At the inauguration of a new 5.15km elevated road designed to ease traffic congestion north of Panaji, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari voiced his disappointment regarding the prolonged delays in expanding the Mumbai-Goa Highway. He stated that he felt ‘ashamed’ of these setbacks and expressed a reluctance to attend the eventual inauguration of the highway once completed.
“The Mumbai-Goa Highway has been hopelessly delayed, and the contractors have failed. From my point of view, what has happened is very unfortunate. “Now I’ve given up waiting for an auspicious time (to have it inaugurated).
Because i’m ashamed at the delays,” he said, i’ve decided that I will not go for the inauguration of the Mumbai-Goa highway. My department has as many as seven world records, but now I wish my department will have the record for blacklisting and debarring the single largest number of contractors and suspension of officials in a single year,” Gadkari said at an event to inaugurate the 6-lane Porvorim flyover .
“Yesterday I had a meeting and was told the highway was 93-94% complete… and in October, I’ll get off at the Mumbai airport and come to Goa by car to see the status of the completion,” he said.
