MUMBAI: The long-pending expansion of the Mumbai–Goa national highway, a key corridor linking the state capital to the Konkan region, continues to be held up by six major bottlenecks—four flyovers and two bypass roads—though officials say relief will come in stages.
The project to widen the two-lane highway to four lanes began in 2013. The 84-km Panvel–Kasu–Indapur stretch, being executed by the National Highways Authority of India, is nearly complete and offers relatively smooth travel. Traffic woes, however, intensify beyond Indapur.
The much longer Indapur–Zarap section, spanning nearly 470 km, is being handled directly by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Officials said the biggest hurdles here are the 3-km Indapur bypass and the 7-km Mangaon bypass. Although both were included in the original contract, delays forced the ministry to float fresh tenders about six months ago. Work has now begun, but completion is unlikely before March 2027—keeping Mumbai–Goa travel time at eight to nine hours instead of the promised six.
Motorists face frequent snarls at Indapur and Mangaon, especially during peak hours, with damaged road surfaces worsening congestion. Authorities said existing roads through both towns have been widened temporarily to ease traffic, but commuters complain that local and through traffic intersect, causing jams.
Beyond Mangaon, road conditions improve significantly. Widening work is progressing well, and the stretch from Parshuram Ghat to Zarap is almost ready. However, slow construction of four flyovers—at Lanja, Nivali, Pali and Sangameshwar, each about 800 metres long near Ratnagiri—has disrupted traffic for nearly two years. MoRTH officials said these flyovers are targeted for completion by March 2026.
Officials stressed that the highway is not uniformly in poor shape and that congestion is largely confined to active construction zones, where service roads have been provided to maintain traffic flow.
“Excluding these four flyovers and two bypasses, it is already possible to drive from Panvel to Goa in eight to nine hours,” said Prashant Fegde, Mumbai regional officer and project head at MoRTH.
The issue gained wider attention after engineer Chaitanya Patil completed a 29-day, 470-km march along the highway to document gaps, hazards and solutions. He later submitted a detailed report to Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari.
