[amit_3306]

Wow.. it indeed is nearing completion. I did Poladpur to Chiplun stretch in Oct 2019 and its a fun to drive however some sections were still incomplete.

I hope this gets completed soon. I am eagerly waiting to drive on this road from Pune- Tamhini- Goa. Hope Tamhini road widening also gets completed by then. Pure driving bliss.

[paragsachania]

This will be one highway to drive very soon. It was amazing even when it was a single carriageway albeit all the messy traffic and passing of towns and cities and now it gets even more fantastic. Not to forget, this highway had consistently earned the dubious distinction as the most fatal/dangerous highways of Maharashtra.

The Karwar Mangalore section too is nearly done with very small sections remaining.

With this, the Mangaluru Bombaayee connection shall get even more stronger. This shall also end up becoming the default choice for Bombay Goa trips taking a lot of load off from the Mumbai Bangalore NH.

All in all, I am loving the recent developments of roads in our country that has made driving more pleasurable than before.

Thank you for all the efforts creating this detailed thread. I am a regular watcher of the YouTube videos from various channels on Konkan and certain drone shots of the development of this highway are simply breathtaking.

[SaiSW]

Looks brilliant!

Great development. Would love to go on a long drive along these roads from Trivandrum to Goa one day.
These are access controlled, as far as I know, hope I'm not wrong. A drive on these will be totally relaxed, without the fear of random oblivious biker/autorickshaw jumping in from, I guess another dimension

[Dodge_Viper]

What about tolls? Any information on those? Else a fantastic road would be turn into nightmare with poorly planned toll plazas causing massive traffic jams

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Dodge_Viper

What about tolls? Any information on those? Else a fantastic road would be turn into nightmare with poorly planned toll plazas causing massive traffic jams

There will be tolls, certainly.

There are booths already between Mangalore and Karwar. The road developer should take care to ensure that their design and number of lanes should meet today's needs. Even regular state highway toll booths today in Karnataka have many extra lanes to cater to traffic so I am more than just hopeful that toll booths on this highway that is expanded shall factor in all of these and build and strategically place them too.

They haven't compromised on providing an extra lane for all those intersections and break in the medians, have also included bus and truck bays. So toll booths too shall meet the standards.

[ask_017]

Originally Posted by vharihar

Fantastic!

BTW, NH66 is not just till Goa, but rather continues on till Kanyakumari via Thiruvananthapuram. It's a 4-laned West Coast Hwy.

And to add to that, covers the entire length of Kerala. NHAI had recently tweeted a nice photo of the highway south of TVM.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by ask_017

And to add to that, covers the entire length of Kerala.

Originally Posted by vharihar

BTW, NH66 is not just till Goa, but rather continues on till Kanyakumari via Thiruvananthapuram. It's a 4-laned West Coast Hwy.

I am pretty sure that moralfibre would be fully aware of this fact on what dots NH66 connects end to end.

But, this is one section of the highway that is popularly referred to as "Bombay - Goa Road" from time immemorial.

Even the popular comic thriller of the 70s Bombay to Goa was named aptly only because the journey shown passes through some coastal towns enroute.

There are many such examples from other highways too.

The esrtwhile NH4 is popularly known as "PB Road" or "Pune Bangalore Highway" even when it actually connects Panvel to almost Chennai. So much so that some of the towns enroute have roads named as PB Road before bypasses came into existence and these road names haven't changed even today.

Even before Mumbai - Pune expressway was thrown open to traffic, this part of the same NH4 was known as (still does) Mumbai - Pune highway.

To me, as an avid highway traveler, I would any day prefer to refer NH66 with 3 distinct identities and each of these have their own specialties:

Bombay - Goa Highway
Mangalore - Goa Highway
Mangalore - Kochi Highway

Lastly, the updates on this thread mainly talk about the Konkan coast between Panvel and Goa, the stretch of NH66 that witnessed the slowest progress when compared to Mangalore - Goa for the terrain that it cuts through.

[moralfibre]

Indeed, Parag and others. The highway is Panvel to Kanyakumari. I did include Kanyakumari to get others to start contributing info on the road development status. The potential to build the nation's economy along the west coast can only be tapped with good connectivity. I for one would be game for a nice multi-stop exploration from Panvel to Trivandrum someday.

For others, I did ride between Poladpur and Chiplun and then from Rajapur to Goa on this road. While I didn't meet any slow moving traffic en-route because the bike offers flexible overtaking options, there are parts of the stretch that are far from done. I am hoping it gets done by end 2020. The road surface is superb and coastal MH is indeed more scenic than the Deccan plateau.

Once the trans-harbour link (Mumbai Trans Harbour Link - Connecting Southern Mumbai with Navi Mumbai) connects to the highway, this road will take back all the surge from Bombay - Pune - Goa users. We shall wait and watch.

