[Darryl.Burke]

I think I'll go ahead with Option-6 (Mumbai - Pune - Kolhapur - Belgaum - NH4A - Khanapur - Anmod - Ponda - Corlim - Goa)

Hope to read your experience of that route as a friend is driving down from Mumbai today (by NH-17) and wanted to return via Belgaum, at the end of the week. Would be good to know the very latest road condition.

Thanks, db

[deutscheafrikar]

Originally Posted by Darryl.Burke

Hope to read your experience of that route as a friend is driving down from Mumbai today (by NH-17) and wanted to return via Belgaum, at the end of the week. Would be good to know the very latest road condition.

Thanks, db

Darryl
I'd like to hear about the conditions of the NH17 route that your friend will be driving on. Please post that.
Good wishes in the new year and a Happy journey to CK
Regards

[Darryl.Burke]

Sure thing, deutscheafrikar. They started late and are holed up at Sawantwadi, will be here in the morning. Thanks for the good wishes and a Happy New year to you and all T-BHP!

db

[Darryl.Burke]

deutscheafrikar, sorry I couldn't get back to this earlier. My firend reported that NH-17 surface is mostly good, but not superb, and in various patches a total of definitely more than 50 km is cracked surface where the top layer of road metal has holes down to the next layer. Not deep potholes, but sharp-edged and make one restrict speed to 40-50 kmh.

He's planning to return on the 8th with a halt at Pune, wiill probably drive via Ponda-Belgaum as that road has been recently reported to be in good condition (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ueries-14.html).

db

[deutscheafrikar]

darryl, no worries. Thanks for the info. I ve been reading the same on a couple of other threads. Makes sense to drive on the NH4.

[midlifecrisis]

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar

Midlife have you driven through the tillari ghat?

Sorry, I didn't reply earlier. Yes I have. The road isn't good. But the actual ghat section is barely 5 -7 kms

[Darryl.Burke]

Originally Posted by Minardi

hv, actually there exists a road that bypasses londa and connects molem to khanapur directly (as indicated by the blue road on the map). this new road forms the hypotenuse of the Molem-Londa-Khanapur triangle. Londa i think is the vertex of the rt angled road shown in the map.

Around 5 years back, when we took this road, we missed the left turn at Molem. May be it was not prominent, as it was a newly built road. That time I checked in several maps, and only a few maps showed this 'hidden' road. Now it can be seen on Google earth, though its entry into Khanapur seems to be s bit unclear.

The left turn is at Anmod, not Molem. It's just after the checkpoint/speedbreaker.

Originally Posted by SAHIR.KITTUR

The road as marked in the attached snap shot of Google earth as "NH4A"
Is wrong. In fact the road marked as NH4A exists but herd that its very very bad. Original NH4A remains the same Belgaum-Khanapur-Ramnagar-Anmod-Molem

I drove this road today. It's bad, but not so bad as to break your suspension, so long as you drive at an appropriate speed. Much of the way, that means staying in 2nd and 3rd gear.

On the plus side, the road carries almost no traffic, and much of the route is shady ... a mixed blessing, as it's even more difficult to see the potholes in the dappled light. This photo was taken on a 3-km patch which appeared to have been resurfaced very recently.

On the entire stretch, I passed 2-3 jeeps. 2 minitrucks aka tempos and 4-5 cars, overtook one bike and was overtaken by another.

I returned by NH-4A, which is reasonably good between Khanapur and Londa/Ramnagar, but has dangerously sharp and deep potholes on the Ramnagar-Anmod stretch. Both routes took about the same time between Anmod and Khanapur, 1hr 10-15 min. The direct route is about 33 km, while via Ramnagar it's about 50 km.

For the record, the Anmod Ghat is in very good condition, the patch both sides of Molem is lined with a few kilometers of mining trucks (you are allowed to move up on the wrong side of the highway, but get out of the way when someone comes from the other side even if it means going off the road on the right) and widening work is in progress on Madgaon-Ponda road, with the attendant small diversions and disruptions that entails.

GPS track of the route is attached in KMZ format (opens in Google Earth) -- I forgot to start recording after a cup of tea at the Anmod junction, so the first 1.3 km is missing, sorry.

db

[ShanG]

Sorry folks for not updating my experience with the route earlier.

I did take the Option-6 (Option-6: Mumbai - Pune - Kolhapur - Belgaum - NH4A - Khanapur - Anmod - Ponda - Corlim - Goa) mentioned in my earlier post... Infact by mistake went straight on NH4 itself, instead of taking NH4A at Belgaum, for almost 40 KMs before realising the mistake -- then had to take the State Highway towards Khanapur and then catch NH4A before proceeding further.

It got dark by the time I caught NH4A and there after I will say it was not a pleasant ride... (1) There were quite a number of bad patches (rather deep gaps) (2) the Ponda Ghat was indeed quite steep climb up & down (compared to what I had expected) and both my kids had a difficult time with it. Hence I was mostly driving at 30 to 50 Kmph and spent long time on the road before managing to reach Goa University around 10:30pm -- not only did I take a longer route, missed NH4A to drive a further additional 80Km but the route also posed difficulties I was trying to avoid in the first place

This sure made me decide not to take that route on the way back to Mumbai.

Based on a friend's experience with Option-2 (Mumbai - Pune - Kolhapur - Nipani - Ajara - Amboli - Sawantwadi - NH17), I decided to try that for return journey. And when I did travel by this route, I did find the roads to be in much better shape while the ghat travel was probably for a longer duration.

