Team Herald

PANJIM: A delegation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Valmiki Naik on Tuesday confronted the PWD Chief Engineer (National Highways) over the traffic chaos faced by commuters between Panjim and Margao/Vasco at the Zuari bridge area. 

Calling it as a man-made disaster, AAP demanded to know what steps were being taken to tackle the congestion and delays of almost four hours being faced by the common man.

“Interestingly, the CE expressed ignorance about the cause of this traffic chaos, as it was not due to any vehicle breakdown or any new obstruction caused due to construction of the new Zuari Bridge, and has become a regular feature over the last few weeks, especially worsening in the past one week. AAP wonders if this means that the PWD and traffic police do not have a solution in hand, and how much longer is the common man expected to silently bear this suffering,” AAP State Secretary Pradeep Padgoankar said.

He added, “After further questioning, the CE claimed to have discussed some temporary measures with the traffic police such as increased personnel and monitoring to relieve the immediate crisis, and also mentioned some long-term steps such as widening the roads but which involves acquisition of land and will take longer to implement.”

Padgaonkar said this was a completely unacceptable situation which has been precipitated by poor planning and haphazard execution of the bridge works. The blame is being passed on between PWD, traffic police, and the contractor, while the common man suffers.