Nitin Gadkari To Skip Mumbai-Goa Highway Inauguration Over 15-Year Delay

Union Road Transport and Highways has voiced disappointment over the delayed widening of as he has said that he will not attend the inauguration of the project even after completion.

Gadkari, who inaugurated a separate six-lane elevated road corridor at Porvorim near Panaji on Wednesday, said he was keen to take a road trip from Mumbai to Goa in October to personally check the state of the highway and find out if the widened road has made commuters’ journey easier.

Gadkari said that the highway expansion project has been left incomplete for almost 15 years and has left him embarrassed.

He reaffirmed his decision to not attend the inauguration due to the long delays. He, however, would land in Mumbai airport in October and make the trip to Goa on the road, he said.

The minister also vowed to hold accountable contractors and officials involved in the delays and inefficiency.

Gadkari said he was trying to achieve “a record” in blacklisting contractors and suspending officials responsible for failure of the infrastructure projects.

This widening project has been started in 2011 to improve the highway from a two-lane to a four-lane highway. The initial plan was to cut down on the journey time between Mumbai and Goa from almost 12 hours to around 6 hours.

The project was originally planned to be completed in 2016 but the deadlines have been missed.

Figures presented to Parliament by the government in February showed that 465 km of the 485 km of Panvel to Goa/Maharashtra border roads had been upgraded to four lanes with about 20 km yet to be completed. The rest of the work was scheduled to be finished by June 2026.

Gadkari has now projected that the overall level of completion is of around 93-94%. Earlier, officials from Maharashtra had pegged progress at about 90-95% ahead of the celebrations of the Ganesh festival.

There are a few key elements that are still to be finished, such as bypasses, bridges and other structures. The Chiplun bypass is expected to be opened after the monsoon and the Mangaon bypass has been set for January 2027.

The highway was broken into several sections for construction, with some sections being further along than others.

The Centre has earlier referenced land acquisition issues, environmental and other statutory clearances, contractor defaults and slow delivery as some of the reasons for the delay.

The project has also been criticised on the quality of some stretches completed.

Meanwhile, the first monsoon rains this year reportedly created potholes and damage to several sections of the newly upgraded road. The commuters have still been experiencing road closures, puddling, repair operations and traffic jams.

Even in another safety related issue, an overpass was built near the Kannala Animal Sanctuary in 2021 and collapsed.

According to recent sources, the Mumbai-Goa Highway expansion has cost around Rs 16,000 crore so far.

Despite the extensive investments, some sections are still not completed and commuters on the line suffer from poor road conditions and bottlenecks.

Toll collection at the Kharpada toll plaza between Panvel and Pen began in May, even as some widening, bridge and bypass works were still underway.

The bigger plan is to form a stretch of Road connecting Panvel and Goa/Maharashtra state border.

When complete, the upgraded corridor will ease congestion, enhance road safety and make the journey through the Konkan a smoother and more predictable experience.

There are bypasses, bridges, flyovers and other structures built to bypass towns and difficult sections of road where there is through traffic.

Some of these structures have been designed with greater capacity than the main highway. The 1.84-km Chiplun flyover, for instance, is being constructed as a six-lane structure despite the main Mumbai-Goa corridor being expanded to four lanes.

As a result, the new highway will improve the connectivity between Mumbai, Konkan and Goa and may facilitate tourism and economic activities on the route.

Gadkari’s proposed journey on the roads in October will give him the chance to experience the project for himself and find out if the much-anticipated expansion has brought the much-longed-for quiet roads that promise a better travel experience to commuters.