Maharashtra mulls Rs 25,000 core 6-lane e-way parallel to Goa highway, coastal road

MUMBAI: Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s decision to study feasibility of a Rs25,000-crore greenfield six-lane Konkan expressway parallel to the Goa highway and coastal road was criticised as existing roads are awaiting expansion for decades.
It’s nine years since the Rs10,000-crore Mumbai-Goa highway four-lane expansion began and it’s nowhere near completion. So is the marine highway, which was to be expanded between Rewas (Alibaug) and Redi (Sindhudurg) ports in March by adding 20-25 bridges over the creeks.Its initial planning was proposed four years back.
MSRDC said the expressway, proposed in 1991, will have few tunnels and will bring speedy progress for the region as it can be quickly developed due to lesser efforts in acquisition. “Widening highways having properties along the way and their acquisition is a major task. Pune and Nashik expressways changed the economy of the region after getting developed fast,” said MSRDC joint MD Radheshyam Mopalwar.
S M Deshmukh, president, Mumbai-Goa Highway Action Committee, said the decision to study feasibility was not needed when the highway and coastal road were enough, if developed properly and efficiently. “The highway is not 50% complete even after beginning work in 2011,” he added.
Inordinate delays in completing four lanes of the narrow highway on its 460km stretch between Panvel and Goa border, which has seen most accidents in the state, is still a matter of concern for lakhs living along Konkan belt. So is the delayed recarpeting and reconnecting of missing links on the coastal road, now proposed to be a marine highway.
“Distance between the coast and highway is 25km. Why do we need a new expressway in between. We have no issues if the four-lane highway is made six-lane but this expressway is not needed. In fact, the cost of land has gone up and people don’t want to lose fertile land and their livelihood,” said Deshmukh.
Shirish Tamhankar from Shriwardhan said government should concentrate on strengthening connectivity of Konkan belt with western Maharashtra through Sahyadri mountain ranges.
Alignments for the new expressway will have to be suggested by consultants along with technical, financial, environmental angles by August. Its design speed is proposed to be 150km/hour, with an aircraft-landing facility. MVA government had announced Rs 3,500 crore in its recent budget to develop the single-lane coastal state highway (MSH4), with 30km of missing bridges over creeks and rivers, into a concrete two-lane marine highway on the lines of Pacific Coast highway in US. The marine highway will run via Redi port, Malvan, Devgad, Ratnagiri, Ganpatipule, Guhagar, Harihareshwar, Murud, Kashid, Alibaug and Revas.