Villagers along NH-48 threaten protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar over ‘road of death’ | Mumbai news

Villagers along NH-48 threaten protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar over ‘road of death’

ByMegha Sood
Published on: Oct 20, 2025 05:28 AM IST

The villagers were summoned to the Naigaon police station earlier this week, where officials urged them to withdraw their suicide appeal. But the residents stood firm, insisting that their lives have become unliveable due to the prolonged neglect of one of India’s most important arterial roads

MUMBAI: Days after over 100 residents from the Naigaon–Chinchoti–Vasai belt wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking “permission to die by suicide” out of sheer frustration with the crumbling Mumbai–Ahmedabad National Highway (NH-48), villagers from Sasunghar have now warned of taking their agitation to Delhi.

Villagers along NH-48 threaten protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar over ‘road of death’
Villagers along NH-48 threaten protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar over ‘road of death’

On Saturday, residents of Sasunghar, located along the busy NH-48 corridor in Palghar district, said they would stage a protest at Jantar Mantar during the winter session of Parliament if the authorities fail to repair the highway and ease traffic chaos by then.

The villagers were summoned to the Naigaon police station earlier this week, where officials urged them to withdraw their suicide appeal. But the residents stood firm, insisting that their lives have become unliveable due to the prolonged neglect of one of India’s most important arterial roads.

“We told the police that if the government cannot fix the road, we will go to Delhi and make our voices heard before Parliament,” said Sushant Patil, who works with the NGO Bhumiputra and is leading the movement.

Highway of despair

For over two months, commuters on the 30-km stretch between Dahisar and Vasai have endured endless traffic jams, pothole-ridden surfaces, and daily gridlocks stretching for hours. What was once a one-hour commute now takes up to five or six hours, locals said.

Patil and over a hundred villagers last week wrote to PM Modi, claiming that repeated complaints to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Palghar district administration, and even the Supreme Court’s Road Safety Committee had gone unanswered.

“Our children are missing exams, patients cannot reach hospitals in emergencies, and people have lost jobs because they can’t reach work on time,” said Patil. “Ambulances get stuck for hours. It feels like we are trapped and dying would be better than living like this.”

The villagers said the poor state of NH-48 has also led to frequent accidents, loss of life, and damage to vehicles. “We want the NHAI project director held accountable and disciplinary action taken against officials responsible for this mess,” Patil added.

NHAI’s defence

When contacted, Suhas Chitnis, project director of NHAI, denied that poor maintenance was responsible for the congestion. He said the traffic snarls were largely due to a ‘No Entry’ restriction imposed by the state government in Thane city for repair work near Ghodbunder toll naka.

“As commercial vehicles were prohibited from entering for 12 to 14 hours, they were parked along the NHAI stretch, causing traffic buildup and wrong-side driving,” Chitnis said. “Following a review meeting chaired by the divisional commissioner, the state has relaxed the restriction and traffic movement has remained smooth since Saturday.”

However, residents contest this explanation, pointing out that the problem has persisted for years, well before the Ghodbunder repair work began.

Officials from the Mira-Bhayander Vasai-Virar (MBVV) police have also acknowledged gaps in traffic supervision, particularly given the vast jurisdiction of the commissionerate and the surge in heavy vehicles plying through the region. Following the residents’ protest last week, MBVV police commissioner Niket Kaushik ordered the transfer of highway traffic management from the Chinchoti branch to Vasai and Virar traffic branches to improve monitoring.

Despite these measures, the residents say the relief has been temporary. With festival season traffic and ongoing construction adding pressure, residents claim they have little faith left in administrative assurances.

A cry for attention

The Mumbai–Ahmedabad National Highway (NH-48) is one of India’s busiest freight corridors, connecting ports around Mumbai to industrial zones in Thane, Palghar, and Gujarat. But in the villages flanking this road — Sasunavghar, Maljipada, Sasupada, Bobat Pada, and Patharpada — the highway has become a daily nightmare.

In their letter to the PM, the residents demanded immediate reconstruction of the highway through Naigaon–Chinchoti–Vasai, separate lanes for light and heavy vehicles, effective traffic management and monitoring, and financial compensation for victims of accidents caused by poor road conditions.

“We are not asking for anything extraordinary,” Patil said. “We just want to live normal lives — reach work on time, send our children to school safely, and have ambulances move without obstruction. If this continues, we will be forced to take our protest to Delhi.”

For now, the villagers have called off their suicide plan but have vowed to march to Delhi during Parliament’s winter session if no visible improvement is seen. Their agitation, they say, is not about politics but about survival.

“It is not about dying — it’s about being heard,” said one resident. “We have been pleading for years. Maybe the Centre will finally listen to our plight.”

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