This article is the first in a multi-part series examining the condition of the Mumbai–Goa National Highway, based on field documentation, official data and representations submitted to authorities.
For years, the Mumbai–Goa National Highway (NH-66) has been synonymous with delays, diversions, potholes and accidents. Despite being a critical arterial route connecting Mumbai to the Konkan region and onward to Goa, large stretches of the highway remain under construction, partially opened or inadequately maintained. Multiple agencies oversee its execution, safety audits are mandated on paper and accident data is routinely collected. Yet, for ordinary road users, the lived reality continues to be one of uncertainty and risk.
Earlier this year, that gap between official records and ground reality was tested in an unusual way. Between 9th August and 20 October 2025, Chaitanya Patil, a 28-year-old engineer from Raigad district, walked the entire 490km Palaspe–Zarap stretch of NH-66 over 29 days of field inspection. Calling his effort Rasta Satyagraha, not as a protest march, but as an on-foot highway inspection, Chaitanya methodically documented safety hazards, unfinished works and design flaws along the highway corridor.
An Audit, Not a Yatra
Chaitanya’s walk was neither symbolic nor spontaneous. It followed a methodical plan. Beginning on 9 August 2025 from Palaspe in Raigad, he covered the full length of the highway on foot, stopping at every problematic location to record observations. Each site was photographed, GPS-tagged and categorised and the documentation was organised using QR-linked digital folders to ensure traceability. Although heavy rains and health concerns forced him to take brief breaks, he persisted until 20 October 2025, when the field phase concluded.
The objective, Chaitanya says, is straightforward: to record what a motorist encounters daily but what often remains diluted or invisible once converted into files and bureaucratic reports. The aim, he adds, is to make the Mumbai–Goa National Highway safer and of consistent quality, so that people can travel the stretch without being exposed to avoidable risks caused by poor road conditions.
Unlike most highway inspections, which rely on vehicle-mounted surveys or desk reviews of tenders and progress reports, Chaitanya’s approach was slow, direct and continuous. Walking allowed him to observe abrupt transitions from newly laid concrete surfaces to damaged patches, incomplete service roads near habitations, unsafe temporary diversions around bridge works and poorly marked hazard zones—all of which may be missed or underreported in routine assessments.
An engineering graduate by training, Chaitanya is not new to flagging infrastructure issues. Since 2019, he has used the Right to Information (RTI) Act to seek accident data, black-spot identification and enforcement records relating to NH-66. In some cases, his earlier complaints have reportedly led to limited repairs within days. The decision to walk the highway came after years of seeing recurring hazards remain unaddressed despite repeated correspondence.
How the Inspection Was Conducted
Unlike a conventional safety audit carried out through vehicular surveys or desktop analysis, Chaitanya’s inspection relied on direct, slow observation. Walking the highway allowed him to record abrupt transitions from good concrete stretches to damaged patches, incomplete service roads that forced villagers onto the main carriageway, unsafe temporary diversions near bridge works, and stretches where drainage failures had already begun to damage newly laid surfaces.
During the walk, Chaitanya also removed debris from live traffic lanes where possible—metal fragments, broken glass, fallen hoardings—and alerted two-wheeler riders to immediate risks. These actions were incidental to the larger exercise, but they underscore the absence of routine monitoring on several stretches.
Crucially, the findings were not framed as grievances alone. Each category of hazard was mapped against existing Indian Roads Congress (IRC), ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) and national highways authority of India (NHAI) standards, with suggested corrective measures noted alongside the observations. In total, Chaitanya classified 59 distinct categories of safety and design lapses, ranging from potholes and unfinished bridges to inadequate signage, unsafe speed breakers and incomplete pedestrian access near habitations.
What the Walk Revealed—at a Glance
While the detailed findings run into hundreds of pages of photographs and notes, some patterns were evident even at a high level. On multiple stretches, newly constructed concrete roads showed early cracking and water accumulation. Medians were left open or unfinished, allowing unsafe turning movements. Service roads near villages were either incomplete or absent, pushing local traffic directly onto high-speed lanes. Temporary diversion roads, meant to operate for short construction periods, appeared to have become semi-permanent despite poor surfacing and minimal signage.
These observations mirror long-standing complaints from highway users, but the distinction here lies in the way they were recorded: continuously, across the entire corridor, without relying on selective sampling.
From the Road to the Record
At the end of the 29-day walk, Chaitanya consolidated his findings into a structured report covering the full Palaspe–Zarap stretch. The submission included location-wise documentation, proposed remedial actions and references to applicable technical standards. This documentation was formally submitted to the Union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, through member of parliament (MP) Arvind Sawant.
Alongside the field observations, Chaitanya has also attached RTI responses from police and traffic authorities that provide official accident and enforcement data for NH-66. These documents establish that many accident-prone locations and safety concerns identified during the walk are already known to the system.
The walk concluded with the submission of the report in Delhi. The questions it raised remain on the highway.
In Part 2, we examine what the official data reveals about accidents, deaths and injuries on NH-66 and how long documented risks have been allowed to persist on the ground.
