Santosh Naik, Ponda
PANJIM: The Ponda locals have demanded with the National Highways Authority of India to rectify the sharp curves on the Dhavlim-Farmagudi National Highway bypass road.
They stated that because of the sharp curves, the three kilometres stretch of the bypass road has become an accident-prone zone.
It may be recalled that decade back to decongest the Ponda town, the Dhavlim-Farmagudi bypass road was constructed on the Ponda-Margao national highway following which the traffic in Ponda town was minimised, smooth and even accidents were reduced. However, while constructing the Dhavlim-Farmagudi bypass road to protect roadside property of some politically-connected people, the three kilometres road was constructed with several sharp turns. After the road widening into four lane four years back, the locals saw several accidents on the Dhavlim-Farmagudi road. Even one crane fell from the flyover after it lost control while negotiating through a speed breaker on Farmagudi steep slope with sharp curve at Kashimutt junction. In this accident, the driver lost his life.
A local Brahmanand Naik said, “There is one sharp 90 degree turn on this road and it becomes difficult for the heavy vehicles to negotiate the turn at Kashimutt junction. Such types of sharp turns do not exist on any highways. The issue was raised in the Bandora Village Panchayat gram sabha even before the inauguration of the road was done but the concerned authorities are not bothered about the safety of commuters.”
The locals blamed the National Highways Authority of India engineers for faulty design saying that despite repeated accidents, they have not taken any steps for improvement of this accident-prone sharp turn.
