The Bombay High Court on Monday pulled up the Maharashtra government for the slow pace of the lane widening of the Mumbai-Goa highway and directed it to review the ongoing construction work by December and complete the project at the earliest.
“Unless you complete this project, we will not let you start any other project. Let the public reap the benefits of this project first,” Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni told the state government while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) pointing to the dire condition of the Mumbai-Goa highway.
The Mumbai-Goa highway, which is also called NH-66, has been witnessing widening work for over a decade.
On Monday, the court asked the Maharashtra government to consider a state-wide policy with “concrete measures” to deal with the “recurring issue” of potholes on public roads and highways to avoid accidents and traffic jams suffered by “common citizens.”
Owais Pechkar, a regular commuter on the Mumbai-Goa highway, filed a PIL in 2018 and once again now, in which he urged the court to direct the state and Centre to fix the potholes that are major cause of accidents on the stretch. He also pointed to the highway widening work which is moving at a snail’s pace.
The court was informed that 2,442 deaths had occurred on the highway due to motor accidents since January 2010 when the widening work started. The widening work is heavily delayed and is still going on.
The court ordered the authorities to complete the widening work of NH-66 on priority and fill up the potholes, without which it will not allow the government to take up any other project such as a ‘coastal road’ passing through three districts in Konkan region.
The court has sought a progress report from the authorities by the end of the year.
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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/law/story/mumbai-goa-highway-project-bombay-hc-maharashtra-govt-1855054-2021-09-21
