Team Herald
PANJIM: It was like a repeat show at the Zuari bridge on Sunday. The chaotic situation which began around 1.45 pm, continued till 10 pm as commuters were stuck in the small stretch from Hyundai at the Verna plateau till the Agassaim bypass. Passengers were literally stuck for more than two hours between the stretch.
“It was a nightmare on a Sunday. We cannot understand what caused the traffic jam. Perhaps it was the passengers travelling to Vasco, specially to Dabolim which created the mess at the Cortalim junction,” said Stephen Dias, who had gone to visit one of his relatives in Colva.
Several tourist vehicles marching towards the airport with passengers found themselves in fix with vehicles moving at snail pace. Though, traffic police deployed at the site tried their best to ensure smooth vehicular flow, the situation was out of control.
The two-wheelers made the traffic move slower as they attempted to overtake the vehicles on the wrong side.
Another commuter who was lucky to take few minutes was relieved to reach the Zuari Bridge and reached the highway in Agassaim, said. “We were caught up for about 15 minutes whilst returning from Margao where we had gone to visit our cousin whose funeral was today at 3.30pm. Thinking there might be traffic jam at Zuari Bridge we decided to skip the funeral and started our journey back around 12.30pm. At the Cortalim junction we didn’t see any traffic police but noticed them in a shade, perhaps taking their lunch,” she said on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has given three-day deadline to the government to address the chaotic situation on Zuari Bridge failing which it will agitate at the site.
“Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is busy in Panjim by-election to save his government, which has resulted in collapse of administration and chaotic situation on Zuari Bridge on regular basis. we give three days deadline for the government to solve this crucial issue, which is affecting the commuters on Zuari Bridge, especially office-goers, students and also fliers who leave for Dabolim Airport to catch their flights,” GPCC President Girish Chodankar said.
He warned that if government fails to address the issue by Wednesday, Congress party would be forced to agitate at the bridge by walking across it to protest the utter failure of administration.
“The people crossing this bridge have been forced to go through traffic jam for almost 2-3 hours on daily basis since last 15 days. Government has failed to provide solution to the issue giving a clear signal that they don’t care for common people,” he further said alleging that the traffic jam is purely due to failure of administration headed by Sawant.
“The Chief Minister should have handed over the charge to someone else, if he could not handle such an important responsibility. The people are frustrated as similar jams were witnessed in the past and issue was resolved only after Congress intervened through their protest,” Chodankar added.
