Team Herald
Canacona: In a specially convened meeting by the deputy collector of Canacona, over the fallout of the Saturday’s truck accident at Poinguinim bazar; the locals gathered at the meeting took both RTO and higway officials to task for the increasing number of accidents on NH66.
The meeting between various government officials with the public had been called after a multiaxle truck lost control and rammed into road side shops in Poinguinim market on Saturday midnight.
The meeting chaired by the deputy collector of Canacona was attended by Dy SP Uttam Raut Desai, Mamlatdar, Highways officials, Exise inspector, Forest officials, RTO and traffic cell in charge.
Locals were seen upset during the entire meeting which lasted for about 2 hours over the fact that the authorities have been taking the complaints of bad condition of the NH66 road lightly resulting in frequent accidents between Polem and Balli.
Ajay Lolienkar was more critical on the PWD highways for keeping the NH66 road as it was built during Portuguese rule of Goa. “There is multifold increase in traffic on this road but apart from doing some cosmetic changes nothing has been done” he alleged.
“Since the Anmod ghat road is closed all heavy traffic is diverted through Canacona, the authorities have not conducted any study on the carrying capacity of this road, vehicles weighing 40 to 50 tons are also plying on this road”. “There are at least 4 weak minor bridges on this stretch, it’s a disaster waiting to happen if in case any of these bridge collapse” cautioned ex sarpanch of Poinguinim VP Satish Paiginkar.
Janardhan Bhandari ex sarpanch of Poinguinim VP highlighted poor condition of the road, presence of dead trees on the road side, over speeding, overloading and rampant road digging on this stretch.
“All these has made this road between Polem till Balli a road to hell” Bhandari said during the meeting.
After hearing the complains from the locals present the deputy collector gave a time frame to each of the department head present and asked for an action taken report within the specified time.
