The narrow village road between Arvale junction in Cortalim to Upasnagar Junction in Sancoale via Saint Joseph Vaz Sanctuary and Sindolim area in Sancoale has turned into a busiest stretch and has almost turned into a highway.
The reason; the taxis to and from Dabolim international airport have now started using this internal village road (Blessed Fr Joseph Vaz) as a shortcut, thereby converting this village road into a major death trap for locals.
It all started in the month of June this year after following representations from local leaders, the Collector South Goa issued notification banning the entry of transport vehicles, including taxis on the shortcut road connecting NH17-B to NH17-A via Vales Junction in Alto Dabolim from St Jacinto island side. Later the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials sealed the illegal openings at Vales junction. Both these actions by authorities concerned was aimed at discouraging tourist taxis and commercial vehicles from using the internal village road in Dabolim constituency.
To an extent the concerned authorities achieved success as taxis then stopped using this shortcut road connecting NH17-B to NH17, but instead of using normal route from Cortalim junction to airport via Chicalim junction, majority of these taxi operators have now started using the narrow village road connecting NH17 road from Arvale junction in Cortalim to NH17 B at Upasnagar Junction in Sancoale. Due to the excessive movement of taxis and other transport vehicles, this zig zag and narrow road has literary become a death trap for road users, especially for the villagers.
“Initially our village road was not having much traffic but since the Vales Dabolim junction has been sealed, we now see flood of highway traffic and all these airport taxis using our village road in Sancoale. Earlier there was less movement of vehicles, but now it is very difficult even to cross the road as these taxis zoom past in full speed, leaving villagers to face high risk of accidents,” said Jaiwas Naik, a villager from Sindolim in Sancoale.
Another villager Rajendra Naik who owns a tourist taxi claimed that “Earlier the police used to stop taxis from using this village road near Arvale junction and the taxis use to ply through the four lane highway, but now since no one is stopping these taxis at Arvale, our village road has become a highway. All our villagers now request the state administration to take some serious steps and curb the menace before innocent people lose their lives in accidents”, he said.
At the recently held Panchayat body meeting Panch members Ramakant Borkar and Narayan Naik raised the issue about the excessive usage of village road by taxis. Even the Sarpanch Girish Pillai supported the Panchas who were demanding that these taxis should not be permitted to use village road as shortcut to and from airport. It was also brought to the notice of Panchayat body by the members that there exist two schools and two churches, including the famous Saint Joseph Vaz Sanctuary on the same stretch of road. Also due to movement of taxis, both Arvale junction and Upasnagar junctions have turned into a death trap. Later it was resolved to write to the Collector South Goa, RTO and BDO requesting them to initiate some action and stop taxis from using the village road.
“We have resolved during our meeting to stop taxis from using our village road. We have decided to ask the authorities concerned to force these taxis to use highway road and not the village road any more. We are hopeful that the issue would be resolved on priority or else locals might not remain silent,” Sarpanch Girish Pillai said.
Meanwhile Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha assured to look into the matter on priority.
