Opening Doorz
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By Moody Marty | Opening Doorz Editorial | May 30, 2026 Goa’s pristine charm is being buried under a wave of lawless, reckless tourism that threatens the safety and heritage […]
By Moody Marty | Opening Doorz Editorial | May 30, 2026
Goa’s pristine charm is being buried under a wave of lawless, reckless tourism that threatens the safety and heritage of our state. We must save Goa from reckless tourism by demanding immediate, proactive regulation of our roads and transport infrastructure before more lives are lost.
Dear CM Sawant,
Firstly, let me introduce myself. I am a Goan living in Mumbai. I love Goa; my roots are there, and I love visiting the State. However, for many years now, I drive straight to the ferry at Panjim and cross over to Divar Island for the peace and quiet I long for—the peace and quiet of the Goa of the 70s and 80s.
In those days, during my summer visits, I would go to the beach at Calangute at noon, just to hear the roar of the sea and the sound of the waves. Only the sand and the sea were visible. Today, at noon, on Calangute beach, you will not see a grain of sand—just tourists hopping around as though there is no tomorrow.
Goa (North), as I knew it and as the locals knew it, is long gone. My cousin, who lives in Calangute, dreads New Year’s night. You know what I mean. The festive cheer has been replaced by the roar of unsilenced exhausts, the shattered glass of beer bottles underfoot, and the constant, gnawing fear that a simple drive to the market could be one’s last.
This week, two heart-wrenching instances, both caught on camera, have highlighted our current state of affairs:
May 26, 2026 (Sirlim): Nivia Gomes, 44, was struck by a speeding, rented Thar that overtook traffic from the extreme left—where there is no road. The driver, 19-year-old Swaraj Jagtap, fled the scene, necessitating an attempt-to-murder charge. Nivia was riding in her lane, not expecting a reckless tourist to use the roadside mud as an overtaking lane.
May 29, 2026 (Siolim): Sanket Dabholkar, 32, was struck and killed by a rented Mahindra Thar driven by a tourist. The driver, Yadukrishnan S. Sajaikumar, driving in the wrong direction, was reportedly intoxicated. The collision also left an 11-year-old boy in critical condition.
These are not isolated accidents. According to the Goa Police, 851 accidents were recorded by the end of April 2026, with 66 souls perishing in just those four months. Approximately 95% of these accidents were attributed to sheer, unadulterated recklessness.
Our beaches are turning into glass-strewn landfills, and our village roads have become racetracks for those who believe the laws of civility vanish the moment they cross our borders. Tourism is our lifeblood, but there is a line where hospitality ends, and degradation begins. That line has been crossed.
You will see that the moment most tourists enter Goa, they shed their inhibitions. The ‘anything goes’ attitude is now the primary export of our tourism sector. Walkways have become open-air bars where tourists openly consume alcohol, discarding bottles wherever they please. Drinking on roads and littering must be criminalised with heavy, on-the-spot fines that hurt the pocket enough to change behaviour.
The rental vehicle market in Goa has become the Wild West. It is time to treat rental operators not as shopkeepers, but as gatekeepers of public safety. The Ministry of Transport should immediately mandate the following:
Digital Verification & Liability Ledger: Agencies must integrate with a central police database. Renters with a history of traffic violations or license suspensions must be denied keys. A Liability Undertaking must be digitally logged for every single transaction, ensuring the paper trail is unbreakable.
Mandatory Safety Briefing: No vehicle should be handed over without a 10-minute, documented briefing on Goa’s unique, narrow road conditions, our zero-tolerance alcohol laws, and the strict anti-littering ordinances. If a tourist cannot take 10 minutes to learn the rules, they do not deserve the privilege of a rental.
GPS & Behavioural Monitoring: Every rental vehicle must be fitted with a government-monitored GPS. Automatic alerts must trigger at the local station if a vehicle enters prohibited ecological zones, exceeds speed limits, or lingers inappropriately in residential areas at odd hours.
Operator Liability: Rental agencies must be held co-responsible for the actions of their clients. If a vehicle is involved in a fatal or drunk-driving incident, the agency’s license must be suspended pending an investigation. Bypassing verification protocols must result in the permanent revocation of their business license.
Fitness Certification: For long-term rentals or high-powered bikes—which have become the weapon of choice for reckless youths—an on-site breathalyser test before key handover should be mandatory. If they can’t blow clean, they don’t ride.
While the immediate priority must be the enforcement of law and order, we must also address the sheer volume of private vehicles clogging our roads.
Our current taxi system is a disincentive for responsible, low-impact tourism. Because it remains notoriously unregulated and predatory, many tourists opt for self-drive rentals as a matter of convenience. While this choice in no way justifies the reckless behaviour, speeding, or intoxication we have seen on our roads, it does create an unnecessary saturation of private vehicles.
By aggressively regularising taxi services and mandating the use of transparent, metered fares, we can provide a viable, stress-free alternative for visitors. A professionalised taxi ecosystem would reduce the sheer number of transient drivers navigating our narrow, winding lanes. It is time to make the self-drive option a choice for those capable of handling it, rather than a necessity for every visitor trying to escape the chaos of an unreliable transport sector.
CM Sawant, I am asking you to be the guardian of our safety. We are trading our children’s safety for a quick buck, and we are losing the very soul of what makes Goa, Goa. I am not asking to close our doors; I am asking for those who enter to respect the host.
I do not want tourists who treat our land as a weekend binge destination where the price of a life is cheaper than the cost of a drink.
I look to you for leadership and protection. Please, act now. Before the next headline is about yet another unnecessary death.
Do not let Goa lose its soul.
Martin D’Souza
[Moody Marty: Sometimes funny, sometimes informative, always downright forthright!]
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