During the tourist season, the situation worsened as serpentine queues of cars struggled to cross the dreaded stretch. Panjim and surrounding areas were heavily taxed due to this.
The bridge is a part of the Panvel-Edappally National Highway (NH17) and it is crucial for vehicles which utilize the route. Additionally, commercial and heavy vehicles use the bridge to ply. Therefore, during peak hours, the situation is compounded with city
“The government should have come up with a solution to divert at least two-wheelers from another route or divert light vehicular traffic via the ferries from Betim jetty,” said Priyaranjan Singh, a Porvorim resident.
Sarfaraz Kittur, another resident of Porvorim even informed that some residents of the area have relocated to Panjim and other places in a bid to avoid the cumbersome everyday traffic. “It is extremely difficult for office goers as there seems to be traffic at all points of time. The construction work on the bridge narrows the size of the road every day and it will only get more difficult here on,” Kittur noted.
There are 90,000 vehicles entering Panjim every day from Patto while 47,000 vehicles leave via the same route. Almost 1.50 lakh vehicles traverse the Mandovi bridge on an everyday basis. Additionally, there are over a 100 private buses plying on the Mapusa-Panjim route. These figures are shocking as the narrow end at the Porvorim side of the bridge bears the brunt of the traffic.
As per available date with the North Goa Traffic Cell, the vehicular population roads leading into Panjim, is increasing by approximately 25,000 to 30,000 vehicles annually against the back drop of 70,000 new vehicles registered each year in the state.
The bridge will undoubtedly relax the situation at either end. It will sort issues of traffic congestion at the KTC circle and even within Panjim city. But what will the government’s plan be for the next 18 months to tackle the growing bottleneck at various places on account of the construction of the new Mandovi bridge?
