[rakesh_r]

I will be travelling to Murudeshwara from Pune and will be taking the NH4 route-
Pune-Satara-Kolhapur-Belgaum-Dharwad-Yellapur-Ankola-Kumta-Honnavar-Murudeshwara.
Any updates on the road conditions and scheduled road blockages/agitations would be appreciated.

[ssen]

Returned back to Bangalore yesterday from Pune. Updates below -

Onward journey -
25th Dec 2015: Bangalore - Kolhapur - Pune
Travelogue:
Started from Bangalore around 6:30 am and reached Kolhapur at 4:00 pm. On the way we stopped at not-so-well-known places, first one being an eatery called aroma near Chittadurga. The next stop was at another unknown restaurant for a tea break. Since we carried our own food, pit stops were impromptu breaks taken at will. Realized that carrying own meal is an advantage on this route, since there are not many options available. The better thing to do would be to plan pit stops based on inputs available in this thread.

Night halt at hotel Ranjeet in Kolhapur; decent place without frills, ideal for a single night stay. Cost us around 2000 INR for a single room, extra bed, non-ac, complimentary breakfast included. The hotel is adjacent to a railway track and is frequented by trains. Did not find it very disturbing though, on the contrary my 4 year old enjoyed watching trains from the hotel window.

Started next day (26th dec) from Kolhapur at 9:00 am and reached Pune by 1:00 pm

Return journey -
2nd Jan 2016: Pune - Bangalore
Travelogue:
Return journey was planned without night halts. Started from Pune at 4:30 am and reached Bangalore at 6:30 pm. Pit stops: Sai hotel and restaurant (near Kolhapur), kamat upachar (near hubli), ccd (near tumkur).. Exact locations of these pit stops are already present in this thread.

Vehicle: Maruti Ritz vxi
Travelers: 3 adults, 1 child

Road conditions: Excellent roads, no stoppages or roadblocks encountered.

[hondadude]

Update from my Trip to Pune

Bangalore - Pune


Dec 25th. Started at 6:00 am from Bangalore (Bannerghatta Road) and reached Pune (Kothrud) at 7:10 pm. The details of stoppages are as under

1. VRL, a few km before Chitradurga. Arrival: 8:40 am, Departure: 9:00 am.
2. Coffee Day after Dharwad. Arrived at 11:40 am, Departure: 12:00 noon (Thanks Parag for sharing the information about new Coffee day just in time)
3. Kolhapur McD. Arrived at 2:00 pm, Depature: 2:50
4. Khed Shivpur for a quick bio break. Arrived at 6:15, Departure: 6:30 pm

Bad two wheeler traffic in Maharashtra but what made the journey worse was the number of tractors (with two trailers each) carrying Sugarcane, especially after Kolhapur. Diversions added to the mess but that was expected.

I filled up Diesel next to Coffee Day at Dharwad.

Pune-Bangalore

Date: Jan 2nd.

Our initial plan was to drive back on 1st afternoon, stay in Belgaum and come back to Bangalore on 2nd. However, after not so great drive between Kolhapur and Pune, especially after Satara, we decided to leave early in the morning on next day (2nd) to avoid that traffic. That worked, I encountered only two tractors in the entire Pune - Kolhapur stretch . Here are the details

Departure from Pune: 7:15 am
Kolhapur McD: Arrived at 10:30 am, Departure 11:00 am. Bad Traffic at Khambatki Ghats due to road widening work. Otherwise, it was fantastic.
Coffee Day Shiggaon: Arrival: 1:40 pm, Departure 2:05 pm. Blissful roads once we entered Karnataka.
Kamat Upchar, Sira: Arrival: 5:00 pm, Departure 5:20 pm
Reached Home on B G road at 7:50 pm. Encountered a bit of traffic on Nelmangala Toll road before NICE exit and on Kanakapura road after NICE.

What helped during both the long trips was that we carried a lot of food (mainly sandwiches) and that helped us take smaller breaks.

Thanks to Parag and others who have added so much helpful information on this thread.

I also drove Pune - Aurangabad - Pune during the holidays. The roads are nice. Smile Stone (20 kms before Nagar when driving from Pune) is a good place to stop. Road from Aurangabad - Ajanta is bad. Road to Ellora is good but has high traffic.

