Traffic jams at borders

TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The strike call given by the All India Motor Transport Council from Sunday midnight caused chaos at the Goa borders, resulting in passenger vehicles entering Goa more than two-and-half hours behind schedule.
Herald has learnt that vehicles, both trucks and buses, were barred from entering Goa, resulting in major traffic jams at the Maharashtra and Karnataka borders.
A heavy deployment of police force was reported and passengers were left stranded for over two hours.
A member of the Goa interstate bus operators Mario Pereira said, “Buses were allowed to proceed only after pressure was exerted on the transport operators to meet with the government and talk later today.”
It is learnt that the bus operators have decided to withdraw the strike call following an assurance from Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to reduce the taxes and entry tax levied on transport operations to Goa.
As far as taxes on passenger vehicles the same has been hiked by 500 per cent, the bus operators association claims.
Meantime, fear and anxiety of the strike call saw a couple of bus operators from Pune, Mumbai and Karnataka suspending services.
Sources say that there was a reduction in services from across the State by nearly 10 to 15 per cent. Ticket fares soared from 40 to 50 per cent due to shortage of buses in Goa on Monday.
Spot bookings for non-AC passenger buses to Mumbai and Pune were between Rs 700 and Rs 800 as against the normal Rs 500.
The tickets of a few Volvo buses that set out from Goa on Monday night were being sold at close to Rs 800 and Rs 900 and in some cases, even Rs 1,100 per passenger.
Being the peak season, bus operators said that the hike in fares at this time of the year is always on the cards.