The sorry state of the Baga roads are a symbol of the neglected state of roads throughout the state. Bad roads are just one part of the problem that is deterring visitors to Goa
Photo Credits: EDIT main
What a shame! Diwali is gone and Christmas is knocking the doors and yet we haven’t managed to clean up. The roads that lead to Calangute, Baga and Candolim are in alarming stages of malignant despair. The anger and frustration that builds up while negotiating one-ways because the other half of the road is permanently dug up, because of potholes that menace the semblance of roads that remain, diversions without proper signboards, open sewerages, roads blocked up by digging machinery is beyond decent descriptive realms. So, let’s just be good citizens and continue to remain silent and accommodative on being forced “to cooperate” with such arrogant lethargy and obnoxious red tape. What a shame!
Last Friday, driving down to Baga was particularly painful. It had rained suddenly and heavily that evening. The result on the topography of the Calangute-Baga stretch was as drastic as a flash flood. What was once something like a road was now a loosely connected walking trail dotted with mini lakes and mounds of muck. The customary stop-gap (read permanent ) solution of filling up the potholes couldn’t help this time. There were lesser vehicles on the road. Only a few brave souls had ventured out.
A long line of cars and two-wheelers was stalled because of mammoth trenching equipment stored alongside perpetual ditches. Foreigners walked about gingerly tucking on their shorts and dresses, daintily jumping off puddles and good-naturedly waving at impatient drivers. A drunk man had lost his sense of time, place and precariousness and shouted at the top of his lungs for the traffic to move. An uncanny coincidence made the cars crawl ahead at the same time, and this further emboldened him. It was not just maddening to negotiate the road, it was frightening, BP-spiking, prayer-mumbling, silently swearing, resisting the urge of ditching the party and U-turning.
A spate of reports published in September 2015 had criticized the bumpy roads of Baga. Reports said the condition is due to the undertaking of large-scale sewerage work. Contractor Simplex Infrastructure is reportedly using “Trenchless Technology” for the repairs. But, so far, to the eyes and understanding of a simpleton, the technology seems to have resulted in nothing but trenches. This road has taken up a bizarre merry-go-round of being dug up and being refilled along the same spots for more than two years now.
There have been insinuations of differences between panchayat members and MLAs. Calangute MLA Michael Lobo had apologized for the state of affairs. He had also stressed on the need of a revamped sewage system and had requested people to cooperate. Indeed any form of revamp is good if it materializes promptly and transparently. Instead of watering down legit complaints of the vote bank and revenue generators by vague assurances of development, here are some existential questions that every stakeholder must ask and answer ASAP - Who, Does What, When, For What, Who Spends and Who Eats? Enough is enough.
If sewage work is a lame excuse for the main Calangute-Baga Road, there is nothing but blame game and shoulder-shirking for the pathetic state of the road along the Baga Creek. Stubborn neglect has plunged this stretch in such a state of doom that it doesn’t even qualify to be called a road anymore. Just before vehicles climb up a small way-bridge that leads towards one of the Saturday night markets, one side of the path is almost washed out. A head-on collision is waiting to happen here, and at many other spots.
So much for the talks of Goan hospitality! What a shame it is when we take the comfort and security of our guests – who are one of the state’s prime sources of income - for granted. The talk of Baga may bring to mind an image of the unruly quality of influx and the pathetic civic sense of many tourists which may lead to unfair indifference or prejudice when discussing crowded tourist zones. But, these are the people who send out first-hand news about the deterioration of Goa, so we can’t ignore them. Besides , many times it is ultimately this unruly “Indian tourist” who gives boosts of oxygen when the charter flights get cancelled.
People tend to forget more easily than they forgive. Agreed, the same tourists who took an hour to reach their destination may forget their traffic travails as soon as they meet their friends. But, they won’t forgive the frustrating bummer of bad roads. Next time, they will simply fly to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Bali or even Europe. Hey, they may not have the civic sense but they may have the money! And if Goa doesn’t repair her roads two years in a row, they would be better off being somewhere else. But we don’t care, do we? Long live the bumpy roads to Baga