Lastly, any well designed highway which has a complete concrete structure throughout isn't cheap. It is a toll road. I am sure I crossed a few toll booths that were wide enough. And no, the highway isn't access controlled. This is the only highway connecting coastal MH villages.

[2000rpm]

I think this road is pending mostly in the Raigad district for some reason. The patch from Wadkhal to Lonere is still under construction.

[SCORPION]

Originally Posted by vharihar

Fantastic!

BTW, NH66 is not just till Goa, but rather continues on till Kanyakumari via Thiruvananthapuram. It's a 4-laned West Coast Hwy.

NH17 used to end at Edapally junction in Kochi right where Lulu Mall is located. It joined the earlier NH47 at Edapally and the highway further down south was the NH47 right upto Kanyakumari. Now I see that it has been renamed to look like a Western coastal highway from Panvel to Kanyakumari.

[Rajeevraj]

Very nice thread-Moralfibre. Thanks for sharing.

The NH17/66 is a major lifeline for the people of Kerala- especially North Kerala covering Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram and part of Thrissur Districts. For people in these areas there is really no other alternative road and this has resulted in this being a heavy traffic, accident prone, nightmare to drive on stretch of highway in Kerala.

Widening plans have been progressing at a snails pace. The whole stretch in Kerala is densely populated and land acquisition frequently runs into all kinds of challenges and litigation.

This is a stretch that should have been 4 laned years back considering the traffic it carries, but looks like it will be years before anything happens. But good to see the other sections of this famed NH getting upgraded.

[NiInJa]

Just before the lockdown, I did two trips using NH17 and can assure you that once this is completed Pune-Goa time will be reduced by two hours minimum. There are not many major cities unlike the Mumbai-Banglore highway so traffic volume is not that high. Plus the roads are being constructed beautifully, similar to the Pune-Mumbai Express highway.

No just that, the internal roads leading to popular spots like Diveagar, Shrivardhan are also getting developed at rapid pace.

[InsaneSpeed]

Hi Moral Fibre,
Thanks for sharing the pictures. Actually this was long due to the people travelling to the Konkan on the treacherous single lane Mumbai - Goa highway. I am a regular commuter by this route and have seen the progress quite closely. The progress has been real slow specially due to delay in land acquisition for this project. Even from what I hear the contract was given to different contractors. Hence in certain sections you would see the progress has been real fast while in other areas it has been slow. I was hoping to travel this Ganeshotsav to our native place in Chiplun, but the pandemic has left us worrying.

[moralfibre]

Update from today:

#NH66
Mumbai goa highway
Nadgive ghat, near kharepatan
Pc:konkan beauty

Link

[vivek95]

@moralfibre Thanks for starting this excellent comprehensive thread on NH17 Bombay--Goa highway and sharing with us the most recent updates on its constuction. Yes, I would always prefer saying this as "NH17" ( satra number highway ) rather than the new number NH66, similar to my preference of saying "NH4" over NH48. What a beautiful compilation of sector wise updates including amazing aerial shots and videos. This thread is going to be super engaging for me for the next coming months until completion which I am hoping would be done in the next 2 years. This piece of road even in its 2 lane shape was gorgeous.

Members above have already highlighted the unique features of this highway, just excited to add my cents too. Once done, Bombay--Goa highway will be the "longest" scenic 4 lane highway in this part of the country and will be the default option for Mumbaikars to Goa as already mentioned. From the southern end point of Mumbai at Palapse phata, Panvel, NH17 in Maharashtra part is 460 kms until Banda, MH--Goa border at Sawantwadi and 500 kms till Panjim, Goa. There are a total of 12-13 ghats in between of which 4-5 are long, Kashedi ghat near Poladpur being the biggest. The road is arguably the most scenic at Gandharpale caves Savitri river, Kashedi and Sangameshwar region. Endless number of touristy spots on the way, infact every inch of this road is awesome and doesn't get boring at any point. Just outside Mumbai, Karnala stretch is also so beautiful.

The last I rode from Goa to Mumbai was in 2015 on my 14 year old Hero Honda Splendor. Recently, I had driven to Nagothane, near Raigad to pick up some important documents from a friend's home, will share the pics and videos of Karnala and Vadkhal flyover stretch soon. Having said that, from your pics of other sectors, it appears that the construction is of poor quality by Supreme company on the Panvel--Indapur section. Zarap bypass of Sawantwadi was the only completed 4 lane section back in 2015 and is one heck of an awesome super straight bypass with hills on one side. I totally agree with @paragsachania's views and also the distinct identities of NH17 for its various sub sectors.

Guess what guys, you should visit the awesome roads around Panvel ,Mumbai connecting to this NH17 as on date, you will drop your jaws !! I will share pics tomorrow when I am done with my night shift at the hospital starting in sometime.