Trip to Durgapur : Family meets together for the Durga Puja. This puja vacation we were planning for a visit to my hometown at Durgapur, West Bengal. Plans were being made but my leave was uncertain, thereby putting a question mark on the journey itself. My mother and sister were being impatient as we could not confirm the dates till the last moment. The original plan to leave on 15/10/2012 had to be deferred as my leave was ultimately sanctioned from 19/10/2012 after much persuation. The whole itinerary had to be recast and we headed straight to Durgapur to enjoy the Durga Puja with my mother and sister's family at Durgapur.
I would like to convey my thanks to Samarjit Dhar, Sutriptada, Scuderiamania and Shabbir for their valuable information on the road conditions and alternate route suggestions.
The Linea had to undergo the First Free Service at 2530 KMs on 12/10/2012 instead of the usual 5000Km because of this journey. As per my estimate the odometer reading would be somewhere around 5700/5800 by the time I return back, so to keep the warranty valid the servicing had to be done prior to the journey.
Inspite of all my efforts, I could start the journey only at 6:15 AM on 19/10/2012. The road was smooth four-lane from Bhilai-Raipur-Arang, a distance of 75Km. From Arang to Patewa, Chhattisgarh (40Km) the road is single but good, but thereafter upto Singhora (and further upto the the CG-OR border) for about 110Km the road was in very bad condition. After crossing over to Orissa I took a small break for 15 minutes and my wife used this opportunity to arrange for an elephant ride for my son. Two elephants were standing in the middle of both the lanes at the border check post and extracting money from the truck drivers. My wife requested one of them for the elephant ride and they readily agreed, so my son had a great enjoyment in the middle of the NH.
From the border to Sambalpur the distance of around 92Km was not bad; four laning work is going on in this streach. After a little bit of manoeuvring within Sambalpur could locate the direction for NH42 to Cuttack. The 265Km to Manguli Chowk, NH5 was serpentine single road mainly through forest area and well maintained. Somewhere in between the forest area we took a half-an-hour to forty minutes break and enjoyed the home made lunch. In the way had to cross through Angul, where I filled the tank, and through Dhenkanal town, both of which were crowded. Actually I missed the Dhenkanal by-pass and crossed through the town, which was crowded with last minute shopping and all before the puja. Finally I reached Manguli Chowk at 6:30PM, thus covering 582Km in 12 hours.
Just after Manguli chowk I had to take a break for tea. Actually I was having a problem of misaligned headlamps. I was having a problem with the headlights right from the beginning and I got the headlamps alignment and focussing reset during the First service. But when I put on the headlights, the left one was focussing just in front of the car and the road ahead was in the dark. I took a break to see if the same can be fixed by some roadside mechanic, but in vain. I did not show any concern for this and continued with the journey but at a slower pace.
The journey from Manguli Chowk to Kolaghat (340KM) was smooth sailing on four-lane road, except for some culverts with broken surface. Crossed Jaleshwar at 10:00 PM without any hitch and took a break for dinner just before Kolaghat bridge. We had a long break for an hour and had a leisurely dinner and there itself we decided to cover the rest of the journey in a relaxed manner so that we can reach home in the early morning instead of disturbing everybody in the middle of their sleep.
We started at 01:15 from Kolaghat, filled the tank on the way and crossed the famous bridge without any hitch. Just when I thought that the road ahead would be tension free, I was caught in an ugly jam for about an hour or more. I went down to search for possible exit but soon realised that there was none for I was in the middle lane of a three lane formation and there was no sign of any movement from the trucks. The cleaner of the truck behind me informed me that there is a gap in the devider just ahead of us and I should exit from there to the right lane and continue. After some fifteen minutes the same person managed to make some way through the trucks for me to exit. I followed his advice hesitantly and drove through the wrong side for quite some distance before I could change over to the right side of the road. To my astonishment I later found that this is very normal between Kolaghat and Kolkata on NH6 and between Kolkata and Durgapur on NH2. At many times I found trucks, busses and private cars going through the wrong side of the road at full speed.
Crossed Panagarh in the wee hours of the morning without any problem. The road has been widened at Panagarh, though it is still single road. Finally reached home at 6:00 in the morning taking 23:24 hours to cover a distance of 1152Km. |