MUMBAI: The Mumbai-Goa highway has become a long-running infrastructure headache for Konkan commuters, with the four-laning of 355km in Maharashtra now costing ₹16,909.22 crore — nearly ₹5,500 crore or 48% more than its original sanctioned cost, according to fresh information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.The figures, obtained by RTI activist Jeetendra Ghadge of The Young Whistleblowers Foundation from the Union road transport and highways ministry, cover 10 four-laning packages of NH-66 in Maharashtra. The data shows that ₹11,577 crore has already been spent, exceeding the project’s original sanctioned cost of ₹11,409.14 crore, even though work on some stretches remains incomplete.The sharpest escalation is in the Parshuram Ghat-Arawali package in the Chiplun-Ratnagiri belt. Its sanctioned cost has risen from ₹983 crore to ₹2,226 crore — a 126% increase.For motorists, however, the issue is not merely the size of the bill but what they get for it: stretches of unfinished four-laning, bottlenecks and traffic disruption on a highway that is the principal road link between Mumbai and the Konkan.The Centre began the four-laning work in phases in 2011. Official records have repeatedly cited land-acquisition and other pre-construction delays, clearances and financial difficulties faced by some contractors as reasons for slippage. A 2024 parliamentary reply said the Mumbai-Goa NH-66 project had been delayed by land acquisition, pre-construction activities and contractors’ cash-flow problems.The delays have also drawn judicial scrutiny. In January 2024, the Bombay High Court observed that the prolonged delay in the NH-66 widening and repair works caused hardship to people and added to the burden on the state exchequer through rising construction costs.Who is accountable?Ghadge questioned the division of responsibility for the highway’s execution. While the Panvel-Indapur section is being handled by NHAI, the Maharashtra stretches covered by the RTI are being executed through the state PWD under the national highway programme. Earlier MoRTH records have also identified Maharashtra PWD as the executing agency for the Indapur-Zarap four-laning packages.“When a project of this scale has remained incomplete for nearly 15 years despite thousands of crores being sanctioned and spent, the government must answer a basic question: who is ultimately accountable for the delay?” Ghadge said.He also alleged that the prolonged delays had imposed a continuing human and economic cost on Konkan residents and travellers.The impact becomes particularly visible around Ganeshotsav, when lakhs of Mumbaikars and other residents head towards their ancestral villages in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. A journey that can take around seven hours in normal conditions can stretch much longer when traffic converges on unfinished stretches, narrow carriageways and construction zones.The highway has also seen repeated missed deadlines. In March 2023, Union minister Nitin Gadkari had said the highway would be completed by December 2023 and opened fully by January 2024. In a 2025 parliamentary reply, the revised completion target was September 2025, with the government citing land acquisition, pre-construction activities and contractors’ cash-flow problems.A 2026 parliamentary response subsequently said about 465km of the roughly 485km Panvel-Goa/Maharashtra-border section had been four-laned, with the balance 20km targeted for completion by June 2026; it cited land-related hindrances, clearances and slow contractor progress for delays.The Samruddhi contrastThe prolonged Mumbai-Goa highway saga is particularly striking when viewed alongside the 701km Samruddhi Mahamarg, a completely new expressway developed by Maharashtra. The project was inaugurated in phases, with the first 520km opening in December 2022; the full corridor is 701km.For Konkan travellers, therefore, the latest RTI figures raise a simple question beyond cost escalation: after years of revisions, deadlines and expenditure, when will the promised four-lane highway deliver the safer, predictable journey it was meant to provide?Meanwhile officials clarified that, “Panvel to Indapur, 84 Km stretch was started in 2011 by NHAI, while Indapur to Zarap, 355 km in 10 packages was started in 2018 by MoRTH through NH PWD as their agency.”
