Workers repairing the expansion joints of the new Patto bridge in Panaji on Wednesday.
PANAJI:
Work being executed on the Patto bridges left Traffic entering Panaji city, including the convoy of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, in chaotic snarls for hours on Wednesday.
Workers were repairing the expansion joints of both the new Patto bridges meant for incoming and outgoing traffic from the city. During the peak of the monsoon season this year, large crevices had developed along these expansion joints and a temporary arrangement had been made by covering it with steel plates.
The repair work had begun on Tuesday night which spilled over to Wednesday.
The queue of bumper to bumper traffic extended right up to the KTC bus-stand and beyond and the chaos which began before noon eased out only in the late afternoon hours.
Meanwhile, North Goa Collector, Sneha Gite, IAS, has issued a temporary road closure notice for traffic leading into Panaji during the night hours from 10 pm to 6 am until November 12 to facilitate the repairs of the expansion joints of the Patto bridge.
A statement issued by the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) said: "District Magistrate, North Goa has ordered for the temporary road closure/diversion of Patto bridge leading towards Panaji city to carry out works of the damaged expansion joints and lubricate the bearings of the bridge from November 5 to 12 from 10 pm to 6 am.
