New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has announced that he will not be present at the inaugural ceremony of the long-pending Mumbai-Goa expressway widening project, citing personal embarrassment over the repeated delays that have plagued the infrastructure venture.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday through a written reply, Gadkari revealed that approximately 93 to 94 per cent of the widening work on the Mumbai-Goa highway has been completed. However, the project, which was envisioned as a game-changer for connectivity between Maharashtra and Goa, has been beset by multiple delays over several years, leaving the official completion date uncertain.
"I feel ashamed that this project has taken so long," Gadkari told reporters after attending an event in Porvorim near Panaji on Wednesday. He confirmed that while the physical construction is nearly finished, the ceremonial opening would proceed in his absence.
In the same parliamentary reply, the minister also laid bare the scale of quality control failures in national highway construction across the country. Between the fiscal years 2023-24 and 2025-26, a total of 103 contractors and construction companies were blacklisted and fined for delivering substandard work on national highway projects, Gadkari disclosed.
The blacklisting action forms part of a broader push by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to enforce stricter quality standards and accountability in public infrastructure projects. Officials say the penalties and blacklist decisions were based on independent quality audits conducted by third-party agencies appointed by the ministry.
The Mumbai-Goa corridor has been under construction for over a decade in various phases. The widening of the existing two-lane national highway to four lanes and beyond was projected to drastically cut travel time between the two cities, currently spanning roughly 600 kilometres. Protesters and local residents in Goa have frequently criticized the sluggish pace of work, pointing to land acquisition issues, environmental clearances, and contractor inefficiency as major bottlenecks.
Gadkari's decision to skip the inauguration reflects a growing pattern of central ministers distancing themselves from projects that stall well past their projected timelines. Infrastructure experts say the Mumbai-Goa expressway delay is symptomatic of a wider systemic issue affecting national highway projects across India, where contractual disputes and regulatory clearances often combine to stretch timelines far beyond initial estimates.
