The Union ministry of road transport & highways has stated that the Mumbai-Chennai arm of the Golden Quadrilateral will be completed by December 2006.

As of end-May 2006, stretches aggregating 1,212 km were completed out of a total of 1,290 km, giving a completion ratio of 94 per cent. The balance 6 per cent (78 km) will be completed by December 2006. The ministry has further stated that 6.5 km of stretches have been hindered by land acquisition problems. These stretches lie on the Katraj-Sarole and Belgaum-Dharwad sections.

Contractor delays have bogged down the progress of 57.4 km of stretches resulting in delayed completion of the Hubli-Haveri, Harihar-Chitradurga, Haveri-Harihar and Tumkur Bypass projects.

The Chitradurg Bypass (around 14 km) is under litigation and is not envisaged for completion by December 2006.

The overall GQ project, connecting Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, is around 5,846 km, out of which 5,360 km stood completed as of 31 May 2006. The remaining 486 km, distributed in 39 contracts, were under implementation.