In Goa poor quality and potholed roads are a common sight across cities, towns and villages both during monsoons and sunny days. Substandard engineering and lack of proper design and technology which is leading to severe road damage even with light showers or sun have turned Goa roads into a death trap.

Every year crores and crores of rupees are spent by the government for road asphalting and extensive pothole patch repairs. Because of social media and newspaper coverage the contractors do patch repairs of main streets in cities or village areas.

The road repairs rituals of breaking coconut is repeated by MLAs/Ministers/Engineers year after year despite the fact that due to potholes and bad roads thousands of citizens are involved in accidents causing serious injuries and in many cases also fatalities. MLAs/Ministers and officials operate as traders attribute to the sorry state of affairs for substandard road work done by private contractors.

At large citizens has been brainwashed by MLAs/Ministers to believe potholes are a natural phenomenon during rains, as if water in the monsoon has some kind of acid to dissolve the bituminen on the road. If somebody asks the common man in Goa, why roads in Goa fail prematurely during monsoons or summer, the majority response would be, “MLAs and engineers intentionally construct roads in such a way so that it keeps on failing and they keep on getting their pockets fattened.

Whereas lack of quality control, corruption and poor engineering knowledge is a contributing factor for substandard roads in Goa, developed countries in the world generally have three dense graded bituminous mixes in their specifications, one each for base course, binder course and wearing course, And they have good durable motorable roads despite heavy rainfall sometimes throughout the year.

It is simply amazing as to why engineers in Goa need additional water-trapping, problematic bituminous mixes for road construction.

Obviously, engineers are technically ignorant due to poor knowledge about the fundamental principle of road engineering to keep the water away from bituminous mixes.

Others keep on using these water-trapping bituminous mixes knowing fully well about their impending premature failure resulting in building MLAs and engineers’ assets on pothole and road work repairs.