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ELEVATED HIGHWAY TO HELL!
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ELEVATED HIGHWAY TO HELL!

Cover Story, Sept 19- Sept 25, 2026 September 18, 2026 , by

The inauguration of the elevated corridor in Porvorim was fast-tracked by PWD Minister Digambar Kamat and Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte. Both of them ignored safety concerns raised by the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court and the Traffic Police. The original date for opening was December 19, 2026. The premature opening has exposed the faulty design including the approach ways at the Neo Majestic Hotel plus casino side, and the lack of traffic signals and signage. The urgency was not because of the Ganesh festival. Digambar Kamat was afraid that the BJP government would not be able to take the credit if it was inaugurated in December, as the Code of Conduct for the 2027 election would have come into force preventing the inauguration.

THE elevated 15 km six-lane elevated highway or corridor was originally scheduled to be completed in April. Mid-way it was discovered that the piling foundation was not deep enough and the deadline was extended to October. According to the original timetable announced by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant the Porvorim six-lane highway was to be inaugurated only on December 19, 2026 on Liberation Day. The project was presented as a landmark movement for Goa intended to smoothen the passage through one of the state’s most congested stretches of the National Highway No.66.
The opening of the elevated corridor was rushed through invoking the name of Lord Ganesh. The PWD Minister Digambar Kamat, who has turned extra religious after rejoining the BJP, insisted on the super highway being opened on September 11, on the eve of the 11-day Chovoth festival. To make it easier for Lord Ganesh to travel from Panjim to Mapusa and beyond.
At the inauguration in the presence of the “Highway Man” Nitin Gadkari, DigambarKamat boasted about how the elevated highway will improve the connectivity to both Mopa airport and Dabolim airports. Instead, within 24 hours of the opening of the highway, there was a fatal accident at the Neo-Majestic exit point on the highway. Tragically, two people died and traffic was thrown into chaos. Motorists complained about bottlenecks at the entry and exit points.
Questions are being also raised about the absence of traffic signals merging arrangements, traffic control and the preparedness of the approach roads. Clearly, the opening was fast-tracked under political pressure from local MLA Rohan Khaunte and PWD Minister Digambar Kamat. Both the stalwarts ignored the warnings of the Goa bench of the high court and the traffic police.
After the tragedy the PWD Minister Digambar announced that the Indian Institute of Management in Nagpur had been appointed to study the traffic pattern. The IIM Nagpur is a newly minted management institute with no special expertise even in civil engineering leave alone alignment and flow of traffic. Digambar Kamat promptly barred two-wheelers from the elevated highway. Even more shockingly movement of cars, 4-wheelers, through the access roads near the Neo Majestic was suspended.

PREMATURE OPENING
CLEARLY the traffic system was not geared for the premature opening of the elevated super corridor. This was dictated not by safety concerns but by political and Ganesh festival related compulsions. Let us look at the chronology of the fast forward inauguration of the six-lane elevated highway link. The original construction schedule of the contractor was Oct 26. A write petition was pending before the court over the safety of the corridor. The high court had sought a safety audit and a compliance report by September 26. There is no evidence on record that a safety audit was done and a green signal obtained. This is ironic as a so called expert safety engineering firm coincidentally from Nagpur had been appointed to check all aspects of the safety including approach roads traffic signals and traffic control as a prelude to the opening of the bridge. The original time frame for load testing of the highway was November for the inauguration in December 2026.
 There were issues during the construction of the corridor. A slab of the construction had fallen blocking the access road. There were complaints of dust pollution. It was Digambar Kamat who compelled the UP-based contractor to complete work on the corridor in time for Ganesh Chaturthi. The Tourism and IT Minister Rohan Khaunte proudly claimed he had persistently followed up with the PWD and the contractor for faster completion. The Bombay high court in Goa has been monitoring public interest litigation concerning the Porvorim elevated corridor. The PIL had raised questions about construction hazards dust pollution and road safety issues.

