Snail’s pace on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway: MP Joshi urges Nitin Gadkari to look into the matter

The stretch is a crucial connection not just for the vehicles passing through on the Delhi-Chennai route, but also for local commuters heading to work in the industrial area of Karjan and Bharuch in Vadodara.

MP Joshi told The Indian Express: “I am in New Delhi and I read the news in The Indian Express and decided to meet the Union Minister to urge him to look into the matter and issue instructions to the NHAI to repair and resurface the roads without complaints being raised… The bottlenecks at three or four major bridges is an issue, which can be resolved after widening but the potholes have made matters worse for travellers”. He added, “Gadkariji was receptive to the suggestions and immediately directed the NHAI to look into the matter.”

Since June this year, the 15-kilometre stretch from Jambuva Chokdi to Bamangam in Karjan taluka has witnessed as many as six days of traffic jams, lasting close to 24 hours. Despite the district police deploying traffic personnel to navigate the traffic, the stretch has remained a deadlock, resulting in vehicles covering the distance of 15 kilometers in over an hour.

Joshi said that the Vadodara district Collector Anil Dhameliya, too, has issued a notice to NHAI to undertake patchwork as and when needed, when the rains have paused. Joshi said, “The patchwork on the road can help traffic move smoothly. But we have been facing an issue as the NHAI is only responding to complaints. On Wednesday, the District Collector also issued a notice to NHAI to repair the potholes…”

NHAI Project Director Anuj Sharma told this newspaper that the work on widening of five narrow bridges between Vadodara and Bharuch is currently on and is expected to be completed by 2026 end. “The five bridges between Vadodara and Bharuch — Vishwamitri, Jambuva, Por and Bamangam in Vadodara district and Bhukhi Khadi in Bharuch district— are the bottleneck areas leading to the jam during peak hours,” Sharma said.

“These four-lane bridges were built when the highway was last developed in 2008… The rest of the highway is now a six-lane highway and therefore, as the traffic moves through these bridges, it leads to congestion, irrespective of rains. The widening of these five bridges started in January 2025 and will be completed by the end of 2026,” Sharma said.

He added that the NHAI had been undertaking recarpeting and patchwork continuously. “Our Route Patrol Vehicles are stationed at the spot along with the police vehicles. We have been simultaneously filling up the damaged patches but we have the work records of the same since June … because of rain, the stagnation of water also causes reduction in speed of the vehicles leading to jams…”

According to the NHAI, the current movement through the 15-kilometre stretch is a daily 1.5 lakh Passenger Car Unit (PCU), including heavy vehicles that are the major contributors to the jam.

Sharma said, “The calculation considers the factor that big commercial vehicles are three to seven times heavier  than the passenger cars…”

Sharma said that while the NHAI did not receive any complaints from October to June, the traffic jams have become a repeated problem, especially during the rainy season since June. “When it rains, it further affects the movement of traffic… We have noticed that the huge movement of commercial heavy vehicles, on account of which, sometimes even the local non-commercial vehicles have to suffer, especially during the peak hours and if there are potholes, it leads to a problem. The potholes that have formed on the patch in the last few weeks are not because of quality issues but due to abrasion and breaking from heavy vehicle movement.”

Sharma said that once the work on widening the bridges is complete, the traffic problem will stand resolved but until then, temporary arrangements can be made to ease vehicular movement. “Until that time, we need to go with the existing arrangement of maintaining traffic movement with support from the police… We are exploring ways in which the highway can be a smooth run; perhaps by restricting heavy vehicles during peak hours,” Sharma said.