[paragsachania]

Bangalore-Pune-Mumbai-Bangalore update from my last week’s drive:

Onward:
Bangalore-Pune-Talegaon-Expressway-Khalapur-Imagica-Khalapur-Palm Beach Road (Vashi)
28-December-2015, Monday
0500 – 1945 Hours with lots of Pit-stops and detour for Adlabs Imagica Theme Park

Breaks:

1. Breakfast at Kamat, Ranebennur (45m)
2. Lunch at Mc Donald's Kolhapur Bypass (60m)
3. Fuel refilling at HPCL Station before Shirwal (10m)
4. Drop a relative at Talegaon before he gets a Taxi ( 20m)
5. Time spent at Adlabs Imagica for rescheduling our tickets (45m)

Return:
Palm Beach Road – Pune- Bangalore
1st-January-2016, Friday
1300 – 0300 Hours

Breaks:

1. BPCL COCO Khedshivpur & CCD (20m)
2. Vittal Kamat, Kini (80m - took time to cook everything we ordered)
3. Kamat Upachar, Dharwad (45m including refuel)

Highlights of the overall drive:

• Planned both onward and return on an Odd Day to drive in peace till destination
• One of the drives where I wanted FE to exceed limits while speeds to remain within limits
• Cruising speeds remained strictly between 100-110kmph with very occasional 120 only for few seconds
• Encountered fog between Tumkur and Sira during onward Journey
• Refilled the first tankful after exactly 786 Kms at HPCL COCO before Shirwal
• This time approached Expressway through Talegaon entry by driving all the way till Dehu Road and Talegaon as I had to drop someone here
• Return drive was deliberately planned with a post-midnight reach to destination (we reached Bangalore at 3am)

Route updates:

• No significant updates overall between Bangalore and Kolhapur
• Kolhapur – Satara is in good condition with new layer at many places making it a pothole free drive
• KFC which stood along with CCD and McDs on Kolhapur bypass is now closed permanently (Talk about Survival of American Fried Chicken in the birthplace of Kolhapuri Chicken )
• Satara – Pune 6 lane is still work in Progress – while North corridor has lesser diversions, the south one has more, at least double
• The work is only 70% complete but overall not a downer to drive this stretch. It has certainly made the journey better
• Pune Bypass work too has been progressing with a better pace now. Bavdhan flyover (Crystal Honda) is now functional, both ways
• Expressway was a breeze as usual, still remains one the best roads to drive which we saw coming more than 14 years before!
• Watch out for Bad patches before Khyatsandra junction, Tumkur when you are driving south
• New Café’ Coffee Day before Sira, on left hand side, towards Bangalore. This one comes around 7-10 kms before Kamat (Sira)

Here are some of the pictures from the drive (Logs, FE, Trip meter etc):

Fog between Tumkur & Sira during the onward journey:





The first refill was done with the Trip meter reading 786 kms after driving around 20 kms post low fuel warning light:



The FE as recorded by the MID (this was with speeds mostly maintained at 100-110kmph), 3 Adults and Kid, Loads of luggage to be carried to Mumbai and of course, full time AC:



The log from Bangalore till a point on Pune Bypass:



Return trip log from Vashi till Vittal Kamat, Kini (Before Kolhapur):



Return trip log Vittal Kamat, Kini (Before Kolhapur) till Bangalore:



The FE as recorded by the MID for the return journey:



The total round trip including visit to Adlabs Imagica twice (During onward and once with Vashi as base), driving around Mumbai (Ghatkopar, Eastern freeway, Bandra etc):



A simple proof that one needs to be only consistent and steady than drive at super fast speeds to be able to get the best average speeds. This is the log post Dinner break at Kamat (Belur Industrial Estate, Dharwad) till home:

[ssen]

@paragsachania: I guess this would be a naive question, but how did you record the avg speed during the trip? I was looking for a mobile app to do the same.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by ssen

@paragsachania: I guess this would be a naive question, but how did you record the avg speed during the trip? I was looking for a mobile app to do the same.

MyTracks is a simple app for Android to do that. There are many others too.

[udayjani]

Can someone guide me the route from chennai to mumbai?

As per Google maps, I should take the ring road circle and then proceed towards tumkur however I heard about the NICE road.

Last month I have done chennai bangalore and at one point after crossing krishnagiri ghats, I took a right turn underneath a flyover which took me to hosur, electronic city and then to bangalore. Most frequent travellers would definitely know this right turn. Left turn would be taken to reach salem.

Now I want to know whether there is other alternate route to skip the electronic city and take the NICE road which would directly lead to tumkur and then to belgaum, pune, mumbai.

Please someone suggest the best possible route? Can I trust google maps and use the ring road to reach tumkur?

Regards
Uday

[ampere]

Originally Posted by udayjani

Can someone guide me the route from chennai to mumbai?

- Drive via Vellore/Krishnagiri/Hosur to Bangalore
- After you hit Electronic City flyover, get on to service lane. (Keep to your left before itself)
- Within a KM or two you get turning for NICE road on your left.
- NICE is the best possible option for Bangalore bypass.
- Take it all the way to the end where it connects your to NH4 (Tumkur Road).
- Once on Tumkur road, you are set for another 1000km!

