Road work on Mumbai-Agra highway stretch reduces traffic to a crawl, commuters fume

Nashik: For people travelling between Nashik and Mumbai, the journey has turned into a grinding ordeal, with tempers flaring and patience wearing thin along the Mumbai-Agra highway. The stretch between Vilholi and Pimpri Phata, under expansion for more than four months now, has become a choke point where traffic crawls and travel plans unravel.The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is currently undertaking an ambitious six-laning project between Gonde and Pimpri Phata. But as construction unfolds on both sides, it has created a near-constant bottleneck, turning the once routine drive into an unpredictable slog.At several key junctions, flyover construction has added another layer of disruption. Alongside this, work on widening the road by adding an extra lane on each side has further squeezed the available space. Harish Chaube, a fire safety officer working in Igatpuri, said, “Every day feels like a test of endurance. The journey between Garware Point and Igatpuri now takes 70-80 minutes. Earlier, it barely took 45 minutes.”With the monsoon looming, the commuters fear the worst is yet to come, as rains could aggravate the already fragile traffic situation.NHAI officials, however, said the problem was being overstated. They acknowledged congestion at certain pockets, but insisted it was not widespread across the entire stretch. According to them, the bulk of the work is on track for completion by year-end, with full completion likely by March 2027.The highway police presented a more nuanced picture. They pointed to specific trouble spots, particularly near a shopping mall at Vilholi and stretches where traffic is forced into a single lane due to diversions. While traffic generally moved slowly, they said it spiralled into chaos only when a vehicle broke down.Ironically, even the opening of the Samruddhi Expressway, meant to ease travel towards Mumbai, has not provided complete relief. While many now prefer to join the expressway in Igatpuri, they first have to survive the congested Nashik-Igatpuri stretch, often spending more time reaching the expressway than on it.