Ask any Borim villager what is the biggest problem they are currently facing in their day-to-day life in their village and the only answer they will give is “the biggest hurdle in our village is to cross on the other side of road.”
For this they have to wait for long time until a suitable safe gap is found in between queues of vehicles passing from opposite direction and if not they have to risk the lives to cross the road when they alight / board a bus or meet their neighbour or relatives on other side of road.
Villagers say the serpentine queues of vehicles like railway boggies witnessed from opposite side on the 3-km stretch of NH almost divide their village into two and almost disconnect them from villagers residing on the other side of the road.
Since thousand of houses are located on both sides of the Borim village it becomes very difficult to widen the National Highway 4A.
Though Ponda town is at the centre it is not affected much by the traffic because at least three bypass roads exist on the outskirt of the town. But it is not the case of Borim village because of its geographic location and the Borim Bridge on Zuari river connecting North and South Goa this village takes the burden of the continuous flow of traffic from both directions.
For the past two decades, the villagers are facing this problem and with rapid industrialisation due to increased heavy traffic the villagers wait for five, ten, 15 and sometimes more to get a chance to cross the road.
“The Borim villagers suffer from 8 am to 9.30 am and 5 pm to 7 pm as which are the rush hours,” said Sanjay Gavde ex-Sarpanch of Borim.
