The recent increase in traffic jams on all sides of the Cortalim roundabout is linked to the opening of the road from the junction to Zuari bridge. This one-way lane, which had been closed since May, was opened for traffic on Thursday, whereby only traffic coming from Vasco used this lane. On Friday, traffic coming from Vasco as well as Margao/Loutolim, used this narrow one-way stretch. This stretch is not complete with only the middle part being of concrete while the rest is a mud road. Due to the heavy rains and weight of the vehicles passing through, soon the mud portion of this stretch was reduced to such a bad condition that vehicles were forced to move at a slow pace. This led to serpentine queues on the Vasco and Margao side (reaching even the Verna –Titan junction).
On the other side, a part of the stretch of concrete road connecting the traffic moving towards the Cortalim roundabout was being repaired, giving little room for the one-way traffic proceeding towards the Cortalim junction. This led to traffic jams upto Goa Velha.
Commuters blamed bad planning and lack of coordination from the traffic police to regulate the traffic. Commuters opined that the traffic police needs to address the bottleneck created at the Cortalim junction where traffic from Vasco, Margao and Loutolim meet. They suggested that traffic police stops traffic coming in from Margao/Loutolim when traffic from Vasco is moving towards the Zuari bridge and to similarly halt traffic from the Vasco side when vehicles from the Margao/Loutlim side moves towards the bridge.
