According to the Lok Sabha on Thursday, the Union government informed that the Mumbai Goa National Highway (NH-66) would be completed by September 2025. The project, which has been delayed because of hurdles with land acquisition, pre-construction works and financial problems in some contractors faced by the project, has been taken up by the ministry, which is now being run by Union Road and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari, an executive of a company that would qualify for the job, had said. But he said that most of these problems have since been addressed through communication with the state government, and work continues to finish the remaining work.
Especially for the construction of flyovers at Lanja and Pali, Gadkari mentioned the delays were due to delays in land acquisition, and the Chiplun flyover had been delayed after one of its spans had collapsed. On the land acquisition issue for Lanja and Pali, he said the problems have been sorted out, and the Chiplun flyover was redesigned after the collapse. Of the three flyovers, all are currently under construction and are to be completed in phases by September 2025.
Work on the Shastripul-Bahwandi-Sangameshwar-Nivli road, one of the Aravali to Talekante sections of NH 66, was also delayed due to land acquisition issues and the financial imbalance of contractors. The Parliament was informed by Gadkari that out of 39.24 km, around 30.68 km has been completed, and the remaining work on the total 39.24 km stretch is scheduled to be done in phases by September 2025.
When a question on the slow progress of the highway is posed by a BJP MP and a former Maharashtra chief minister, Narayan Tatu Rane, Gadkari reiterated that the government is committed to speeding up the work on the project. He also informed that projects executed along highways had started on April 1, 2014, and as of this date, these projects are delayed by 683, and the highway has been affected across all the states by various challenges.
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