India’s highways minister Nitin Gadkari said Friday that central government is considering a ring road around the small, coastal state of Goa – a tourism hotspot – so drivers can avoid its traffic when travelling between the bigger states of Maharashtra in the north to Karnataka in the south.
He said the village of Patradevi near the Goan state border in the north would be one of the bypass’s termini, and that the new highway would cost between $1.4bn and $1.7bn to build.
The highway would skirt the eastern boundary of Goa to avoid going through the middle “to decongest the national highway”, Gadkari said, The Times of India reported.
The minister also announced three projects to widen Goan roads to four lanes, and a new bridge at Borim, with a combined cost of 54 billion rupees, or $633m.
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What will be the cost to the environment?
The ring road does make sense as proposed by Mr. Gadkari.
It should be constructed in the hinterland, so as not to cause any inconvenience to the people currently residing. Because of the proposed ring road there’s every chance of construction coming up along the road which should be prohibited. Also no settlement should be allowed in these green cover areas.