Goa welcomes New Year with Masses and parties

PANJIM: As 2017 drew to a close, thousands of revellers thronged Goa with beach parties and midnight Masses welcoming 2018 year. Beaches, restaurants and clubs among several other places witnessed huge presence of tourists as well as locals as the countdown for the New Year began. With people greeting each other, fireworks display at many places lit up the sky and overnight parties continued along the beach belt. 

As the celebration continued till the wee hours, huge traffic was witnessed along several stretches particularly at the coastal belt. Hundreds of traffic and local police besides reserved battalion and home guards were deployed at major places to man the traffic. A total of 150 sign boards were also installed in the northern coastal stretch. 

Some roads along the Calangute, Baga and Anjuna were converted to one-way on December 31 and foreseeing ‘bumper to bumper traffic,’ the Traffic Department also created enough additional parking spaces. 

Several VVIPs and VIPs including B-town celebrities and daily soap opera actors ushered in the New Year. Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s arrival late on Saturday night was the most talked about as he joined his mother Sonia Gandhi to usher in the New Year. 

Some celebrities like Arshad Warsi took to social media Twitter to announce their presence in Goa.