Rasta Satyagraha- Part 1: When the System Didn’t Move, Chaitanya Patil Walked the Mumbai-Goa Highway CITIZEN WALKS WHERE SYSTEM FAILED Mumbai–Goa National Highway (NH-66), Maharashtra https://www.moneylife.in/article/rasta-satyagraha-part-1-when-the-system-didnt-move-chaitanya-patil-walked-the-mumbaigoa-highway/79178.html
Chaitanya Patil (28), an engineering graduate from Raigad, has completed a 490-km on-foot audit of the battered Mumbai–Goa highway and submitted a 59-point hazard report to Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
‘RASTA SATYAGRAHA’ — A WALK OF SHAME FOR BAD ROADS
•Walked entire NH-66 stretch •Duration: 29 days
•Identified: •Potholes, •Missing signage, •Incomplete bridges, •Accident black spots, •Exposed iron rods & debris
59 critical danger points documented with: •GPS data, •Photos, •QR-coded digital report
75–85 km of work still pending, Service roads incomplete, Bridges half-done, Lives fully at risk
Patil even collected accident-causing debris by hand — broken glass, metal pieces, hoardings — items that authorities somehow “missed” for years.
WHO IS CHAITANYA PATIL?
•Engineer from Kasu village, Raigad
•Flagging highway flaws since 2019
•Earlier complaints led to repairs within 24–48 hours
•Proved one thing brutally clearly:
Problems exist because silence is convenient, not because solutions are hard
Wa by Jaikishin.. When a citizen walks half a thousand kilometres to do what institutions were paid to do— It’s no longer activism. It’s an indictment.
The road to Goa shouldn’t require courage. It shouldn’t require sacrifice. And it certainly shouldn’t require a Satyagraha. Fix the roads — before more citizens have to walk over broken promises.