The state is presently undergoing extensive road widening all over its National Highways, right from Bambolim to the roads up to Nuvem and ahead.
However, the stretch of the National Highway right from the South Goa Collectorate to Goa Rajee Honda Junction has been lying unattended by the authorities for several years. The Highways Division of the PWD has says that the road stretch has no scope for widening due to the fields next to it
Thousands of vehicles have been inconvenienced for years on this road due to the disproportionate width. This road sees 5 to 6 vehicles per second and in the evenings, there’s always a traffic block which starts as a small bottleneck at 6 o’clock and later becomes a full blown kilometer long traffic block.
The narrow structure of the road has now created fear and anxiety amongst the local people and commuters and accidents here are a daily affair. The tourist season and the ISL (Indian Super League) season have already passed by but no breakthrough has been seen till today.
PWD officials claim that this stretch will be bypassed and a new road from Verna to Navelim is in the reckoning. The Chief engineer also informed that there is a major bypass road which is in the reckoning from Verna to Navelim and that road will bypass this stretch solving most of the problems. “The road as announced by the Surface Transport Minister of the Government of India, Nitin Gadkari will begin soon and presently the survey of the land is being done,” said Chief Engineer Uttam Parsekar, PWD Highways division 14. It is also known that the road has water pipelines, electricity cables and other hindrances like the fencing of the fields alongside it which makes it practically impossible for the road to be widened.
It has also been learned that land acquisition for the expansion of this road has not been done leaving only a hand full of land on the sides of the road for widening. According to local people, the road sees major accidents every single day due to heavy traffic and also when vehicles overtake each other. This road is frequently used by heavy vehicles like Kadamba buses and heavy commercial vehicles like trucks and trailers.
The new bypass from Verna may take its time to be constructed. Till then, the complete block on the collectorate to Navelim stretch may lead to a traffic collapse.
