Goa Congress leader says negligence of officials, contractors has led to fatal accidents

Congress leader Digambar Kamat on Thursday said that the negligence of officials and contractors has caused many fatal accidents on the national and state highways and called upon Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to immediately direct the PWD officials and contractors to take proper safety measures.

"A tragic fatal accident at Chimbel junction has once again exposed the gross negligence by the government as well as the contractors engaged in the road construction works," Kamat said in a statement.

"The negligence of the officials and contractors has caused many fatal accidents on the national and state highways, wherein innocent peoples lives have been lost. The road condition from Pernem to Mapuca is pathetic and has become an accident-prone stretch. A similar situation arises at Ponda and highways works in Salcete and Canancona taluka," he added.

Kamat, who is Leader of Opposition in the assembly, said that the work of highway expansion was moving at a snail's pace from Patradevi to Pollem.

At some places, the work stands abandoned for months and huge debris on the road and sideways was posing danger to the vehicles.

Kamat said he was surprised that the work on connecting the third Mandovi bridge to Ponda highway has almost come to a standstill with no sign of any progress of the Chimbel junction flyover work.

"The debris below the operational third Mandovi bridge still remains (there) from Panaji to Porvorim, causing a serious hazard to traffic," said Kamat.

The statement said road contractors should be held accountable and responsible to ensure that proper service roads were provided for smooth movement of traffic.

"They need to install signboards wherever diversions are made. There should be night reflector signages all over road stretches where works are presently being done," Kamat said.

"Most of the delineators on the national highways are broken and damaged or uprooted," he said.

He alleged that the government "has completely failed" to remove the potholes from the roads.