MARGAO: Monday's traffic jam at Cortalim brought the KTC buses on the Panjim Margao route to a virtual standstill. Herald visited the Panjim shuttle service counter at Margao KTC Busstand at around 10:30am only to find the counters empty. The KTC staff informed Herald that the buses that had left Panjim before 9 am have not yet arrived. The people who came to the counter to buy a ticket were told to travel to Panjim via Ponda.

People who had travelled to Panjim in the morning informed that there were no traffic police along the road, except at Cortalim and Agassaim junction. Ambulances were most affected by the traffic jams, especially the tempo traveller ambulances. The smaller Omni ambulances did manage to squeeze and move along the middle of two lanes.  

In the afternoon, heavy rains lashed the area along the Verna Agassaim Highway. There were hardly any traffic police and those that were present were struggling to manage the traffic. There was just one traffic policeman in the northern side of the Zuari bridge with an umbrella getting drenched in the rain while preventing vehicles from overtaking.

The traffic jam continued till late evening. Vehicles travelling from Panjim took around one hour and forty minutes to reach Margao. It took more than half an hour just to cross the Zuari bridge from Agassaim junction to Cortalim junction. Police were hopelessly understaffed and helpless to prevent vehicles from overtaking on the wrong side and worsening the situation.