However, with the charm of serene beauty, adventurism has meant more tourist vehicles with very little or no knowledge about the geography and social life of Goa. The State has been popular for its ‘happy-go-lucky’ and ‘susegad’ attitude towards life.
But, in less than two months of 2023, Goa lost more than 40 lives and many were injured in over 400 road accidents. The numbers include locals as well as tourists. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant blamed the increasing number of vehicles, rash and negligent and drunken driving for the spike in accidents. The Director General of Police Jaspal Singh pointed out that while about 60,000 vehicles are added every year, no corresponding expansion or widening of road and parking infrastructure has taken place.
The CM, as well as the DGP, have hit the bull’s eye in their diagnosis, but the question is what measures are being taken to reduce the traffic burden on the roads. O Heraldo had reported how 80 per cent of the suggestions of the Traffic Department of Goa Police have remained ignored and gathering dust in the past two years.
Goa had 15.41 lakh vehicles running on its roads in 2022, apart from the huge influx of tourist cars and buses, and goods carriage vehicles. In contrast, for a population of around 16 lakh, the government’s Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) with a fleet of 548 buses, including shuttle minibuses, and the latest addition of electric buses, provides services on 304 routes. Some of these buses are also operating during the morning and afternoon hours to ferry students from schools. Thus, raising eyebrows about the effective public transport system of the State.
The growing number of accidents involving private buses too is a cause of concern for daily commuters who are dependent on these buses in the absence of a KTC bus facility in the last mile connectivity in the State. The last bus connectivity to major towns and the capital city is till 9.30 pm, but beyond that the population is forced to fend for itself, thus encouraging, what the Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho called the ‘taxi mafia’.
While this is a pathetic state of affairs for the locals, the tourists are bound to look out for better mobility options. Thanks to the Digambar Kamat-led government, instead of improving the transportation system, the then government handed over the reigns of mobility into the hands of the tourist by introducing rent-a-bike and rent-a-cab facilities. According to estimates, Goa currently has more than 30,000 registered rent-a-bike two-wheelers and around 3,000 rent-a-car vehicles, apart from the various types of taxis available.
American comedian, author, and social critic, George Carlin once questioned, “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?” So a tourist who is out there navigating on the Google Maps app, when driving slowly, is stupid to drive in the unknown and when on adventurism is a maniac.
In May last year, responding to the spike in the number of accidents involving rent-a-bike vehicles, Godinho had assured to stop issuing any more licences. However, one can witness the ever-increasing two-wheelers of the latest model being flaunted by tourists as they go zig-zag-zoom.
Therefore, the government on a priority basis needs to rethink the policy of rent-a-bike and rent-a-car facilities and instead streamline and rejuvenate the taxi policy with a wider scope of employment. However, no mobility plan can ever be successful without the improvement and advancement of public transport.
Thus, it’s said, “A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars, it’s where the rich ride public transportation.”
