Margao: Buses that skip the Cuncolim bus stand and halt on NH66, and poorly marked entry and exit points for vehicles using it, have turned a Rs 3.5-crore facility into a road safety concern. Nearly two decades after it was inaugurated, the KTC bus stand remains underutilised.The lack of proper signage at the entry and exit has been flagged as a threat to the safety of buses and private vehicles joining or leaving the highway. Many private buses and some Kadamba Transport Corporation Ltd (KTCL) buses do not enter the stand to pick up or drop passengers. They stop outside on NH66 instead, causing frequent traffic jams. Complaints to the traffic police and RTO officials have led to challans being issued to bus drivers, but the problem has persisted.The Cuncolim Civic and Consumer Forum (CCCF) raised the issue at District Consumer Protection Council, arguing that the missing signage amounted to “deficiency of service” by the agencies providing services at the stand. The issue was later flagged at District Road Safety Committee (DRSC), with inadequate signage said to endanger road safety.Earlier this week, the monitoring cell of South Goa DRSC inspected the road entry and exit to the bus stand from NH66. The inspection focused on signage guiding vehicles in and out of the stand. It was also meant to pave the way for lasting solutions, including a notification from the District Collector prohibiting halting and parking in front of the bus stand on NH66. Representatives of PWD, DRSC, transport department and traffic police, and NGO Goacan were present for the inspection.The bus stand, built by the state govt in 2007, won the Aga Khan Award for architecture at the national level in 2012 for its design of two dolphins leaping from the sea. It has ample space for buses to park, a bus timetable on display and a public address system announcing route timings. Yet interstate buses and some private buses plying between Margao and Karwar continue to bypass it.
