Goa: Massive traffic jam on highway; people miss flight, office goers inconvenienced

Panaji: Vehicles were stranded for more than three hours in heavy traffic on the national highway connecting Panaji to South Goa due to a minor accident on the bridge over Zuari river on Monday morning.

Several passengers missed their flight from Dabolim airport, while office-goers were inconvenienced as they could not reach their workplace on time.

A tempo dashed an SUV on Zuari bridge, around 15 km from Panaji, disrupting vehicular movement in the morning, a senior police official said.

The traffic was held up for 45 minutes before the two vehicles were towed away by a special crane. But the congestion continued as vehicles kept queuing up on the national highway, he said.

Several vehicles were stranded for more than three hours.

“We were heading to Panaji from Margao when we got stuck in a traffic jam for more than three hours. We chose to return home, as the congestion was heavy and there was no possibility of crossing the bridge," said Kedar Mapexencar, a real estate professional, who was stranded in the traffic with his children.

Avit Narvekar, who was travelling to the airport from Panaji, said that he missed his flight to Mumbai. "We left well before time, but could not reach the airport," he said.

When contacted, a senior Airport Authority of India (AAI) official said they had not received any formal complaints about the delay in reaching the airport.

"We have not received any formal complaint about passengers missing their flight," the official said, adding that the management will seek details of such instances, if any, considering the traffic jam reported on the highway.