As Republican Senator Fred Thompson would often say, “Hopefully, we can build bridges, but we also have to draw lines”. While Goans wouldn’t mind the State is converted into a battle zone of sorts with bridges across the Zuari, the Mandovi and the Khandepar rivers; something isn’t quite right. These projects seem to be caught between the haste of getting those half-completed projects inaugurated and push through traffic diversion plans and approach roads to fulfill political/contractor delays. For a State that runs most of its economy on infrastructure projects sanctioned by the Central Government through its bridges and roads projects over national highways running through the State, it is becoming increasingly evident that it is not a State government listening to its people’s voice of protest or inconvenience but a contractor who delayed on his deliveries bullying a State Public Works Department. So much for a state-run to service business interests and not public welfare.
Road diversions in Goa are nothing new. Goans have witnessed over the years how after a fresh coat of hot-mixing main roads and internal roads have been dug up for a host of reasons ranging from laying of water or sewer pipelines to underground power cables and even telecom companies. Yet there has always been some method in that madness, of sorts. Vehicular traffic and people’s movement were spared by local contractors. The draconian ideas of first proposing a 20+ km diversion and thereafter an alternative 5 km diversion between Cortalim and Verna shows a government lacking in ideas. It reminds more of the Vasco-Dona Paula sea link that was proposed once upon a time to ‘decongest’ the traffic on Margao-Panjim highway. But the audacity with which the diversion has been proposed smacks of a sinister motive. And there is a reason for it too.
Remember the times when the beam/piers of the Mandovi bridge was constructed on the narrow chicken neck of a pass on the slope leading to Porvorim across Mandovi River. Who was inconvenienced in the daytime? No one. Mind you the road leads to the busy tourist hub of North Goa Beach belt. Yet no tourist had to stop nor the Babus of the Secretariat or our MLAs and Ministers attending Goa Assembly ever had a problem. If such a brilliant piece of architecture could be achieved in such a narrow piece of land, why can’t the same be achieved between Cortalim and Verna? Maybe that contractor has a better understanding of building bridges in densely populated areas of Goa than the other. Can’t the State government rope in the former to make matters easier for people of Goa?
There is no argument here. There is no need for a diversion. Dear Goans, do make a mental note of the MLAs and Ministers who want you to believe that a diversion is imperative. It is not and no amount of illogical technical jargon can prove it otherwise. But then the abject senselessness and political chicanery that is playing out in Goa seem to be all over the place.
The recent announcement of inauguration of Mandovi Bridge despite the fact that approach roads to the bridge remain incomplete and even the hurry to inaugurate Khandepar Bridge without ensuring smooth traffic approach all point out to a hurry to push development not to enable movement but to grab accolades for a job done and not a job ‘well’ done. Hours after the inauguration of Khandepar Bridge accidents were reported on account of unfinished approach roads. In Panjim, the hurry to inaugurate Mandovi Bridge failed to take into account the fact that the approach flyovers to the bridge from Ponda bypass still awaits completion and large spans still remain incomplete on Panjim side of the bridge.
As has been witnessed since the inception of construction of bridges over Mandovi and Zuari, the traffic flow has been far from satisfactory on account of the absence of a scientific traffic plan, inadequate traffic police and ill-maintained roads already rendered un-motorable due to construction activity. Both Zuari bridge near Agassaim and Mandovi bridge near Panjim has seen the deterioration of road conditions. The later has even prompted an alert lawyer to serve a notice to PWD for making the roads dangerous due to manmade potholes and lethal construction debris including rusted steel on the roadside that posed threats. Which brings us to yet another reality check – do we need another PIL in the High Court to ensure State government sees reason and drop its outrageous diversion plan between Cortalim and Verna and continue to work optimally with the land that it already has?
