Team-BHP - Kolkata to Puri

I am going on a road trip from Kolkata to Puri (Orissa) with my SX4. I have been looking around for information on the road conditions and found the following link very helpfull -
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-nh60-nh9.html

However it will be of great help if someone can throw some more light on this. I will be travelling with my wife and one year old son. How long should it take, how is the road, what not to do ? I am planning to leave very early (4AM) tomorrow. I do not have much expereince on highways altough I have earlier done a single day Kolkata-Digha-Kolkata trip (around 400KM - mostly bad road conditions). I did that with my old Esteem. Also I have done about 1000KM in Kerala a few months back with a Versa. I love to drive. This is the first time I am taking my SX4 out on the Highway. It is four months old and has just gone through the 2nd servicing. Any suggestions or tips will be of great help. I promise to write a great travelogue when I'm back. Cheers!!!

I Did this Route few months back, excellent Roads, I left kolkata at 4 A.M.
and first stop was at Balasore for Breakfast, then to Puri, One word of Caution
If you are leaving puri before daybreak keep a good lookout for unlit bullock
carts on the road between puri and pipli stretch , myself almost collided
with one of those.
Have a safe journey .

Cheers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackPearl (Post 770701)

I am sorry Puranjoy for not replying on time. I had gone to Darjeeling this weekend and did not log in to tbhp in the last few days.

BP, Looks like Darjeeling is getting bread-butter drive for you in the weekends.
Eager to know the road conditions there..

Abhi

Quote:

Originally Posted by hvkumar (Post 770721)

How were the roads? Any progress in road widening after Dalkola?

the roads were quite good, infact better than what I saw in December. No progress after Dalkhola yet. The bridges have remained unfinished for the last 4 years I am visiting there.

Quote:

BP, Looks like Darjeeling is getting bread-butter drive for you in the weekends.
Eager to know the road conditions there..

I love the hills, so I try to go there as many times as possible. Plus the road condition is very tempting now as it will deteriorate very fast as soon as the rain starts. The weather in Darjeeling was awesome. Will try to put up a travelogue soon.

Sorry gentlemen for being late in getting back to the thread. I was working on the promised travelogue, but I guess that will take some time. First of all thanks to all of you for your help and suggestions. The trip went extremely well. The road conditions were excellent - except for a 50 km stretch between Balasore and Bhadrak. This stretch is incomplete with many "Diversions" and some of the diverted stretches being full of BIG potholes. Otherwise excellent road - can do 150+ kmph without tension.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1100D (Post 764568)

From NH6 near Kharagpur, do not forget to take the Belda route to Balasore. It saves the pain of going through Jharkhand away.

Blackpearl can give you the entry markers and the km pointer to this route.

Don't miss this NH6-->NH60 connector. I missed it and landed up in Kharagpur town and took another 40 minutes to get back to NH60 via some "Digha Road". :Frustrati

Other than that some slow stretches (heavy traffic) near Bhubaneshwar. In Orissa (after Jaleshwar) be very careful of traffic coming at you at the fastest lane in the highway. I do not understand the rationale behind it, but you will see many motorcycles and sometimes a truck or two driving down merrily on the wrong side of a one way highway. I found this throughout Orissa.

BlackPearl : How long does it take to drive up to Darj? It is one of my favourite places and would love to get there on wheels. I guess I would need an alternate driver though.

Cheers!!!
Puranjoy.

Can anyone please post an update on the latest condition of NH60 and NH5? I'm planning a trip to Chilika (from Kolkata) during the 26th Jan holidays and I'm getting conflicting views about the road condition. More specifically, I'm looking for the following -

(1) Have the roads been repaired after the flood?
(2) Which are the major diversions I should keep in mind?

And where can I get a road atlas for Indian roads?

Cheers
Arijit

Kolkata - Kolaghat Bridge (Expect a Traffic Jam here) - Good Roads
Kolkata - Kharagpur (3 Kms ahead of Kharagpur, Take the Straight Road instead of Flyover on the Left) - Good Roads
Kharagpur to Jaleshwar (Expect minor Traffic at Jaleshwar)
Jaleshwar - Balasore ( good roads, with few diversions)
Balasore - Bhadrak (Bad roads till 5Kms ahead of Bhadrak)
Bhadrak - Bhubneshwar (good roads) Expect Day time traffic at Cuttack and Bhubneshwar)
Bhubneshwar - Puri (2 Lanes, road conditions were good curing Oct-Nov '08)
Puri - Chilka ( 2 Lane, lots of curves and cattles)

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebagchi (Post 1112038)

Kolkata - Kolaghat Bridge (Expect a Traffic Jam here) - Good Roads
Kolkata - Kharagpur (3 Kms ahead of Kharagpur, Take the Straight Road instead of Flyover on the Left) - Good Roads
...

Thanx thebagchi. We probably won't go to Puri at all. We plan to go straight to Chilika, spend couple of days there and then come back to Konark for a day and then to Kolkata.

One more question - I have two kids, one of them is just about a year and few months old. The bad roads - how bad are they, especially for the kids? Would you suggest child seats?

Arijit