PS - Just for those reading this post directly, note that I had made this trip in the New Year weekend of 2011.

[Darryl.Burke]

I drove from Madgaon to Mumbai on the 9th via Anmod-Khanapur-Belgaum-Pune. With my recent survey of the Anmod-Khanapur shortcut road, and early morning light that made it easier to differentiate potholes from leafy shadows, I was through the shortcut in 55 minutes.

Apart from that, it took 3 hrs from Madgaon to Belgaum, 5 hours Belgaum-Pune and 2 hrs Pune-Vashi. I made a total of 6 halts.

I'll be driving back to Madgaon at the end of the month and am considering going by NH-17. Does anyone know whether the Sawantwadi bypass road (via Malgaon) that looks to be a 2+2 or even 3+3 divided highway, and recently identified in Google Maps as "New Mumbai Goa Highway" is actually open to traffic?

db

[deutscheafrikar]

Originally Posted by Darryl.Burke

I'll be driving back to Madgaon at the end of the month and am considering going by NH-17. Does anyone know whether the Sawantwadi bypass road (via Malgaon) that looks to be a 2+2 or even 3+3 divided highway, and recently identified in Google Maps as "New Mumbai Goa Highway" is actually open to traffic?

db

db
where is the link to it on google maps. would be nice to see. please post the condition of the route you take back to Goa

regards

[Darryl.Burke]

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar

where is the link to it on google maps. would be nice to see.

Google Maps

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar

please post the condition of the route you take back to Goa

Sure thing. Still haven't decided though. NH-4 is very tempting, and I still don't know the present condition of NH-17.

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar

regards

And to you!

db

[Darryl.Burke]

Originally Posted by deutscheafrikar

db
please post the condition of the route you take back to Goa

Returned today via Pune-Belgaum-Khanapur-Ramnagar(Londa)-Anmod-Ponda. NH-4A between Ramnagar and Anmod has definitely improved, many of the worst potholes are now lumpy patch repair. There was still one baaaad set of potholes, all the way across the road and shaded by trees, which I spotted just in time to slow down.

Pune Expressway was jammed with trucks in all 3 lanes at the last Lonavala exit, lost about 10-15 minutes there. It was disappointing that the petrol pump at the second food court was closed -- I fully expected all petrol pumps on that road to be 24/7. Luckily I had enough fuel to reach Pune where I topped up at a HP pump alongside the Westerly bypass (on the service road actually, but at a point where the embankment isn't too steep to take a car down).

There were no mining trucks on NH-4A, maybe they take Sunday off.

Timing (including 5 halts):
Bandra(W) - Pune Expressway/Westerly Bypass junction: 2 hrs
Pune-Belgaum NH4 junction: 4 hrs 40 min
Belgaum-Madgaon: 3 hrs 40 min

Total 10 hrs 20 min -- started 03:25, reached home at 13:45.

db

[godeepdive]

Hi Folks

Am new to this forum and also to long distance driving. I am planning my first trip with family (two kids, one 8 year old and the other 1 year old) from Pune via Goa and Mangalore to Kerala. This query is about the route to take from Pune to Goa. I don't mind driving extra distance but would prefer better roads and less heavy traffic.

Having read all the threads, I believe the choice is between the below two routes.

Pune > Kolhapur > Kagal > Nipani > Uttur > Ajara > Amboli > Sawantwadi > Goa
OR
Pune > Kolhapur > Kagal > Nipani > Sankeshwar > Gadhinglaj > Ajara > Amboli > Sawantwadi > Goa
(I see that there are still concerns about the route via Belgaum due to road conditions and the mining trucks - therefore not going for that).
I am planning this trip on 30th April. Would like to know if anyone has any recent updates on the road conditions and can help me finalise the route to take.
(thanks to all the folks who have made such detailed posts as it made my task of identifying the routes and the options much easier.)

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by godeepdive

Hi Folks

Am new to this forum and also to long distance driving. I am planning my first trip with family (two kids, one 8 year old and the other 1 year old) from Pune via Goa and Mangalore to Kerala. This query is about the route to take from Pune to Goa. I don't mind driving extra distance but would prefer better roads and less heavy traffic.

Pune > Kolhapur > Kagal > Nipani > Uttur > Ajara > Amboli > Sawantwadi > Goa
OR
Pune > Kolhapur > Kagal > Nipani > Sankeshwar > Gadhinglaj > Ajara > Amboli > Sawantwadi > Goa

The Sankeshwar route is better as opposed to the Nippani-Ajra one.

From Goa to Kerala,till Karwar,expect dense traffic.Karwar to Bhatkal,is bliss speeds of 90-100.

From Marvanthe till Mangalore 4 laning in progress so the roads are a mess and very heavy traffic with the express buses adding to the chaos.

From Mangalore till Kasargod roads are just about ok.

Kasargod-Kannur has some bad sections and dense traffic again.

Not sure where in Kerala you are heading to,I drove Palakkad-Mumbai last month and Palakkad-Mangalore took us close to 7-8hours.

Places to stop for eats:Kamats at Kumta,Ankola

CCD after Udupi.

KTDC Tamarind Easy at Parsinikadavu.

[godeepdive]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

The Sankeshwar route is better as opposed to the Nippani-Ajra one.

Not sure where in Kerala you are heading to,I drove Palakkad-Mumbai last month and Palakkad-Mangalore took us close to 7-8hours.

@ranjit. Thanks. I guess I will go for the Sankeshwar route. I am heading for Ernakulam. In terms of driving time Mangalore- Ernakulam, presume will be the same as Mangalore - Palakkad ?