Road Trip to Goa Nov 2023

Embark on a scenic road trip to Goa in November 2023. Experience the beauty of the Mumbai-Bengaluru expressway and highways. Try the new road via MTHL

A few weeks back I made a road trip to Goa with a plan to perhaps to head to Karwar later. Driving on the expressway and highway used to be enjoyable, but it has become less pleasant recently. This year, there were many disruptions on the Pune Bengaluru highway, making it very difficult to navigate.

Speed limits are now everywhere (if you have not tried radar bot for camera checks, please do so), hidden cameras, and I am told new barricades/overhead lights etc. will also have cameras which can even check if you are wearing a seat belt. In spite of all this, 1.55 lakh people lost their lives in road accidents last year as per Autocar Magazine. Here's a quick analysis of their deaths.

  • 4,446 because of potholes
  • 9,211 due to road work
  • 20% of deaths were pedestrians.
  • 45% of the total were on two wheelers
  • 1,19,904 died due to overspending

We need to incorporate highway driving as part of the licensing process (the slowest vehicles such as trucks tend to be in the first lane). We need to also set realistic speeds and STOP signs in pedestrian areas (with speed breakers if required)

Moving on, we decided to take the Khanapur road via Mollem to South Goa. After passing crowded Belgaum (needs a bypass), the Khanapur highway is sheer luxury (this is where your tax rupees go and is better than the Pune expressway). Once you take the right turn to Mollem via the sanctuary, you literally have no road. To make matters worse, a truck had landed in a ditch, and it took immense skill to pass the stranded vehicle with locals helping in the middle of a forest. That took a toll on the suspension in addition to the tolls I paid. This kind of dampened my energy to go to Karwar later.

Given the inbound experience to Goa via the Pune-Bengaluru Expressway, I decided to take the Old Highway (NH66). The first 170 kms were smooth sailing, and I was happy. After that, the road (Starting from Rajapur) got progressively worse with the ghat sections having potholes which would put the moon to shame. At some places, the contractor had done such a great job that the top layer of a concrete road had gone missing.

Road trip to GoaThe concrete road with top layer missing

This road has virtually no tolls but my suspension paid a toll. NH66 has immense potential and is almost 100 km shorter and can be an amazing gateway to the Konkani for tourism ( the Konkani rail did wonders for passenger traffic). Contrast this with the Khanapur highway which was great and had no traffic. Misaligned priorities or issues with alignment. It took a little over 10 hours to reach as this route bypasses Panvel and you land at Belapur now. Would not recommend using NH66 till it gets better.

Happy journeys

Update March 2024, The road has subsequently improved and the new MTHL link cames it even faster to come to the Mumbai mainland

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