MAPUSA
Porvorim’s long-awaited six-lane elevated corridor finally began carrying traffic on Friday evening – nearly two hours behind schedule – with the delayed opening triggering queues of eager motorists and a brief traffic snarl on the NH66 and adjoining service roads.
Scheduled to open at 4 pm, the 5.15-km corridor was thrown open only around 6.20 pm, after dismantling of temporary structures put up for Wednesday’s inauguration and cleaning of the elevated carriageways were completed.
PWD Minister Digambar Kamat flagged off the opening from the Panaji side, while Dr Sidney Pinto Do Rosario flagged off traffic from the Socorro side, with both carriageways opening almost simultaneously.
The irony was not lost on motorists: a corridor built to ease one of Goa’s most notorious traffic bottlenecks began its first evening with queues of vehicles waiting to get onto it.
Several cars and two-wheelers had lined up on the Socorro side for nearly 40 minutes before the opening, while a long queue of vehicles built up on the Atal Setu waiting for traffic to be allowed onto the elevated corridor.
Once the barricades were removed and vehicles began moving, traffic on the elevated structure itself flowed smoothly. However, the accumulated queues spilled onto the NH66 and service roads, resulting in a brief traffic jam.
With the main carriageway clogged by vehicles waiting for the opening, some motorists diverted onto the service roads, adding to congestion along the ground-level roads.
PWD (NH) Executive Engineer Gajanan Desai attributed the delay to the post-inauguration clearing work.
“Dismantling of some structures erected during the inauguration and cleaning of the corridor led to a delay of nearly two hours,” Desai said.
He said the queues were also a result of motorists waiting to be among the first to cross the elevated corridor.
DySP Traffic North Goa Sudesh Narvekar said that barring the initial congestion, traffic movement on the corridor remained smooth and no major problem areas had been detected.
However, he flagged the need for permanent barricading at the Panaji-side entry, where vehicles coming from the service road merge with traffic entering the elevated corridor.
“At present, we have erected temporary barricades, but PWD has been informed to do the needful,” Narvekar said.
The first evening of operations thus offered an early glimpse of both the promise and the challenges of the elevated corridor. While traffic on the six-lane structure moved without major disruption once it opened, the manner in which vehicles merge onto it – particularly from the service roads – will remain a key point for traffic managers as motorists and commuters settle into the new route.
For Porvorim, where years of congestion have made the NH66 stretch a daily pain point, the real test of the elevated corridor will begin in the coming days, when the novelty wears off and traffic volumes return to their normal levels.
