PONDA: It’s has been more than a year now that the National Highways Authority of India closed the Ponda KTC bus stand junction for crossing for the local traffic and also U-Turn was prohibited giving a clear route to Ponda-Panjim highway to proceed forward without any obstruction.
However, on regular basis, violation of traffic rules is witnessed at the bus stand junction with most of the motorists taking U-Turn which poses risk to the lives of commuters and passengers. The signboards are meant for safety of the commuters and vehicles but here no traffic personnel are seen controlling the traffic or issuing fines for traffic violations.
Despite ban and installation of U-Turn prohibitory signboard, the passenger buses and other traffic openly violate the traffic rules by taking dangerous U-Turn on the national highway and proceeding towards the bus stand-Chirputem road.
It may be recalled, after widening of Curti-Ponda-Khandepar highway into four-lane, the bus stand junction where the local buses used to cross to move towards the bus stand was closed to give a clear way for national highway traffic proceeding on this route. The buses, crossing the junction to proceed towards the bus stand were directed to go ahead for another one-km and take a roundabout at the GVM circle to reach the bus stand. But it appears that the passenger buses are not ready to follow the rules and to avoid the extra one-km distance the buses wrongfully take U-Turn at the old junction where no U-Turn signboard is displayed. Thus, in future there are likely chances of accidents at the KTC bus stand junction as the passenger buses suddenly take U-Turn on the national highway road, which is meant only for highway traffic.
