Margao-Panjim commuters endure frustrating journey with traffic jam

PANJIM: Commuters travelling on the Margao-Panjim highway had to endure a frustrating journey with a massive traffic jam, on Friday.
For instance, while it normally takes around 10 minutes to reach the Cortalim junction from the Verna Industrial Estate, on Friday evening, the commuters had to spend over an hour covering the same distance.
There were similar woes for commuters heading towards Margao, who were stuck on the Goa Velha to Agassaim bypass for a lengthy period.
Even two-wheelers had to face the brunt with there being hardly much space for them to manoeuvre past the four-wheelers, while passengers in buses also had to wait for the traffic to clear.
The cause of the traffic jam was the diversions for traffic due to the construction work for the flyovers for the New Zuari bridge, which has led to prior traffic jams over the last few months.
Traffic police on duty on Friday stated that they had deployed additional personnel at several spots along the highway route to help manage the traffic and guide the vehicles.
However, there were several bottlenecks throughout the highway and at many places, vehicles were moving in two lanes and then had to switch to a single lane along sections where the width of the motorable part of the highway was narrow.
“I had reached Verna at 5 pm and I reached Panjim after 7 pm. With the high cost of fuel, keeping our engines running is becoming expensive too. The quality of roads does not help either and there is dust everywhere. Every day there is a new diversion that adds to the chaos,” said Vikram Kerkar, a businessman. Taxi drivers also raised concerns about how the traffic scares their customers who fear missing their flights.