The traffic logjam and snarls on the Zuari bridge on Thursday the 28th, is a sign of things to come. With increasing vehicular traffic in Goa and with tourist vehicles adding to it in the season and on festive occasions, simple incidents like a bus breakdown on a bridge or a small accident has the capacity to cause inconvenience and distress to a large number of people using our roads. The problem is that even though a couple of years ago we were talking of satellite mapping, we do not have convenient alternative options in case a particular road is jammed. For a tourist intensive destination like Goa our government should realize that even a couple of hours of getting stuck throws a lot of plans of visitors haywire. This applies to locals as well, but since our government thinks more about the conveniences for outsiders, one hopes that if things happen for better and easier travel we can also enjoy the facilities.
As for the Zuari bridge after carrying a dead load of hundreds of vehicles because of the logjam on Thursday one hopes that there has been no further deterioration of the structure. Consider the myopic and muddle-headed approach of our government who knowing full well of the weak bridge has not been pro-active in building another one. The foundation stone for the new Zuari bridge will only be laid on Jan 26, 2015. We know the schedule for the foundation stone but not for building the bridge. Maybe this incident will open their eyes.
The tendency with our government is to wait for something to happen and then play petty by looking for scapegoats to carry the blame. Knowing about the weak Zuari bridge the government should have streamlined the ferry service below the bridge from Cortalim to Agacaim so that this alternative could be quickly used. The approach roads from the ferry points to connect back to the highway should have been improved. This is what a responsive government would do but not ours which is waiting for the Zuari bridge to fall down before they think of building another or looking at alternatives for people to cross the river.
Our chief minister will give us moral lectures on this subject, on conserving resources and using them optimally. But thinking of bridges, our chief minister has planned a third Mandovi bridge when two are functioning well. This is the principle that the present day politicians follow – the problem of plenty, build unnecessary bridges, construct roads that go nowhere, but neglect what is urgently required. The promised Chorao bridge has been hanging fire for two years now, but then the people of Chorao must realize that they are not important for our legislators, because the priority for this government is outsiders first.
