Passengers miss flights due to massive traffic congestion on Goa highway

Vehicles were stranded for more than three hours in heavy traffic on the national highway connecting Panaji to South Goa and several passengers missed their flight from Dabolim airport on Monday (December 5) morning. Office-goers too could not reach their workplace on time.

The vehicle pile up was due to a minor accident on the bridge over Zuari river.

According to a senior police official, a tempo dashed an SUV on Zuari bridge, around 15 km from Panaji, disrupting vehicular movement in the morning. The traffic was held up for 45 minutes before the two vehicles were towed away by a special crane. However, the traffic congestion continued as vehicles kept queuing up on the national highway and several vehicles were stranded for more than three hours.

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A commuter, who was heading to Panaji from Margao and got stuck in this traffic jam for more than three hours, chose to return home. A PTI report quoted Avit Narvekar, who was travelling to the airport from Panaji, said that he missed his flight to Mumbai. They had left well before time, but they could not reach the airport, he pointed out.

But a senior Airport Authority of India (AAI) official said they had not received any formal complaints about the delay in reaching the airport and missing their flight. The management will seek details of such instances, if any, considering the traffic jam reported on the highway, he added.