Team Herald
PANJIM: In a move that offers huge relief to the residents of Divar Island, the River Navigation Department (RND) resumed the much-awaited Old Goa to Divar ferry service from Friday morning, November 19.
Earlier on Thursday, the RND Senior Superintendent, Workshop and Traffic sent a letter to the Sarpanchas of Divar panchayats – Sao Mathias Malar and Goltim Navelim informing them about this decision.
It may be recalled that the ferry service was supposed to be closed from two months and it was supposed to resume only by December 12 but there were a lot of complaints from locals about the difficulties they had been facing due to the then suspension of ferry service.
The locals had also warned that with the Novenas of St Francis Xavier at Old Goa commencing soon, they wanted this ferry service to resume urgently.
There were also concerns about a section of school students who would need to travel for their classes.
With the ferry service suspended from October 11 to November 18, the Divar residents were forced to use the other ferry service to Sao Pedro in Ribandar in that interim period.
However, given the issues with the Ribandar causeway needing repair work and the general traffic chaos during peak hours, there were huge queues of vehicles at both the jetty points in Divar and Ribandar.
Ferry services are the only route available to Divar locals to get to other parts of the State and back.
