ELVINO ARAUJO
Air traffic may have run into problems after the recent bird hit incident, but road traffic outside the Dabolim airport has also encountered turbulent conditions of its own.
Traffic jams outside the new Dabolim Airport Terminal have posed all kinds of problems to the airport officials and traffic police. On any given day after 1 pm, the main road near the airport terminal gets clogged with all kinds of vehicles, with the queue reaching right up to the old airport terminal, as passengers are either being dropped off or picked up from the airport.
The traffic police have been struggling to handle the daily traffic chaos and reckless parking of vehicles has only added to their woes. In a recent incident, the driver of a government vehicle parked the vehicle and disappeared from the site, causing a lot of problem to other vehicles.
After efforts failed to trace the driver, the traffic police finally clamped the front wheel of the vehicle and then had to divert other vehicles from the site.
It was not easy to clamp a government vehicle, given the possible repercussions, but a traffic policeman was pleased that he had upheld the law.
“Whether it is a government or private vehicle, the law is the same for everyone. Just because it was a government vehicle, we could not allow traffic jams to take place especially when we have been facing a lot of problems during peak hours at the airport,” said a traffic policeman who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Besides the haphazard parking of vehicles, regulating traffic has been made equally difficult given the fact that the new airport terminal does not have a parking bay for vehicles. The multi-level parking, which has been constructed, is yet to see the light of day as the airport authority is yet to receive an NOC from the airport security agency to utilise the parking space.
“Some car drivers, who also act as hotel representatives, park their cars and go to receive their guests, which adds to the traffic jam. This situation gets worse when politicians visit the airport,” remarked a taxi driver.
When contacted, Dabolim Traffic PI Naulesh Desai admitted the various difficulties in addressing traffic chaos at the new airport terminal on a daily basis.
“It is a back-breaking exercise to run from one end to the other to manage the traffic jams at the airport. Though such a huge airport has been constructed, there is no parking place for vehicles entering and exiting the new airport terminal,” said Desai.
“Even if you deploy a hundred police personnel, it will still be difficult to manage traffic at the new airport as there is no sufficient place to park vehicles,” added PI Desai.
