Team Herald
Vasco: Commuters will have to bear the brunt for a month or more due to the ongoing new bridge work at Cortalim junction. People have already started facing traffic congestions due to the bottle-neck at the Cortalim junction. Traffic officials, who claim there won’t be any traffic problems as they are monitoring the stretch; added that they expect the bottle-neck issue to be addressed soon as they expect the ongoing bridge pier capping work at the stretch of Cortalim junction to be competed before the monsoon.
On Wednesday at around 4 pm, the one-way road from the Cortalim junction towards the Zuari bridge was blocked. Arrangements were then made via an alternate concrete road parallel to the blocked road. However this alternate road, which is meant for only one-way traffic, is now catering to two-way traffic: commuters traveling to and fro from Panjim. This invariably has made this narrow stretch prone to further traffic congestion.
When contacted, some officials with the construction company pointed out that the one-way road was blocked, as the pier capping work of the new Zuari bridge is currently underway.
Officials further informed that as the bridge work progresses, an alternate concrete road arrangement will be made for the public. When asked if it is necessary to block the road, officials said that utmost care of people’s safety is being considered and that they had blocked the road to avoid any untoward incidents or accidents.
Meanwhile when inquired about the traffic congestion issue, Suraj Samant, Traffic Police Inspector Vasco, said that there won’t be a traffic congestion problem as there are alternate concrete roads for commuters. “Our traffic officials have been deployed on various points where there are possibilities of traffic congestion,” he said.
PI Samant further informed that heavy vehicles like trucks, tourist cruise buses etc have been diverted from Ponda just to avoid traffic jams. “In cases of accidents, we aptly follow procedures, conduct the panchanama and move the vehicle from the road to facilitate traffic. If the new bridge work at the Cortalim junction area gets completed before monsoon then there won’t be any major traffic congestion problems,” he added.
