#Bombayphile : Mumbai-Goa Highway : No Longer A "Dil Chahta Hai" Experience

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Have you watched "Dil Chahta Hai"(2001) where three friends enjoy their drive on the Mumbai-Goa Highway? Do you remember Amitabh Bachchan starrer "Bombay To Goa"(1972) where a bus full of characters traverses through the scenic road? These movies have showcased how pleasurable the road journey from Mumbai to Goa used to be. Today, Mumbai-Goa Highway has become an antithesis of pleasure. Now, it is a hellish highway.

Maharashtra's biggest festival Ganesh Utsav is around the corner. A large number of Marathi speaking people in Mumbai belong to Konkan which is connected through Mumbai - Goa Highway and many of them leave Mumbai to celebrate the festival at their native village. The trains and buses towards Konkan are overbooked. Many people form groups and hire private vehicles to reach Konkan. The Maharashtra government, to please the Konkanis, has waived off the toll charges for to and fro journey. It is an attempt to generate goodwill. But this is just a tokenism. Waiving a few hundred rupees taken as the toll fees doesn't provide any relief to the travellers to have to undertake an ardous journey on the highway.

Over a decade back, the government announced the widening of Mumbai-Goa Highway. A tunnel was also proposed for smoothly navigating through the lengthy Kashedi Ghat. It was announced that Goa could be reached from Mumbai within 8 hours, which took 13-14 hours then. However, things took a different turn during these years.

Even after a decade, the widening work of the highway is anything but complete. A few fragments have been completed but by and large the work is pending in a major part of the road. First it took aeons for the land acquisition and get other clearances. Then, the contractors ran away. Multiple contractors were appointed to carry on the widening work. The delay led to cost escalation.

All this mess has made travelling on the highway inconvenient and unsafe. Too many diversions and potholes prolong the journey. They have also caused numerous accidents. A few years ago, I did a special story on Shirdhon village near Panvel, adjacent to the highway, where every second or third family lost somebody in accidents at the highway. Some of the people killed were little children and teenagers. I spoke to a roadside dhaba owner Bhushan Mhatre, who said that he has stopped counting the number of dead bodies he has picked up in the last ten years. The Mumbai-Goa Highway has become one of the most dangerous roads in India.

More than the toll waiver people need the swift completion of the road widening works. Many people travelling to Konkan avoid Goa Highway and take Pune-Kolhapur road instead. It is longer but relatively safer and smooth. Hope the government pays heed to the grievances of people and the highway gets ready to offer "Dil Chahta Hai" experience again.

(Bombayphile is published weekly where Jitendra Dixit writes about the past and the present of Mumbai.)

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