PANJIM: Four months after North Goa Collectorate issued a notification for constructing a ‘hump type speed breaker’ from Divja circle to Patto-Ribandar, no authorities have, till date ensured its implementation. Neither has the speed breaker come up, nor has the traffic department’s long pending recommendation for installing safety sign boards along the narrow Patto-Ribandar causeway been heeded to.
The causeway has witnessed a number of vehicular accidents claiming the lives of many with the most recent one occurring on January 4, 2014 when four persons, including a girl child died following a head-on collision between a car and two scooters.
According to the police report, the two scooters were proceeding from Old Goa towards Panjim while the car, driven by an elderly Ramesh Nagde was proceeding towards Ribandar. The driver lost control and collided with the two scooters. The riders and pillions were thrown into a culvert flowing into the River Mandovi and three died on the spot whereas the child succumbed to injury enroute to Goa Medical College, Bambolim.
The traffic cell submitted a report to local authorities suggesting the building of a speed breaker along the stretch and installing road safety-cum-warning sign boards.
“Whenever any accident occurs, we conduct a field survey and submit a report with recommendations to the concerned authorities. The recommendations are essentially to ensure no future accidents take place,” Traffic Police Inspector Sudesh Velip said.
Five days after the fatal accident, three lives were saved as Old Goa police pulled out three persons from a car that had almost sunk into two-meter deep water after falling in. In November 2014, an accident on the same road claimed the life of a police constable after his motorcycle collided with an oncoming rickshaw.
“The causeway is so narrow and you still see vehicles competing to overtake. The government should prescribe a speed limit and deploy police personnel along the stretch to ensure it is not violated,” Janice Pereira, a resident of the area demanded.
Another suggestion was to convert the road into a one-way to avoid a rush on the narrow stretch. “Why can’t this road be a one-way? Gone are those days when vehicles on the streets were much less as compared to other states. Today, one family has two or three vehicles. Let the burden on this stretch be reduced even though a rider/driver has to take a longer route to reach their destination,” a former state government servant, Nandesh Desai said.
As a temporary measure to avoid traffic congestion and accidents, the traffic cell usually restricts movement of heavy vehicles, especially during peak hours. On certain occasions, the vehicles are diverted to an internal road connecting the Panjim-Old Goa bypass.
