Union minister Nitin Gadkari said in the Rajya Sabha on Monday (24 June) that the Mumbai-Goa Highway Project (part of NH-66) will be completed within the next one year. He revealed this while responding to a question in the House.

The four-laned coastal highway was first proposed in 2016 and was to be completed in 2018. But the deadline was first shifted to March this year before being postponed to year-end.

The coastal highway along the seacoast is modeled on the lines of the picturesque road linking Los Angeles and San Francisco in the United States.

The project faced several challenges before the courts after the Bombay High Court stopped the construction on few stretches citing environmental concern. Last May, the Supreme Court cleared the construction work on some ecologically sensitive areas, state government sources say.

The coastal highway is expected to open up undiscovered areas of the Konkan region to tourists driving to Goa from Mumbai.

Here are some of the pictures of the ongoing work on the coastal highway.