Panaji: A fatal accident on the newly inaugurated six-lane Porvorim elevated corridor on Saturday paralysed traffic on both sides of the national highway, exposing bottlenecks and traffic-flow issues on the project.The snarl coincided with the weekend rush, with many locals heading home to begin Ganesh Chaturthi festivities. Vehicles were backed up on the Atal Setu, while traffic on the Mapusa-Panaji road was also affected as personnel from the directorate of fire and emergency services and Goa police worked to clear the debris and vehicles involved in the collision.“I left Ribandar at 6pm to head to Calangute for a religious function but because of the jam on Atal Setu I reached late, well after 7.20pm. There were no police personnel to regulate traffic. There is a bottleneck at the Neo Majestic casino junction where traffic coming from Porvorim is trying to merge with the flyover while taxis and tourists going to Calangute are trying to exit towards the old road,” said Karl Carvalo.The elevated corridor was intended to ease traffic and cut the commute along the 5.5km Porvorim-Guirim stretch to about five minutes. However, motorists said bottlenecks at the flyover’s entry and exit points had emerged as congestion spots, with the narrow approaches posing difficulties for large trailer trucks and other vehicles.Tourism minister and Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte said some initial teething problems with traffic flow were expected and would be addressed in consultation with the authorities.“Whatever learnings come, people’s suggestions come, we will talk about to the concerned PWD authorities and see where improvement can be done. We should give some time to see how things work because it has just been opened. We need to give some time for everything to settle down,” Khaunte told reporters near the O’Coqueiro junction.Motorists also identified two major bottlenecks: the flyover exit near Porvorim police station and the Merces junction.“It would be important for the govt to look at finding a way to connect the Atal Setu Mandovi bridge directly to NH66 without routing traffic through the Merces circle. That, in my opinion, could make a significant difference to the overall traffic flow and allow the full benefit of the elevated corridor to be realised. That said, this may simply be an initial adjustment period. I’m hopeful things will fall into place and the overall flow of traffic will become much smoother,” said Julio Cardozo, a Canacona resident.
