The traffic snarls on either side of the Zuari Bridge connecting Agassaim in the North with Cortalim in the South are back. For the past week and longer, there have been lengthy queues of vehicles on either side of the bridge causing delays. This has become so common that most people accept it, but often, there is neither an accident that holds up traffic nor is traffic halted due to work on the new bridge. When the traffic jams are for apparently no specific reason, it does indicate that there is a lack of traffic management flow that is restricting the smooth flow of vehicles. It is, in most cases the volume of traffic that is the cause of the traffic jams. Not only are there locals travelling, but the tourist traffic has also increased. The question to be asked and answered is whether the traffic flow cannot be ably managed so that there is no hold up of traffic on the National Highway 66. People have reached late to work and for appointments and missed flights because of the traffic jams. When will the authorities come up with a solution?
Any motorist who is a regular on the route will vouch for the absolute lack of traffic management along the stretch on both sides of the bridge. The first traffic police that one encounters when approaching the bridge from the North is at Agassaim where the road bifurcates to the bypass and to the old road via the village. The traffic jam, however, begins more than a kilometre before that point with vehicles on the three-lane highway at times even five and six abreast, creating the delay as from here it becomes a single lane. It is at this point that police personnel are required to be stationed, so that there is a steady flow of traffic and no bottlenecks are created by certain motorists who break the queue system and forge ahead creating more of a jam. The breaking of the queue serves no purpose and this has to stop.
On the southern side of the bridge the first traffic police are at the Sancoale junction, while the queue here too extends for a kilometre away. Again, on the stretch between the Sancoale junction and the Cortalim circle, vehicles break the queue system forging ahead and creating a jam at the circle, where police personnel though stationed turn a blind eye to this. Can’t those breaking the queue be held back so that those who have patiently followed the vehicle in front of them get precedence? The traffic flow can be managed to a certain extent if there is an adequate number of cops on the stretch who bring about discipline among motorists. Just standing and waving vehicles forward as is often done will serve no purpose.
Ever since work on the new Zuari bridge commenced, traffic jams have become a common occurrence on the route. In the past the authorities have promised to streamline the traffic but never did get down to it. There was even a service road that was to be built during the period when the wings were being attached to the central structure of the bridge as when this work was on traffic would have to be halted, but this too did not happen. This just indicates how unconcerned is the government to the travails of the people. It is now over six years since the construction of the bridge began and it was to be completed in three years. Traffic snarls have increased in frequency since then. Can’t the resultant traffic jams be avoided? All it requires is proper management of the traffic flow. The stationing of police personnel or traffic wardens along the route and penalising vehicles attempting to forge forward and causing further congestion could well help quite a bit.
There is another reason to ease the traffic jams. With petrol and diesel prices at all time highs, people should be conserving fuel, instead there is a lot of it being unnecessarily burnt at these traffic jams and that could easily be avoided. What is essentially the outcome of these traffic jams is a waste of time and money which is serving no purpose. While the new bridge will reduce travelling time, the current hold-ups also need to be avoided. A slight delay is understandable but the hours spent on the same stretch are not. Motorists have complained that a stretch of road that normally takes three minutes to cover in reasonable traffic, has taken up to an hour due to the jams. Anybody will agree that there is definitely need for some streamlining of the traffic flow.
The new bridge is scheduled to be thrown open in the months ahead, but until that time and with the monsoon coming up, the authorities have to come up with a plan to ease the traffic flow. The weeks ahead are going to see increased tourist traffic which could build up at this point causing longer delays. The new traffic rules that have been implemented have increased the penalty amount for certain violations. If there has been acceptance of this by motorists, shouldn’t the government also come forward and provide people a more pleasant ride in the road?
Good governance comes from small measures taken to ease the life of the people. Managing traffic on this Agassaim to Cortalim stretch, which is on the National highway and used by thousands of people every day, to avoid delays could be one such task of the government to be taken up on priority. Everybody who travels on this road would expect to get caught in a jam for a short period due to the ongoing bridge work, it would be a minor inconvenience, but that time of waiting here has to be reduced. It cannot be that hours are wasted on the short stretch of road. A few minutes are acceptable. Can the traffic authorities manage this? It is not an extended stretch of road – just a short distance –surely it is possible to keep the traffic flowing with a little application of the mind.