Team Herald
PANJIM: Conceding that enforcing traffic rules on the accident-prone Ribandar causeway is a challenging task, Goa Traffic Police is mulling making the stretch a one-way road or proposing its widening.
“If we start enforcing traffic laws at Ribandar (causeway) and begin penalising the violators, it will block the flow of traffic. Since it is a narrow road, it is challenging. We have thus requested the Director General of Police to convert it into one-way or propose widening or fix lane dividers,” Traffic SP Devesh Kumar Mahla told Herald.
Notwithstanding this hurdle, the officer added that their personnel ensure regulating traffic and enforcing the law on either side of the causeway. “Traffic movement on both sides of the causeway is video recorded. We officers are also present at the spot to monitor the situation on a regular basis,” he said.
The causeway, prone to accidents, saw a fatal accident this week when a pillion rider was flung into River Mandovi in a collision between a car and bike. The tragedy occurred when the car, heading to Panjim and the bike to Ribandar collided in such manner that pillion rider Rohan Parab (21) was flung into the river while rider Suraj Naik (30) fell on the road. Parab died of drowning and his body was traced and fished out about an hour later.
Sources said the 383-year-old causeway, also known by its original name – Ponte de Linhares – once considered the longest bridge in Asia, and perhaps oldest in India, had been declared unsafe for heavy vehicular traffic by the district administration.
In 2014, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had announced that the government was considering a proposal for a parallel bridge on lines of the causeway along the river while the old one could be used by cyclists and pedestrians.
