​Complete repairs, road widening at Porvorim before Dec 5: Khaunte

Panaji: Irked by the lack of coordination and the traffic congestion at Porvorim, tourism minister Rohan Khaunte held a review meeting where he called on the PWD, traffic police, and other department officials to address the challenges faced by commuters.

Khaunte said that vehicles transiting through Porvorim towards Calangute and Mapusa are likely to increase three-fold in Dec. “In the last couple of weeks, the traffic increased, but the action that the traffic police and the contractor should have taken to handle the increased traffic is not seen. Coordination between departments like water supply, sewerage, police, and electricity still needs to be improved,” said Khaunte.

At the review meeting, Khaunte directed officials with the highway construction to complete all the road repairs and expansion by Dec 5. “The pace of road repairs and widening needs to be increased. The road widening that was promised did not happen as promised. Our new roads, Chogm Road, need to be expedited. I have asked them to come back in 10-15 days with an answer and solutions,” said Khaunte.

Khaunte said that residents and he are ready to “tolerate to a point, but beyond that” laxity will not be condoned. “The way the tourists are coming in now with the season opening up, will see three times the minimum traffic that is there today. We have to be ready for the tourism season and traffic that will come,” he said.

Highlighting some critical areas, Khaunte said the road has to be widened from Chogm Road to Damian de Goa. He said that the bottlenecks near the Holy Family School and the Holy Family Church junction need to be resolved, and the deployment of additional traffic signals and police personnel is required.