India, July 4 -- Fourteen years after work began on the Rs.16,000-crore Mumbai-Goa National Highway, commuters are still grappling with dangerous roads, diversions, potholes and waterlogging across the 440-km route.

The project to convert the old two-lane Mumbai-Goa highway into a four-lane road was launched in 2011, with the objective of reducing the travel time from nearly 12 hours to six hours. But regular commuters on the route told Hindustan Times that they were forced to drive on service roads as several stretches remained incomplete or had already developed defects. People living along the highway said they lived in fear of landslides and debris inundating their fields, especially during the monsoons.

In May this year, the state ...