Gadkari finds inspiration on US trip, proposes Mumbai-Goa coastal highway

Mumbai: Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday that the government is contemplating the possibility of developing a coastal highway connecting Mumbai and Goa, on the lines of the Las Vegas-St Francisco Pacific Coast highway. “I have been to the US recently. I had an opportunity to travel on the Las Vegas-St Francisco Pacific Coast highway. I travelled for almost 12 hours by road,” Mr Gadkari said after laying the foundation stone for the project to increase the lanes on NH 4-A and NH 17 in the coastal state from four to six.

He further said that the concept of developing the Mumbai-Goa coastal highway came to him during his trip to the US. “I thought that we could similarly develop a Mumbai-Goa coastal highway for tourism purposes. An international agency has been assigned the work of preparing a detailed project report on the Mumbai-Goa coastal highway,” the Union minister said.

He added that the coastal highway requires the construction of 22 flyovers. “During my tenure as a public works department (PWD) minister in the Maharashtra government, I completed a project that involved 18 flyovers. We have to construct four more flyovers. One of the important bridges that has to be constructed would connect Revas to Alibag. This would be a sealink worth Rs 500-600 crore. The work on the coastal highway will begin from next year,” Mr Gadkari said. Talking about Goa, he said that in 2014, only 260 kilometres of national highway roads existed there. “I am happy to inform you that during our tenure, we constructed new national highways as long as 330 kilometres, for which Rs 3,500 crore was spent,” he added.