Team Herald
CANACONA: With the commencement of tourist season, Canacona-Balli stretch of NH66 has already witnessed three accidents in last three days.
While a truck and a tempo veered off the road at Karmalghat and Partagal, a private van carrying commercial goods lost control and landed on its side at Padi. There were no loss of human lives, but all the three vehicles involved in the accidents were badly damaged.
Motor vehicle accidents have become so common on this Polem-Balli stretch that for the locals residing near this stretch it has become a daily scene. And they have nicknamed this stretch as “Road to Hell”.
This stretch is part of NH66 which connects North and South India which starts from Panvel in Maharashtra to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and has a total length of 1,622 km.
As it runs through a rugged terrain parallel to the coast of Arabian Sea and Western Ghats, it is considered as one of the most dangerous National Highways in India.
This stretch also has one of the highest vehicle densities in the State compared to sections of the highway in other States.
This NH66 road also passes through Goa covering 139km from Patradevi to Polem border in Canacona. This stretch is not very significant as compared to the total length of this Highway, but the number of accidents happening on the stretch between Polem and Balli is bothering the motorists since last few years.
This accident prone stretch which is 45km has witnessed hundreds of accidents some of which were fatal since last two years.
Commuters using this road have been since last so many years complaining about the bad road engineering while building and poor maintenance of this stretch by the PWD.
“The road has no proper banking at most of the blind curves; the road has sunk on one side on the entire stretch from Karmalghat to Paddi; and potholes have made this stretch a road to hell,” says Satish Painginkar former deputy sarpanch of Poiguinim.
“Officials of the local traffic cell say that they frequently submit reports on black spots and suggestions to improve drivability to PWD highways, but till now except for minor cosmetic changes and widening by a meter on one side, this Portuguese-era road has remained as it was,” commuters say.
With all the vehicles from light to very heavy coming fitted with power steering and power breaks, the drivers also indulge in over speeding and rash driving which also adds as a reason for so many accidents reported on this stretch.
A recent study pointed out that Goa has the biggest share of accidents per lakh population amongst all the States in the country. “If we have to eradicate this unwanted record, the Highway authorities have to seriously work on providing good motorable and scientifically designed roads,” a Canacona local Anil Bhagat opinioned.
