PANJIM: Goa continues to record a massive spike in road accidents and fatalities on its ‘killer roads’ as the departments concerned including the Directorate of Transport appear to be least bothered in implementing the suggestions for corrective measures submitted two years ago.
Stating that over the past two years, the Traffic Police have sent almost 5,000 suggestions to the departments concerned including Transport Department, Superintendent of Police (SP) Traffic, Bossuet Silva informed that of these 80 per cent have remained unimplemented.
Meanwhile, the State is witnessing a massive spike in road accidents and fatalities.
Last Wednesday, Goa recorded four fatal accidents, which killed three persons and left six injured.
The accidents occurred at Kundaim, Harvalem, Mapusa and Panjim. The State has witnessed almost 377 accidents within the last one-and-a-half month of New Year 2023, which has claimed the lives of 38 persons. The Traffic Police seemed to have tried every trick under their sleeve to reduce the accidents. But, little seems to be working.
The number of accidents reported in Goa has forced the highest-ranking police official i.e. Director General of Police (DGP) Jaspal Singh to apologise for failing to control the number of accidents.
In his recent tweet on a traffic problem related post, the DGP said, “While about 60,000 vehicles are added every year, but no corresponding expansion or widening of road and parking infrastructure.”
When questioned, the SP Traffic Bossuet Silva said, “In Goa people have scant respect for law. Challans, fines and penalties have been increased. We have sent over 5,000 suggestions to various departments for corrective measures. However, only 20 per cent of these important suggestions have been implemented so far for the last two years.”
Giving an example of the above, Silva said, “There are several illegal road openings on NH 66 in Verna. Many letters have gone from our end to close them, but for reasons best known to the agencies they have not closed them.”
According to the National Road Congress, there has to be a minimum distance of 500 metres to 1 kilometre.
“There are several road openings at small distances and only the Public Works Department (PWD) knows why it has allowed the openings here. We have asked for crash barriers here. It is in fact a black spot and there are several recommendations made, but nothing on ground.”
“There is no cooperation from the line departments that are responsible for implementing corrective measures to avoid road fatalities,” Silva said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Siddhant Shirodkar said, “The vehicle population in Goa has increased. In 2020, 14.57 lakh vehicles were on road, in 2021, 14.95 lakh and in 2022, 15.41 lakh approximate numbers of vehicles used the roads in Goa. It is increasing by 3.07 percent each year.”
