A senior official from the Union Ministry of Roads has raised pointed questions with Goa's Public Works Department (PWD) officials regarding a significant delay in reporting crucial hurdles facing a major highway expansion project in the state.
Review Meeting Reveals Communication Gap
The issue came to light during a recent review meeting convened to assess the progress of ongoing highway expansion works across Goa. Sources present at the meeting revealed that the Chief Engineer of the Union roads ministry directly asked state PWD officials why the ministry was not informed sooner about delays plaguing the Bhoma road widening project due to local protests.
State officials, in their presentation, indicated that while 91% of the required land acquisition for the project had been successfully finalized, a critical 9% remains pending. This remaining portion is stuck precisely because of ongoing protests by residents in the Bhoma area.
Project Details and Timeline of Delays
The project in question involves the four-laning of a 7-kilometer stretch from Bhoma to Old Goa. It is a significant infrastructure push, having been sanctioned by the ministry in March last year at an estimated cost of Rs 1,060 crore. The bidding process for the construction work also reached a milestone, with bids received just last month.
However, a key piece of information was communicated to central officials only in December 2025: the fact that nearly a tenth of the land needed for the project could not be acquired due to steadfast local opposition. This delay in formal intimation appears to have caused concern at the central level about project monitoring and timelines.
Central Directive to State Officials
Faced with this new information, the Union ministry officials provided clear instructions to the Goa PWD team. The primary directive was to optimize the use of the land already available (the 91%) and make every effort to complete the remaining acquisition process without altering the current widening plan.
"The ministry officials told PWD officials to optimise the existing land available and try to complete the land acquisition process without changing the present widening scheme," a source confirmed.
Recognizing that protests can sometimes force a redesign, the officials also added a contingency instruction. If modifying the project scheme becomes unavoidable, the state officials were told they must act swiftly and prepare the necessary justifications for such a change to be presented to the ministry for approval.
This episode highlights the delicate balance between infrastructure development and local community concerns, underscoring the need for transparent and timely communication between state and central agencies to keep critical national projects on track.
