On the lines of the newly inaugurated Mumbai- Nagpur Expressway, also known as the Samruddhi Mahamarg, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde announced the development of a new Mumbai-Goa expressway.
According to Shinde, the expressway will be a new construction or Greenfield expressway and will be access controlled. The final decision on this new expressway will be announced by the central government.
Meanwhile, road widening work of the existing 471 km four- lane Mumbai-Goa Highway (also known as NH 66) that connects Panvel to Goa is underway. With this the travel time between Mumbai and Goa will be reduced from 13 hours to 8 hours. Started in 2011, the widening work has been divided into 11 packages and around 67% of the work is completed. After Goa, the 1,608-km NH66 passes through Karnataka and Kerala and ends at Cape Comorin in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, after passing through Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala.
