Mumbai-Goa highway to save 5 hours, to be modelled on Los Angeles-San Francisco highway

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde recently announced that the Mumbai-Goa Expressway will be constructed on the lines of the Mumbai-Pune highway. The expressway between Mumbai and Goa will be a greenfield expressway and it will be access controlled and high-speed.

The Union government is constructing the Mumbai-Goa Expressway. It is a part of the larger Mumbai-Kanyakumari economic corridor. The corridor runs parallel to the Western Ghats and passes through coastal states like Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The Goa-Mumbai Expressway was proposed in 2016 and was to be finished in 2018. However, procedural delays hampered the progress of the expressway.

The construction of the Mumbai-Goa Expressway is underway and it will be finished in 11 phases. The government plans to construct it on the lines of the Los Angeles and San Francisco expressway in the United States. The US Expressway runs parallel to the ocean and is one of the most beautiful roads in the world.

The distance between Mumbai and Goa is 590 kms. It takes 12 hours to travel this distance. After the expressway is completed, it will take seven hours; thus saving five hours in travelling time.

As of now, the Central government hasn't announced that it will be an expressway. It is currently building a four-lane highway between Mumbai and Goa.