TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Goa will throb to the pulsating Samba rhythms Saturday as the four-day Carnival extravaganza is unleashed from the capital city. As the Carnival eve dawned Friday, Panjim was being bedecked up with lights and buntings in anticipation of the grand traditional parade that will be flagged off Saturday afternoon with at least 100 floats likely to follow the mesmeric King Momo float.
The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) which symbolically hold the keys to the city, remained firm on its stand of boycotting the parade flag off but will churn out its own doze of contagious fun with the Samba Square at Municipal garden.
The Tourism department is expecting a good response for the float parade as it has hiked the prize money to Rs 5 lakh per town for the float parade competitions at all seven centers.
“We could have more than 100 floats participating in
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the Panjim parade and we understand that they are going to be very creative and interesting,” informed an official from the Tourism department.
The Army and Navy bands will participate in the Carnival parade and nearly 100 NCC cadets have been engaged to control the surging crowds of locals and tourists who will congregate to see the float parade in the capital city.
The Tourism department has disclosed that hotels are packed for the weekend and all modes of transport whether airlines, road and rail transport to Goa are overbooked for Carnival.
As expected bus operators have doubled the fares to Goa ahead of Carnival.
The Tourism department has however stepped up its monitoring along the coastal belt to prevent tourists from neighboring States traveling to Goa in private vehicles, from camping along roadsides, cooking, bathing and littering the pathways.
Later Friday, the Food and Cultural festival got underway at Merces grounds with an overwhelming response of food stalls serving Goan cuisine.
Traffic diversions for Carnival have been notified ~ the road from Divaja circle, Panjim to Ribandar will be closed Saturday due to the Carnival float parade. Floats will gather at the causeway (old Panjim ~ Ribandar road) towards the left side from 8:00 am onward. Floats will not be allowed to occupy the road space on Friday night. The traffic from new Patto Bridge will be stopped at 2:30 pm. Floats coming from Taligao will have to come via Bambolim. The road from four pillars to Hotel Sona will not be permitted to bring in floats.
