The State administration has ambitious plans to widen important national highway roads in the State. They have been working hard to stick to their plans as more and more roads are getting wider by the day. However, when it comes to improving certain stretches of road which are infamous for accidents, they turn a blind eye. Records obtained from the traffic department prove that the concerned department did nothing about these particular accident hotspots. The proposals made by the traffic cell of the Goa Police, six years ago to construct speed-breakers at the Birla-Titan junction therefore, are yet to be materialised, leaving motorists with the risk of facing accidents regularly.
According to records, on July 28, 2009, the DySp of traffic, South Goa, on the basis of the report submitted by the traffic cell in-charge in vasco, submitted a proposal to the District Magistrate seeking his consent to construct four speed-breakers at Birla cross and Titan junction keeping in mind the number of accidents that occur on the said stretch of road.
On June 3, 2010, another reminder was sent to the same concerned authority citing the fact that on April 20, 2010, a pedestrian was killed on the spot after a tanker driver rammed into him. In the same report, the DySp also pointed out the proposal to construct speed-breakers at all the spots identified by the local traffic cell for which notifications were still pending.
Unfortunately, speed-breakers weren’t constructed at these T-junction roads and now with the increase in motor traffic in the last five years, the number or accidents have also increased by a fair margin.
Taking cognizance of the increasing accidents at the site, the PI of the traffic cell, Vasco on July 7, 2014 changed the proposal and this time proposed to install electronic traffic signals. However, even this proposal lies gathering dust in the government’s file cabinets.
Taking into consideration the above information, it appears that the safety of citizens on the roads hasn’t been given much importance by the government.
Meanwhile, the situation on the ground has become serious. Today, both these junctions – Birla cross which is a cross road and Titan junction, which is a T-junction have become virtual death traps and commuters, as well as pedestrians crossing these roads face a high risk of accidents.
“One can see a mad rush at both these junctions during peak hours when workers either come to IDC or leave after work hours. On our request, the traffic police have been sending their staff to control traffic. However, many times, drivers proceeding towards Panjim from Margao or vice versa don’t bother to adhere to the traffic police and continue driving at speed. Therefore, the Verna Industries Association requested for proper traffic signals at both these junctions which have an access road to Verna IDC. As per information, the traffic cell made a proposal but the PWD highway division rejected it. I feel that before something major occurs, the state government should intervene and install signals at these points,” said Damodar Kochkar, president of Verna Industries Association.
These issues were even brought to the notice of the Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar on August 21, wherein members of VIA had appraised the CM on the danger faced by citizens working at Verna IDC. Surprisingly, the CM assured to take up the issue along with other issues but 90 days have passed after the assurance was made but no action has been taken yet.
Reports obtained from concerned authorities reveal that from 2009 till 2014, a total of 79 accidents have been reported at both these junctions while the number from 2014 to 2015 is yet to be ascertained. The question is when the traffic PI, Vasco traffic cell, Sudesh Narverkar himself submits his report, endorsed by his higher-ups that both these junctions have been identified as accident hotspots, then what makes the concerned authorities no impose some sort of correction and stop the loss of innocent lives?
It is a fact that there would be hardly anyone in Goa who hasn’t felt the danger from heavy traffic movement while passing through these roads. From political leaders to people in bureaucracy and from rich to the poor, everyone at some point would’ve felt the danger from these spots. Whether it is a lack of will or other technical issues, one thing is for certain. These junctions need to be monitored for safety or many more will lose their lives.
