Team Herald
PONDA: With Borim locals complaining about the pathetic condition of Borim bridge road to the panchayat, former sarpanch and panch Sunil Sawakar demanded that the government should immediately repair it.
The locals demanded that only the road on bridge should be made of concrete pre-mix as hot-mix carpeting on the concrete base gets washed away during heavy rains resulting in worsening of the road condition.
Sawkar said, “The locals are complaining about the several potholes on the Borim Bridge, which are posing risk to the motorists. At some places, even iron rods are exposed. Every day thousands of commuters travel through this pathetic road.”
“The bridge road should be made by using concrete pre-mix only. The hot-mix tar gets washed away during the heavy rains resulting in the potholes. Since past several years we are inviting attention of the government to repair the bridge road which is in dilapidated condition and the locals are also demanding a new parallel bridge,” Sawkar claimed.
“It becomes difficult to avoid potholes for the bike riders as there is constant flow of heavy traffic from behind and opposite directions due to which the bike riders receive back pain after crossing the potholes. The Portuguese era bridge should be reconstructed for better traffic movement,” he said.
The bridge is used by the vehicles commuting to Margao, Karwar, Mangalore and Bangalore, besides Belgaum.
The employees commuting daily from Ponda to Margao on the motorbikes face hardship in avoiding the potholes on the bridge.
Some bike riders said that they face the risk of accidents as while avoiding one pothole; other potholes pose risk of accidents as the traffic flow is constant. Few years back, one woman pillion fell from the bike and died when the bike rider tried to avoid the potholes on the bridge.
