The usual 40-minute drive across 36 kms from Margao to Panjim has now turned into a nightmarish experience that tests the patience of the commuter and motorist alike. Thanks to the bridge construction underway at Cortalim over the River Zuari and the bridge work from Panjim to Porvorim over River Mandovi.
“The usual commute takes anytime from one hour twenty minutes to even three hours compared to forty-five minutes otherwise. The situation is just bad and the traffic management by the police, traffic cell and RTO is just abysmal,” explains Zubin Costa, a daily commuter who has ditched his four-wheeler for a two-wheeler to make it on time to office.
Zubin explains how the government banned any drilling work of new pillars on the Verna-Cortalim stretch after almost 100 people missed their flights on a single day in November but there’s a lot of other work that continues from DBL from the Verna to Bambolim stretch, including concretization of the road which means that service trucks ply with debris, mud and raw materials which automatically slows down traffic.
“ During Christmas-New Year season, the police converted the Agassaim-Goa Velha bypass into a one way road and diverted all Margao-bound traffic into the old highway via Pilar but there were at least six service trucks in the traffic that slow downed the entire stretch during peak hours by almost thirty-five minutes,” stated Divya Naik, who commutes by shuttle service from Margao to Panjim. She explained how the delay of buses in the jam meant fewer buses plying on the route, while the serpentine queues keep increasing at the shuttle counter at Margao.
But in all this mess and struggle office goers, students, tourists and people whose livelihood depend on the highway, the only life savers have been the village roads. Many people use the interiors from Arlem and ply via Raia church to Loutolim and then go all along till Cortalim, only to find a logjam at the Zuari bridge.
“It’s dangerous you see. There’s a rise in traffic in our village which is otherwise a sleepy village and our women and children are at the risk of being run down by speeding cars and two-wheelers especially when our children walk home from school in the evening, explains Marinetta Cardozo.
Shahil Parab shows us how he uses Google maps and traffic updates on Google to get a fair status of the traffic jam with occasional updates from Radio Mirchi and Radio Indigo. He explains to us how Google picks up the data from android users who have their location on and gets an average of their commuting speed and hence the delay shown in red on Google maps is mostly half the time delay from the actual delay time.
Speaking about speeding vehicles through these village roads, Jose Pereira shows us how the highway realignment has created a new service road along the western Expressway works at Nuvem wherein the service road is at the mouth of the Nuvem-Majorda underpass and with no signage the underpass exit is a major accident-prone zone and a huge threat to locals in these twin villages.
