Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre Ph:2252660
Website: www.goadesc.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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----------------------------------------------------------- Roadmap from for Making Goa's Roads Safe ----------------------------------------------------------- by Nandkumar Kamat
When I received an invitation to participate in an open forum on the accident scenario in Goa organised by Rotary Club, Panaji and Goa peoples' forum, I immediately accepted it because this is an issue of life and death and needs wide public attention. With the number of vehicles reaching a critical point and considering the high density of roads, Goa has indeed become a hazardous state for driving.
There is a multiplicity of departments involved in the planning, maintaining the roads and highways and in traffic management and road safety. Roads, highways and intersections are poorly designed and it is absolutely a free-for-all situation without any consideration towards the safety of drivers and passengers.
I would give here a list of random observations which need immediate attention of the government. The immediate need is to clear all the wild vegetation blocking the smooth flow of traffic and covering the shoulders of the roads and highways. We have not noticed any substantial activity on this front despite the PWD having a record number of 101 subdivisions to attend to various types of work.
This has to be immediately followed by the strengthening of the eroded road shoulders affected by monsoon drainage. Then comes the most important aspect of checking the surface of all major roads and highways. A pothole filled with water is an invitation to disaster at night.With a lot of fanfare, a jet patching machine had been purchased. Where is it lying and how frequently has it been used?
On several major roads, the surface has been eroded exposing the corruption in certifying the work on hot-mixing of these roads. The Sanquelim to Keri-Sattari road has been highlighted as a concrete case in this regard. If the government machinery is lying idle, then the people should survey and report to the PWD all such roads where the surface has been dangerously eroded.
The lives of citizens are more precious than the funds which are always found insufficient to maintain the roads. Ministers visit foreign countries and praise their policies and infrastructure. But they become blind and deaf when they travel on the roads of Goa. If they really mean business, the first priority of the transport, revenue and PWD ministers has to be the prompt removal all the Encroachments on the public roads.
Consistent with the Highways Act and the directives of the high court, clear all the hoardings which have been illegally permitted to be erected within 50 metres from the median of the roads.
Governments have changed. Ministers have changed. Surveys had been
conducted. But for unknown reasons, the state government often develops
cold feet in removing the obstructions and encroachments on roads. It is
again a free-for-all situation for private parties to link their private roads at
dangerous angles to the main road. Such illegal intersections called 'punctures'
are contributing to a large number of accidents.
The government would fail to produce any significant number of notices to all these offending private parties who carry their business on busy roads oblivious of traffic safety norms.
Is it not the work of the road safety unit to pinpoint such 'punctures' and
direct the appropriate authorities at panchayat and municipal level to close
them and block these private abutments? If one travels the length and width
of Goa, the illegal transformation of private footpaths and bullock cart tracks
into dangerous intersections would be observed. Such chaos does not exist
in countries which our ministers visit.
Which authority monitors the dumping of construction materials and building
debris on public roads? Having written previously about the absence of a road
-digging policy, I would only say that the activity to dig the roads to lay water
mains and optical fibre cables has considerably damaged the roads. Several
accidents have occurred on stretches of roads and highways weakened by
the road-digging activity. The excavated trenches and pits have not been
properly filled and compacted and the government has treated this matter
very casually.
The effective way of stray cattle management is to make it compulsory for the cattle owners to register their heads of cattle from a specific date and put a permanent registration plate with all details around the neck of the animals. The animal husbandry department is hesitating to take this simple step which would discipline the cattle owners. It would reduce the stray animals by 70 per cent.
The government must contract the work of capturing and auctioning the unregistered stray cattle found roaming on roads anywhere in Goa to a private party by framing clear rules. The horns and hinds of the cattle need to be compulsorily painted with a standard, non-erodable red fluorescent paint so that the drivers would be adequately forewarned.
Bad road alignments, dangerous road intersections, hairpin bends and U-shaped curves and obstructed line of sight are some of the areas which need planned improvements. None of the roads are pedestrian-friendly so many people get killed while walking on or crossing the roads.
Porvorim had zebra-type pedestrian crossings very recently and box type RCC underground crossings were built at Verna, Nuvem and Navelim only last year. Hundreds of such crossings would save hundreds of lives. Cities like Panaji, Margao, Mapusa and Vasco need many such underground pedestrian crossings.
The RTO should come down with a heavy hand on vehicle owners carrying dangerous goods without safety provisions. Carrying filled LPG cylinders, ladders, poles, pipes, glass panels on two-wheelers is dangerous and has to be banned. There is specified limit for projection of goods beyond the body of the vehicle. But this is flouted in Goa.
Overloading, overcrowding, drunken driving, overtaking, exceeding speed limits,
driving while using the cellphone, use of blinding headlights and halogen lamps
-these are areas of traffic discipline and both the government and society have
to act on these matters.
If speed limits were to be observed voluntarily then Goa would have been a state without speed-breakers. Many speed-breakers cause two-wheeler accidents because there are inadequate signals to warn the drivers. You experience this between Mapusa to Valpoi and Mollem to Ponda. A majority of traffic signs near highways have rusted or have got covered by vegetation. Better and prominent traffic signs as displayed in the city of Panaji would change the roadscape of Goa and make it traffic-friendly.
NGOs like MARG are active in sensitising the people over issues of a healthy road culture and traffic safety. So, we need results from the concerned ministers on this issue within a year. People would fully co-operate with them if they are really serious. ---------------------------------------------------- The Navhind Times 29/9/03 page 10 ----------------------------------------------------
======================================= GOA DESC RESOURCE CENTRE Documentation + Education + Solidarity 11 Liberty Apts., Feira Alta, Mapusa, Goa 403 507 Tel: 2252660 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] website: www.goadesc.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Working On Issues Of Development & Democracy =======================================
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