Route Link

[udayjani]

Originally Posted by ampere

- Drive via Vellore/Krishnagiri/Hosur to Bangalore
- After you hit Electronic City flyover, get on to service lane. (Keep to your left before itself)
- Within a KM or two you get turning for NICE road on your left.
- NICE is the best possible option for Bangalore bypass.
- Take it all the way to the end where it connects your to NH4 (Tumkur Road).
- Once on Tumkur road, you are set for another 1000km!

Route Link

Hi ampere,

I will be travelling in a self-driven car from carzonrent. So can you throw some light on inter-state taxes. As per their site, they haven't mentioned in inter-state taxes for maharashtra and gujarat. So does it mean that I don't have to stop at state borders between (karnataka and maharashtra) and (maharashtra and gujarat) to pay the inter-state taxes.

What would happen if I don't pay the taxes and ride inside the state? Will I be stopped and how much fine should I have to pay?

Please advise.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by udayjani

What would happen if I don't pay the taxes and ride inside the state? Will I be stopped and how much fine should I have to pay?

I am not too sure on this. But many in Bangalore would know, as I have seen many use Zoom Cars down south. I think the Zoom app on your mobile pushes out a notification when you are approaching a state boundary, reminding you need to pay the tax (?). Lets also confirm with others.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by udayjani

Hi ampere,

I will be travelling in a self-driven car from carzonrent. So can you throw some light on inter-state taxes. As per their site, they haven't mentioned in inter-state taxes for maharashtra and gujarat. So does it mean that I don't have to stop at state borders between (karnataka and maharashtra) and (maharashtra and gujarat) to pay the inter-state taxes.

What would happen if I don't pay the taxes and ride inside the state? Will I be stopped and how much fine should I have to pay?

Please advise.

As far as I am aware of, you need to pay taxes while entering a different state. This was evident when we had hired a self driven Innova from Carzonrent at Delhi and paid taxes as we entered Punjab,Himachal Pradesh as well as the state of Jammu & Kashmir.

Since I was not a part of this self drive car (as we were in another Linea), I am not sure how much tax was paid.

Also, whenever I have drive to Gujarat, right at the interstate Integrated checkpost after Manor (MH-GJ Border), I have indeed spotted few self drive cars ( Typically Zoom) which are parked along with the Yellow board cabs to pay the entry tax.

So I am more than just sure that you will have to pay the tax when entering MH and GJ for your upcoming drive.

Lastly, I have answered your query on the Bangalore-Ahmedabad Thread with more details here that can help for your planning with some important bits.

Some additional information on Food & fuel between Mumbai - Ahmedabad can be found here too.

EDIT:

And here's is what I found regarding your query on entry tax. Not sure if this is up to date but it will surely throw some light:

http://www.zoomcar.com/outstation

Excerpt:

State Visitor Permits:
In order to cross Indian State lines in a commercial vehicle, it is required that the vehicle has the necessary entry permit. Please see below for details as the precise charges differ by State.

The charges represented below are approximations for the amount you the Member will owe at the time of State entry. Please remember that all payments are to be made in cash.

[sreenathrcochin]

Cops with interceptors are a common sight when driving during the day from Bangalore to Pune. Notice them 20kms before Davangere, before Apoorva resorts.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by sreenathrcochin

Cops with interceptors are a common sight when driving during the day from Bangalore to Pune. Notice them 20kms before Davangere, before Apoorva resorts.

There are 4 locations actually/

First one is near Apoorva resorts, second one stationed at Shamanur Exit on Davanagere Bypass, One on Hiriyur Bypass stationed towards Bangalore before that huge left hander and one while entering Belgaum as well.

However, if one starts from Bangalore at 5am, you get to miss each of these anyway and hence these "Interceptors" have not become so famous on this thread till date.

[Klub Class]

During my last drive to Hubli on 10th, saw an interceptor (Tata Winger) few metres after the Shiggaon CCD (towards Pune). I'm not sure if this is a common sight

[Klub Class]

A new hotel has opened recently in Davangere - Sankama The Boutique Hotel. It's awesomely close to NH4 (just 1km from the Shamanur Exit). This would make for a good place to crash for a night. Much cheaper than Apoorva Resorts and more closer to NH4 compared the usually recommended hotels like Hotel Sai International and Hotel Pooja International

Google Maps Link : https://goo.gl/EpHQP2

Website : http://sankamatbh.in/





Room tariff :



Business Card :



Notes :

- Easy access from both the sides (while driving towards Bangalore, you'll find two high tension power transmission towers - it's hard to miss)
- Shamanur Road is being concreted and only the half of the road is open