up this matter of taxis and see it to a logical conclusion is missing and that could be the bane of Goan tourism.
The entire public transport system in the State has to be restructured and given a professional management touch. Taxis demanding fares and not running on meters needs to stop. Late night buses on major routes, and also servicing railways stations and the airport, need to be introduced. This will help not only the tourists in the State but also industrial units that work on shifts, or employees who finish work at a late hour.
Taxis and fares apart, why can’t the area around the Margao railway station be given a new lease of life? Margao is not only the main railway station in Goa, but also a major junction where the Konkan Railway meets the South Western Railway. The station’s surroundings are indeed dull with the approach road desperately needing a coat of hotmix. The area needs to be spruced up and all this needs, for starters, is a few bright street lights and roads without potholes and a security system that will make people feel safe as they walk around the place at any time of the night. The government should also promote shopping centres and restaurants in the area that passengers waiting at the railway station can turn to whenever a train is delayed.
Goa’s tourism planning has to be upped a couple of notches so as to give tourists a complete holiday experience, and public transportation is an area that the government has to look at first.
(Alexandre Moniz Barbosa is Executive Editor, Herald)
