PONDA: Fearing that the government would go ahead with the inauguration of the four-lane Khandepar-Ponda highway before July 20, a large number of Chirputem Bandora villagers, as they had planned, protested on the road demanding construction of underpass at the accident prone KTC Junction near Safa Masjid in Ponda, on Sunday.
The villagers said that the highway officials constructed the four-lane road without taking them into confidence. The officials have provided several underpass and flyovers on the seven kilometre Curti-Khandepar four-lane highway, but did not provide underpass at the accident prone KTC junction.
Bandora Panch Rajesh Naik said, “We came on road to just protest against the failure to provide underpass at the KTC junction” and he warned that “If the authorities decide to open the four-lane highway for traffic without constructing an underpass, then, the locals would be forced to come on road to stage agitation.”
He appealed to the authorities not to force people to come on road.
According to Naik the authorities don’t want a junction opposite Safa the Masjid as it is a heritage site.
“By not providing a junction, the authorities are forcing us to travel two km ahead to GVM circle come back to KTC and their locality at Chirputem. Further, there is an RTO office at KTC bus stand. All the people coming to RTO also are required to cross the junction. Why should we cover 2 km extra distance?” he asked.
Claiming that around 5,000 vehicles cross the KTC junction daily, Naik said that a junction opposite Safa Masjid is necessary.
“If the Safa Masjid being a heritage site is the reason for not constructing an underpass, how a long retaining wall was constructed opposite the Masjid?” he questioned.
Large police force was deployed to maintain law and order, but the locals protested peacefully without blocking the traffic.
