Road construction in Goa - A nightmare for commuters

6 March 2010

I have been commuting from Margao to Bambolim for work every day, and I have to say that the road construction that is going on near Verna is driving me crazy. It has been four days since they started digging up the road, but I don’t see any progress. What’s worse, they seem to have no regard for the peak hours of traffic on that route. They start their work at around 9:30 am and continue till late evening, causing massive jams and delays for everyone.

If you are familiar with this road, you would know that 9:00 am to 11:00 am and 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm are the busiest times, when people are going to or coming back from work. You would think that the authorities would plan the construction work accordingly and avoid disrupting the traffic flow during these hours. But no, they seem to be oblivious to the inconvenience and frustration they are causing to thousands of commuters every day.

Today, it took me a whopping one hour and forty minutes to reach Bambolim from Margao, which is usually a 30-minute drive. I was late for an important meeting and had to apologize profusely to my boss and clients. I wonder how many more days I have to endure this torture before they finish the road work.

sigh