New Delhi : Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has called the nearly 15-year delay in widening the Mumbai-Goa Highway a matter of shame. Gadkari said he would instead travel from Mumbai to Goa by road in October to personally inspect the highway and assess whether the journey has actually become more convenient for commuters.
“I would land at the Mumbai airport in October, and travel by road to Goa to personally inspect the highway and assess whether the journey has been made convenient for travellers,” he said. He also said he wanted to “set a record” for blacklisting contractors and taking action against officials responsible for delays and poor execution of infrastructure projects.
The Mumbai-Goa Highway widening project has been under construction for nearly 15 years. Work began in 2011, with the original plan to convert the old two-lane highway into a four-lane road and cut the Mumbai-Goa journey from nearly 12 hours to around six hours. The current status is complicated by the fact that most of the highway is already complete, while several critical stretches, bypasses, bridges and associated works remain unfinished.
The government told Parliament that 465 km of the 485-km Panvel-to-Goa/Maharashtra-border stretch had been four-laned, leaving about 20 km under construction, with a June 2026 completion target. Gadkari now puts the highway’s completion at around 93-94%. Maharashtra officials had similarly estimated completion at roughly 90-95% ahead of the Ganesh festival, while saying the Chiplun bypass would open after the monsoon and the Mangaon bypass was targeted for January 2027.
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