PANJIM: Traffic congestion near Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC), Bambolim, has become a routine affair. Be the patients and their relatives, they have to face hardships. The situation is most severe during the peak hours.
Being the premier healthcare institution in the State, GMC receives patients not only from Goa, but also from districts of neighbouring States. Due to the traffic congestion, sometimes even ambulances are getting stuck, forcing people to question the government whether it will accept responsibility if someone’s life is lost while on the way to GMC.
It is not only the patients and their relatives who are suffering but students too are victims of the traffic congestion. Students studying in Cujira Integrated Educational Complex and their parents too are getting caught in the traffic congestion which sometimes ends up in them reaching late to their schools.
Speaking to O Heraldo, Mohd Abdul Sheikh, a fruit vendor, said, “Traffic congestion is witnessed three times a day. In the morning from around 8 am to 11 am, afternoon 1 pm to 4 pm and in the evening from 7 pm to 8 pm.”
“The congestion during the day is mainly during the working hours of the schools in Cujira. In the evening, the congestion is due to the rush of the relatives of passengers who come to see their loved ones. It causes lots of hardships to people who mainly comprise students, their parents, patients and their relatives,” Sheikh said.
However, he said that recently traffic cops have been deployed to regulate the traffic, which has eased the situation a bit, but this is not enough, considering the gravity of the situation.
Chandrakant Gawas, a motorcycle pilot, said, “The traffic congestion is more in morning and evening time. A lot of hardship is being faced by the people. Earlier situation was not like this. But now more vehicles are seen on the road. This has been due to shifting of educational institutions to Cujira.”
“The flyover has been constructed in the area, but it has not solved the problem. The service road is narrow and that too full of potholes. We lose a substantial amount of time in traffic congestion and sometimes lose customers as well,” Gawas said.
“Now the situation is that the road constructed does not last even one year. Earlier roads used to last even ten years,” he said.
A fruit vendor, who did not wish to be named, said that traffic police have been near the hospital for the last 15 days, but that is mainly on account of the ongoing Assembly session. “Possibly, the number of traffic police deployed here will be reduced once the Assembly session ends. Many of the traffic police deployed in the area are not from the Panjim Traffic Cell,” a police source said.
Meanwhile, Goa Congress President Amit Patkar highlighted the problem of traffic congestion at the GMC tagging Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in a tweet wherein he alleged that alignment of NH 66 was changed at Bambolim to facilitate a company.
“Alignment of NH 66 was changed at Bambolim to facilitate a project of M/s MVR Infra Projects Pvt Ltd, now resulting in traffic congestion,” Patkar said in a tweet on X.
PWD has no study to find a solution for these jams, but action plan considered: CM in Assembly*
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has stated that the PWD has not conducted any study to find a solution for the traffic jams at the location. “Action plan to resolve the traffic jam is under consideration of the State PWD,” he said.
The Chief Minister also said the PWD has no proposal to create a corridor to provide free and direct access to the GMC, especially for the ambulances or vehicles carrying critical patients nor is there any timeline by which the work of providing free and direct access will be completed.
(*In a written reply tabled in the State Assembly)
