Chennai to Guwahati - Which route?

[avmaxfan]

Hi guys,I will be driving from Chennai to Guwahati in February.I am not really sure about which route I should take.Can you guys help me out?
Btw the journey will be undertaken in a new 2007 Honda CR-V with about 1200km on the odo.

[vnabhi]

I feel the air route is the best
Anyways, since you wanna drive, please take NH5 till Calcutta. From there you need to go to Siliguri---not sure of the highway number. I am not sure thereafter.

[rippergeo]

dude! you are a brave man! may I join you?
sorry but cant help you with the route. maybe you should PM Mr Kumar, he knows all the roads in this country.

[avmaxfan]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

dude! you are a brave man! may I join you?
sorry but cant help you with the route. maybe you should PM Mr Kumar, he knows all the roads in this country.

Well,actually Guwahati is my hometown
But I havent really travelled by road to/from Guwahati to/from mainland India.So I thought of asking you guys for help.

[Dhanasekaran]

Dude,

I am planning to take the following route for my Chennai-Bhutan trip planned in the month of April 2008.

NH5 - Chennai till Kolkatta

NH34 - Kolkatta till Siliguri

NH31 - Siliguri till Guwahati

All I know is NH5 is very good till Kharagpur. I also found that you need not go Kolkatta if you take NH 34 and reach Siliguri.

From Kharagpur road will be in mixed state and do not have much information further. Would request HVKUMAR sir to comment further.

[sreenivass]

Out of curiosity I checked mapmyindia.com. It does give some directions, I suggest you check it out and of course you may want to cross check the stuff with your friends and MR HV Kumar.

[Surprise]

I had pm'd you the email address of HVKUMAR, currently in a 14 day road trip. He will be able to help you out with more details apart from the info's you collect.

Nice and patient guy he is

[avmaxfan]

Originally Posted by Dhanasekaran

Dude,

I am planning to take the following route for my Chennai-Bhutan trip planned in the month of April 2008.

NH5 - Chennai till Kolkatta

NH34 - Kolkatta till Siliguri

NH31 - Siliguri till Guwahati

All I know is NH5 is very good till Kharagpur. I also found that you need not go Kolkatta if you take NH 34 and reach Siliguri.

From Kharagpur road will be in mixed state and do not have much information further. Would request HVKUMAR sir to comment further.

Well I have confusion about NH31,as there are two routes.One where we have to cross the saraighat bridge to reach Guwahati and NH31C where we cross the naranarayan setu in goalpara district and from there straight on to the heart of Guwahati city.I dont have any idea which one is better and safer

Btw since you are traveling in April 2008,you can contact me once in Guwahati,Ill make sure you dont face any problems in my city as many seem to get really frustrated when they reach Guwahati

[thebagchi]

Originally Posted by Dhanasekaran

Dude,

I am planning to take the following route for my Chennai-Bhutan trip planned in the month of April 2008.

NH5 - Chennai till Kolkatta

NH34 - Kolkatta till Siliguri

NH31 - Siliguri till Guwahati

All I know is NH5 is very good till Kharagpur. I also found that you need not go Kolkatta if you take NH 34 and reach Siliguri.

From Kharagpur road will be in mixed state and do not have much information further. Would request HVKUMAR sir to comment further.

Chennai to Kolkata via Golden Quadrilateral is awsome.
but there is a 60km patch between balasore and bhadrak
and 100km patch 80 km after BBSR thats in horrible state.

NH34 is a road with mixed with good and really awful roads. Be really careful. And dont try this route after sunset.

from Siliguri roads are good but as soon as u enter Assam roads detoriate.

[avmaxfan]

Originally Posted by thebagchi

Chennai to Kolkata via Golden Quadrilateral is awsome.
but there is a 60km patch between balasore and bhadrak
and 100km patch 80 km after BBSR thats in horrible state.

NH34 is a road with mixed with good and really awful roads. Be really careful. And dont try this route after sunset.

from Siliguri roads are good but as soon as u enter Assam roads detoriate.

Thanks for the info
Can you tell me which route I should take till Guwahati?NH31 or NH31C?

[kaushik_s]

AFAIK both the roads are not in great condition.At least that was what a year back.And knowing the speed of road work progress in Assam(the land of slow-li-ness) I don't think that things have changed.Roads are much better on the other side of Guwahati which you already may know.

[akroy]

Pls go through the following travelogue:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...e-kolkata.html (Travelogue: Bangalore to Kolkata)

Pls dont enter Kolkata to take the NH34, instead follow the following route:
Keep going on GQ you will automatically hit NH2, bypassing kolkata.

Kolkata - barddhaman - DarjeelingMore (20km before Durgapur), take right turn from here, Siuri, Shantiniketan is marked right (Siuri 70km marked)
DarjeelingMore - Ilambazaar - Siuri - Rampurhat - Takipur - Moregram (about 150km, can be done in 3hrs)

At Moregram this SH meets NH34 as a well marked T junction turn left on NH34 towards Farakka - Malda
On NH34 from Moregram till Siliguri should be a 6 hour drive with bad roads and traffic, Kumar ji can help you from Siliguri to Guwahati road, I think you have to pass through some forests...

Abhi

[akroy]

In addition, pls go through the following thread as well, you can lots of inputs (Kumar's inputs are there as well)
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...oute-help.html (Mumbai to Siliguri : Route Help)

Abhi

[avmaxfan]

Well guys I sat and came out with the following itinerary:

Day 1 Bangalore - Chennai - Vijaywada - Vizag. Night halt at Vizag
Day 2 Vizag - Cuttack - Bhubaneswar - Kharagpur - Kolkata. Night halt at Kolkata
Day 3 Kolkata - Berhampur - Siliguri.But I am thinking of trying to make it to Guwahati on day 3 itself. I dont want to spend the night at Siliguri.
I can start early morning at 3 or 4 from kolkata.I assume I can reach siliguri by 2-3pm.From there Guwahati is around 480km.I hope I can make it to Guwahati by 10-10:30pm,driving non-stop.

Or i will have to drive non stop on day 1 & 2 as well to reach around cuttack on day 1 and around siliguri on day 2.Day 3 morning dash to Guwahati.

[avmaxfan]

Originally Posted by akroy

Pls go through the following travelogue:
.
.
.
On NH34 from Moregram till Siliguri should be a 6 hour drive with bad roads and traffic, Kumar ji can help you from Siliguri to Guwahati road, I think you have to pass through some forests...

Abhi

Is the above route shortest route from Kolkata to Siliguri?

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

AFAIK both the roads are not in great condition.At least that was what a year back.And knowing the speed of road work progress in Assam(the land of slow-li-ness) I don't think that things have changed.Roads are much better on the other side of Guwahati which you already may know.

Found these pics of NH31