Panaji: An IIM Nagpur team inspected the new six-lane elevated corridor at Porvorim to assess traffic movement after vehicles were barred from using the entry and exit on the Hotel Majestic side following an accident. With two-wheelers also prohibited on the flyover, traffic has been forced onto the service roads below, triggering congestion and frustration among commuters and residents.PWD minister Digambar Kamat said a revised traffic arrangement would be finalised once the IIM team submits its report. “It will all depend on the report given by the team. If they provide the report by Sunday, a review will be carried out based on the findings on the day itself,” Kamat told TOI.Pressure to act is expected to intensify as the Ganesh Chaturthi holidays end on Monday, when schoolchildren and office-goers return to regular schedules. With the current restrictions still in place, service roads are anticipated to face heavy choking during peak hours.Tourism minister and Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte also said a solution would be worked out at the earliest. According to sources, officials are considering allowing at least limited use of the Hotel Majestic-side entry and exit points to ease the congestion currently being witnessed.The present arrangement has drawn severe criticism from multiple quarters. Leader of the opposition Yuri Alemao called it “unplanned development”, saying Porvorim residents endured prolonged construction with little to show for it. “Porvorim residents have suffered during the construction, for what? It is shocking and shameful,” he said.Residents have also complained that the traffic plan prevents locals from accessing the flyover effectively. Aldona MLA Carlos Ferreira described the structure as a “death trap”, alleging that entry and exit points are inadequate and that service lane widths near these points do not meet Indian Road Congress standards. He also said the flyover lacks the required up and down ramps for safe access, questioning why planners and engineers did not address these issues.Separately, Nandkumar Kamat, a scientist and public policy expert, questioned the decision to appoint IIM Nagpur to review the traffic arrangement. In a letter to the PWD chief engineer, he said publicly available records show no verifiable prior consultancy work by IIM Nagpur in road-traffic engineering, junction design, signal phasing, flyover-terminal management, or road-safety auditing, arguing its strengths lie elsewhere. He urged govt to clarify the selection, disclose the consultancy’s terms of reference, and identify the qualified transportation engineers responsible for technical recommendations, adding that engineering decisions on lane geometry, sight distance, rumblers, barriers, signal placement, and safety validation should be handled by experienced traffic and highway engineers.
