VASCO: PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar inspected the Cortalim-Verna Road for decision on alternate route after diversion. The good news is that the PWD has come up with a proposal of diverting the route through two different roads and the distance is going to be cut down to just 4.5 kilometres and 2 kms.
PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar, Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha and other officials of PWD were present at the inspection that was held in Cortalim on Wednesday. The PWD Minister said that the traffic coming from Panjim/North Goa will be diverted on to a route which starts near Cortalim ferry jetty which leads to Thane, then Loutolim and reaches Verna. The diverted distance for people coming from Panjim is going to be just 4.5 kms.
Traffic from Margao/South Goa will be diverted on to a new service road from Verna to the culvert at Cortalim junction and will run parallel to the railway track. This road will be only 2.5 kms extra travel. The PWD minister has said that this new roads will come handy for the Railways as well as the local people for future use. Both these roads will remain as one way, and strictly for light motor vehicles until work of Zuari bridge is complete.
“In the next four days we are going to sit with the drawings of these alternate routes and we will be finalising the diversion and notifying the same”, said PWD Minister Sudin.
The earlier diversion plans of 22 km and then 14 km extra had given shivers to the people travelling on these roads sparking widespread opposition to that plan. This much shorter diversion has now come as good news for the vehicular commuters.
