26 Jan 2013  |   12:00am IST

Navelim may soon emerge a major traffic bottleneck

Navelim village was perhaps the first village in down south to install traffic signals in the 90's to regulate traffic and ease congestion on the busy road. The then authorities and the political class probably believed that the signals would give relief to the villagers from acute traffic congestion, but in vain.

 

TEAM HERALD

Navelim village was perhaps the first village in down south to install traffic signals in the 90’s to regulate traffic and ease congestion on the busy road. The then authorities and the political class probably believed that the signals would give relief to the villagers from acute traffic congestion, but in vain.

Then came a sub-way mooted by the authorities as an answer to the traffic woes. The avowed objective was to facilitate movement of school going children without crossing the road, 

But, lack of periodic maintenance and absence of  measures to compel pedestrians to use the subway have literally rendered the structure defunct over the years.

Indeed, if traffic snarls are the order of the day on the Northern entrance to the commercial capital – especially along the Nuvem-KTC bus stand road, traffic situation on the southern entrance in Navelim village is no better. 

The situation is further compounded by the movement of all heavy traffic coming from the eastern bypass and heading towards Karwar. 

Says Navelim MLA and Fisheries Minister, Avertano Furtado: “Traffic problem is indeed a major issue facing Navelim village today. We have to find both short term and long term solutions to the problem”.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Traffic Guruprasad Mhapne admitted that Navelim is facing a major traffic problem. :”One solution to overcome the traffic woes could be the optimum use of the subway. If school children are made to use the subway, it will give a big relief. We have proposed to the NH to erect barricades along the footpath to discourage pedestrians from crossing the road and to use the subway instead’, DySP Mhapne added. Authorities admit that Navelim may soon emerge as a major traffic bottle neck if corrective measures are not initiated on a priority basis. 

“More than 5000 students – right from primary to high school, higher secondary school to college – descend in the heart of the village every day. I will take up the issue on a priority basis”, promised Avertano.

Sadly, the western bypass project proposed to link Navelim and Nuvem remains confined to the papers, despite acquisition of land.

 

By-pass proposed 

In a bid to overcome the acute traffic congestion near the Navelim Church stretch of the highway, local MLA Avertano Furtado has proposed a by-pass–connecting the eastern bypass at Rawanfond to Jackniband at Dramapur.

“With this bypass, traffic moving on the NH-17 will no longer enter Navelim village. Right now, all traffic coming from the Eastern-bypass enters Navelim near the Church, plunging the road into traffic chaos”, Avertano said.

He said the bypass proposal has found favour with Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar since not a single house will go for demolition and the bypass will run parallel to the rivulet. 

“Preliminary reports have put the land acquisition cost to Rs 1.70 crore. I will push the government to implement the proposal at the earliest”, Avertano added.