COMPREHENSIVE REPORT?
IN August 2026 the high court was told that a comprehensive report would be placed before it on the exact state of compliance. The report was to be tabled in the high court on Sept 21. The PWD was expected to submit a color coded map showing the approach roads. Even before the compliance report could the submitted on Sept 21 the inauguration was rushed through on Sept 11. Why was a major public roadway opened before the government had placed the court-directed comprehensive status of the corridor and connected service roads on record? A separate court-directed review had identified the open trenches, inadequate barricading, disorderly parking during the earlier construction state itself.
The traffic police had repeatedly warned against the premature opening of the Porvorim corridor. Before opening the Traffic Cell had asked the PWD to implement a series of measures to prevent accidents and ensure orderly traffic movement. The police had asked for installation of traffic signals at the Succor- Sangolda junction, Holy Family School and Church, O’Coqueiro and the Neo Majestic junction — where the accident had happened.
Indeed, the Traffic Cell had identified Hotel Majestic as a particularly dangerous accident zone. The warning was that traffic emerging from the elevated corridor and traffic using the existing road would converse before Atal Sethu. The resulting criss-crossing movement could increase the risk of accidents. The police recommended channelizers to organize the weaving of vehicles and appropriate directional sign boards. The warning is important as Hotel Majestic is where the elevated corridor begins and ends on the Panjim side. The Traffic Police had warned that the speed and volume of vehicles coming of the elevated highway could create a conflict at the Majestic point. This is precisely what happened on September12, the day after the opening of the corridor.
The Traffic Cell also identified the TICO diesel pump area. The concern was that the vehicles travelling on the existing service road from Porvorim to Mapusa would have to merge with traffic descending from the elevated corridor. That the vehicles leaving the elevated corridor could be approaching the merger point at high speed. The police had recommended dedicated corridors for two-wheelers. They had recommended warning signs. The Traffic Cell had recommended geometric re-alignment at danger points like the Teachers Training College taking into account the educational institutions at this point. The sequence of events leading to the accident reveal that the police warnings were ignored.
On the second day of operation a car travelling from Guirim towards Panjim on the new elevated highway reached the Majestic Hotel exit. The car struck a scooter from behind and collided with a truck which was entering the highway from a service lane. The scooter rider and one occupant of the car died. Another occupant was injured. The Traffic Police had warned about merging and crisscrossing traffic around Hotel Majestic. This establishes a striking similarity between a pre-opening police identified risk and post opening fatal collusion.

UNFINISHED CORRIDOR
THE Traffic Police had recommended installation of signals at six junctions on NH No. 66. They were installed but not activated before the opening. The police had asked for clear signage to control the flow of traffic emerging at Hotel Majestic. This was not done. The police had suggested advanced direction sign boards at the merging point of Hotel Majestic and Atal Setu traffic. This was not done. Even the roadside construction rubble was not removed. The hot mixing was still going on, on the day of inauguration. There were no rumble strips. The PWD has acknowledged that before opening the traffic lights at critical junctions had not be activated. The proposed CCTV cameras were not yet installed.
 Instead, we have a panicky PWD minister ordering the installation of the high speed corridor radar to check the speed of the 80,000 vechicles which would use the elevated corridor reportedly. Ironically, on Sept 5, four days before the VIP inauguration and six days before the Rohan Khaunte celebration party, the PWD published a tender for urgent repair of various roads connecting the elevated corridor at Guirim, CHOGM and New Majestic junctions.
Not surprisingly the Union Minister for National Highways Nitin Gadkari chose to take a virtual ride and not a real ride on the corridor. It is not as though the government did not get warning of the impending disaster. On March 10, 2026 the work on the corridor was raised in the Goa Legislative Assembly. The residents of Porvorim had raised concerns about entries and exits. The Assembly called for proper merging of the concerned lanes and adequate side distance. All the warnings of the Assembly, the residents, the Traffic Police, the high court and the PWD engineers themselves were ignored. The safety consultant HIVISTA Project Ltd was not taken into confidence about the premature opening of the elevated corridor highway. No safety clearance had been granted and even the safety audit had not been conducted. There is no record of the safety audit before the high court. So much so it was a disaster waiting to happen.
IT IS time to fix the responsibility for the premature opening of the elevated corridor. The father of the 2-wheeler accident victim was prevented from filing a complaint for culpable homicide against PWD Minister Digambar Kamat and Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte.

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