It’s 7:00 in the evening and for over an hour, I have been stuck in traffic on the Panjim Patto bridge. The road leading into Panjim and out has cars and motorcyclists stranded, each trying to wiggle out of the traffic jam, an everyday struggle for regular travellers to get to their respective destinations. Traveling in and out of Panjim has never been this uncomfortable.
Traditionally settlements in Panjim, Margao and surrounding areas were built compactly, leading to numerous benefits to the citizens. But as the city expanded, it needed changes; the existing infrastructure was not enough to withhold the expanding city. To add to the burdened infrastructure, the growing number of vehicles on the roads has led to problems of traffic congestion, rash driving, road rage, etc. Another added pressure to the limited infrastructure of the State, is the influx of migrants entering to cash-in on the lucrative daily wages offered. The infrastructure in the State is crumbling and our cities have become “unliveable”. It is time we looked just beyond creating shinning new infrastructure for the sake of it, and instead plan for repair, maintenance of existing infrastructure before we go on a construction spree of new infrastructure for the state.
But then, preserving and restoring a road, bridge or any other infrastructure is not something that our politicians, who have a limited term and uncertain future will agree to. Why? They seldom want to extend the life of a rival politician’s project thus resulting in them overlooking infrastructure repairs and instead focusing on new projects. Secondly, new projects would have their name linked to it and they get credit for it including being the one to cut the ribbon. Finally and most important, they get to earn huge cuts on the new projects, which can go up to as much as 40% depending of project.
But what the politicians do not realise is that conserving a used road, bridge or any existing infrastructure is less-risky than building a new one, because the use of it is certain.
Of late in Goa, there has been a tremendous focus on infrastructure. A leading daily had reported, “That the GSIDC’s expenditure that in the year 2010-11, which was just Rs 150 cr, has now reached a whopping Rs 800 cr in 2015-16 (revised estimate), thus showing a rise of 500 per cent of the expenditure. “In the last four years since the BJP took over from the Congress-NCP the government has spent or tendered around 296 projects at a whopping cost of Rs 3308.41 crore.”
Among the many projects are the two new bridges that the state is going to get. I agree that we do need to have another bridge on the Zuari, but the one on the Mandovi is not justifiable. It seems the government did not question, if the third bridge on the Mandovi, would be of any help, 20 years from now?
Instead of the third bridge the government should have created an alternative to ease 80% of the traffic during peak hours and otherwise that mostly travels into Panjim. Research has shown that building new bridges, roads, does not ease traffic congestions. Instead, one will only see more people bringing out their cars and motorbikes leading to further traffic jams during peak times. European nations after building new infrastructure to ease traffic chaos, learnt that it was not the way forward and have now moved towards promoting public transport. The new bridge over the Mandovi, is complete abuse of spending power.
But in all this the problem that comes to the forefront is the fact that the decisions to build or not build new infrastructure is mostly made without looking at the larger picture of the state. Officials and politicians look at projects on a one-on-one basis, rather than looking at how each of these projects will fit into the other or affect the other. A classic case of ‘white elephant project’ is the multi-level car parking near the Santa Monica jetty. The multi-level car parking has not fixed the traffic congestion problem. It lies vacant for reasons best known to the Corporation of the City of Panjim and Goa Tourism Development Corporation’s (GTDC). The Government should have in fact explored the idea of introducing congestion fees, which would have resulted in a considerable reduction of traffic.
A report by a leading management consultancy firm noted that, “When congestion fees are applied people moved their commuting time to save money, resulting in less congestion.” The congestion fee concept has worked in Singapore, and central London. The same report further states that, “The Panama Canal also uses congestion pricing, and so do many airports and railways, charging more to the boats, planes, and trains that want to use the facilities at more popular times of day. In each case, the result is that more traffic moves along, with fewer jams.” By building and creating new infrastructure, the government is only coming up with short-term solutions.
My fear is that by creating new infrastructure we are not fixing the existing problems we have. Instead, we are ending up with more infrastructure projects in the state that have no value.
(Vito Gomes is a farming enthusiast who strongly believes in the preservation of ancestral lands in Goa and cultivating them)
