Before Ganeshotsav, the government had promised that one lane made of concrete from Palaspe to Indapur would be ready. “The promise was false,” said Chavan. “In the picture of the traffic jam in Wadkhal, it can be seen that work is still going on and traffic has come to a standstill on the potholed road.” Angry commuters on the highway published several pictures of the traffic congestion and lambasted the government on social media.

NH 66, which connects Mumbai to Goa through the three coastal districts of Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, regularly witnesses major traffic jams during Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Diwali and summer vacations. Uproars ensue particularly during Ganesh Chaturthi, when Mumbaikars originally from Konkan head back home. The motorists are compelled to take the highway passing through Pune and Kolhapur to reach Konkan—although this route is over 100 km more, it saves them from the bumpy rides and takes around two hours less. This year, the government had promised that work on the highway would be completed before Ganesh Chaturthi, ensuring a smooth ride—however, it missed its deadline yet again.

Spanning a distance of 471 km, the Mumbai-Goa highway has a 100-kilometre section from Palaspe to Indapur that is virtually impassable on account of bad road conditions. According to a rough estimate by government authorities, 2,442 residents of Konkan lost their lives in accidents on the highway between January 2010 and April 2021 while many more suffered permanent disabilities.

The construction of four lanes and concretisation of the highway was first envisaged in 2007. The ministry of road transport and highways (MORTH) gave its nod to the design in June 2013, and actual construction began in November 2017 after 80 percent of the land acquisition was completed. In 2010, the state government had announced that it would undertake the four-laning of the highway, but it could begin only two packages in Sindhudurg in December 2011. At that point, the estimated project cost of the highway was approximately ₹15,566 crore, according to NHAI officials.

After Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray took up the cause this year, the state government swung into action and announced that it would complete at least one lane in the incomplete packages by the beginning of the Ganesh festival on September 19. Public works minister (BJP) Ravindra Chavan paid at least six visits in the last two months to take stock of the work; however, the deadline was missed again.

“The critical 84-km section between Panvel to Kasu, and Kasu to Indapur has been under construction for over a decade, leading to great inconvenience and damage to vehicles on account of the substandard roads,” said Adv Owais Pechkar, who filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay high court in 2018. “In the last week of August, the Bombay high court imposed penalties on both the Maharashtra government and the National Highway Authority of India for failing to fulfill their construction commitments.”

With constant promises of improvement coming to nought, citizens have persisted with the voicing of grievances. “The NHAI cited the termination of its contract with a previous contractor due to delays, and although it claims to be addressing reported potholes, the problems persist,” said Pechkar. “In response, the court has mandated a thorough inspection of the highway by officials, with a report due by the end of September.”

Pechkar, in his petition, also complained about the inferior quality of the work, leading to recurring potholes at short intervals. “The highway is in a non-motorable condition and hence prone to accidents,” he said. “It has turned into a death trap.”

An audit report submitted to the government by an authorised project management consultant in December 2020 pointed to various flaws in the construction. “The road at the Karnala bird sanctuary has a number of curves and turns and the slopes are on curvatures,” it states. “All this is resulting in accidents. There are dangerous turns at Bhoshte Ghat, leading to accidents. The construction has been found with bad-quality bituminous work. The underpass and the service roads are of very poor quality.”

A citizens’ group called the Mumbai-Goa Highway Dhyeypurti Samiti (MGHDS) is also fighting for highway-related issues. Last Sunday, its members visited NH-66 to check which lane would be open for the Ganesh festival. Shridhar Kadam, convener of the group, had expressed the hope that two lanes of the four-lane highway would be completed before the festival, and the group had held more than 10 meetings with minister Ravindra Chavan and NHAI officials for this. “We know that this is a temporary arrangement,” said Kadam. “We will continue fighting till the whole highway is completed.”

S M Deshmukh, president of the Patrakar Halla Virodhi Kruti Samiti, which has been agitating for the construction of the highway since 2007, said that a lack of political willpower had delayed the construction. “If the 701-km Samruddhi expressway can be constructed in four years, why should the Mumbai-Goa highway take more than a decade?” he demanded. “It is because politicians are more interested in the new 498-km coastal highway announced by the government, as they have invested in land parcels along that highway.”

Deshmukh said the government had planned one more greenfield highway on the same route, thus planning to build three highways next to each other. “This is totally against the recommendation of the Madhav Gadgil Committee report on the Western Ghats,” he said. “Instead of planning more highways, the state government should concentrate on NH-66.”

According to an official from PWD, the construction was delayed also because of the appointment of the wrong contractors under political pressure. “The contractors appointed were politically connected but did not have the infrastructural and financial wherewithal for the work,” he said. “Secondly, local politicians put a lot of pressure on the contractors to buy material from suppliers of their choice. The packages that are delayed in Ratnagiri are because a heavyweight politician did not give his approval to the appointed contractor appointed.”