Bangalore - Hubli NH4 road condition?

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Raj'sGlory

I quite agree. The driving time is around 8 hrs if you average around 80 KMPH with three breaks of 20 min each.

Did Hubli-Bangalore Peenya in 5 hours last month without any halts.

Despite the problems at Ranebennur, drive was fast.

[girish.r]

Two weeks back I covered Basaveshwaranagar, Bangalore to Vishweshwarnagar, Hubli in 6.5 hrs with 2 breaks of 15 mins. This was my first drive in my new Verna VGT CRDi. Speed maintained was 100-110kmph with 100% AC, 32psi pressure on all 4 tyres, stock tyres/rims and normal diesel. The actual plan was to leave BLR by 6AM & reach Hubli by 12 noon but somehow it got delayed and we left at 7AM and thought we would reach by 2:30/3PM but with Verna we made it to Hubli by 1:30PM.

7:00AM - Got off from Basaveshwaranagar to Magadi road and then connected to NICE road. This was to avoid Yeshwantpur-Peenya-Jalahalli cross traffic. And yes with NICE road we crossed Nelamangala junction in 20 mins.

9:00AM - Crossed Sira and stopped at KAMAT restaurant for breakfast. Good food but major benefit being less crowded. The KAMAT at Tumkur will be heavily crowded leading to unnecessry waste of time.

9:15AM - Started off towards Chitradurga. The road and the drive right from NICE road till Chitradurga is good.

10:15AM - Somewhere around this time we reached Chitradurga bypass. Unfortunately there were lengthy trucks carrying wind turbine blades, yes they were carrying the blades and one can image what would be the length of the carriage of the truck to transport these blades. With these obstacles and with the bypass still under construction with diversion from left to right and vice versa the drive was little pain and I think I overtook 4 to 6 of these trucks till Harihar.

The road after Chitradurga till Haveri is criss cross diversions. Though the road quality is good, one needs to be careful to make out large no of small sized humps placed very closely in the diversions which are very effective. I missed out in couple of diversions and my Verna had to take them.

Somewhere before Harihar we stopped for a 15 minutes break to have tender coconut.

The Davangere/Harihar bypass roads are ok but at the junction where the highway gets segregated into bypass and the city road is very bad. The same holds good even for Haveri bypass and city road junction.

The Ranebennur bypass still in construction makes everybody take the city road & due to heavy vehicular movement, in some parts of the road the top layer has been ripped off.

12:45PM - Got on to Haveri bypass. Most of them say the road from Bangalore to Chitradurga is good but if anybody ask my opinion I will for sure vote Hubli - Haveri stretch as an excellent, its a breeze to drive through the 70km and I covered this in just 35 minutes.
I remember this way back in my childhood days when I used to travel in the then KSRTC red bus, normally it would take 1 to 1:15 hrs from Hubli to reach Shiggaon & from Shiggaon to Haveri was another 30 mins. So a total time of 1 hr 45 mins now can be covered in 35 minutes, its great indeed.

1:20PM - Reached the Hubli - Dharwad bypass junction and got onto Hubli city road.

The return journey took almost 7 hrs 45 mins which included 45 mins lunch break and 30 mins tea break. We started from Hubli city at 1:15PM and somewhere after Ranebennur we stopped for lunch break. Nopes there are no hotels here but we had packed our lunch. At 6PM we stopped at KAMAT restaurant, Sira for a tea break. Left this place at 6:30PM & reached Bangalore at 9PM. Tumkur bypass is still under construction & thanks to Tumkur evening traffic which was all over the highway making it look like city road. The other time consuming stretch was Nelamangala juntion till NICE junction.

Couple of observations/suggestions:
1. Start asap say around 6AM from Bangalore and make sure you get onto NICE road, a complete no-no to Yeshwantpur-Peenya-Jalahalli cross.
2. Stop at KAMAT, after Sira rather than at Tumkur. The one at Sira will be less crowded & therefore quick service.
3. No good Hotels or I would say no Hotels at all on the highway till you reach Hubli. Offcourse one can get into Davangere-Harihar-Haveri cities for quick snack but mind you this will increase the travel time a lot since you need to get into the city with the peak traffic.
4. If you happen to see any slightest movement in any parked truck ahead of you, just STOP the car before you get closer to the truck. The half mad truck driver might end up taking a U-turn & get onto the opposite track without any hand signal/indicator. The same incident happened to me & before I realized his intentions it was too late for me to stop the car. I could make out that there was some space on the extreme right & therefore floored the gas pedal & managed to overtake but it was very close, a very close one. We thought of getting back to the right track, stop him and give him one tight slap but whats the use, they are least bothered. Instead we just thanked GOD and continued our journey.
5. The only scenic drive was through the mountains near Chitradurga. While the top of the mountains were covered by the clouds, one can see the wind turbines in full rotation and the vehicle passing through the mountains. I wish I could capture some snaps of this scenic beauty but was in real hurry to get to the boot for the camera.
6. The evening traffic in Tumkur will be chaotic. Either leave Hubli early morning say before 7AM or after 3PM so that by the time you reach Tumkur, the city traffic would be very less.
7. There is a speed limit of 40kmph between Hubli-Dharwad old NH4. It was very difficult to control my Verna in 4th gear at 40kmph. A indica of Kittur (KA 24 regd) overtook me in full zoom & even before he could complete the overtaking, he was greeted by a traffic cop in the middle of the highway. A fine of Rs. 300/- upfront. BAKRA of the day. Yes there are sign boards but nobody would take it seriously because these boards seem to be leaning towards the pedestrians.

Not sure when the entire Hubli-Bangalore GQ stretch would be completed. The NHAI website link .:NHAI:.Completed Stretches on Golden Quadrilateral shows that the status as Contract Terminated for the Haveri Chitradurga stretch. I have been watching this link and this has been there from past 1 year.

Hope my experiences/observations/suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks & Regards,
Girish