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Hi
We plan to drive down to Corbett on the 31st,request if someone can update me on the road condition from Moradabad to Ramnagar.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers

Did you make the trip? Which route did you take from Moradabad to Ramnagar

Which is the recommended route to take?Google Maps is
suggesting a route through small villages. i am guessing the roads will be too narrow.

We are planning a long road trip from Maharashtra in April.

I did the Ghaziabad-Corbett-Ghaziabad trip last week, and roads are MOSTLY very good. We started at 645 sharp from Ghaziabad, took NH24-Hapur Bypass-Gajraula for a stop at Moga Punjabi Tadka. Then we took Moradabad bypass and then the sharp left U turn. Then from the round about second exit and from the fork, LEFT it is. G-Maps shows right from the fork. NO.

Then, straight to Thakurdwara, moderately good stretch and then Kashipur, Ramnagar Corbett, again, good roads. We were headed to Sult, Marchula, so that's another 40 kms of hilly roads after Ramnagar. But overall, no traffic snarls, though, we took some colony roads in Kashipur, that google suggested and it was a good decision. Traffic was slow in Ramnagar town but that is it. Rest of the road is pretty good. Some potholes here and there, may be a total of 1% of the entire route. With many breaks (3/4) it took less than 8 hours, nett was maybe 6.25 hours of travel time. Return was via same route. Luckily, no jam anywhere. Again, around 7.5 hours with 2 relaxed breaks.

There are quite a few diversions, but no big deal. Many slow tractors overloaded with sugarcane and also coming wrong side are the ones to watch out for.

There is strict checking at UK border entry, for visitor registration. They are stopping all cars. Polite people, though.

You mean this route?:


And not the one Google maps usually show- straight to Kashipur on the right hand side of fork?


I had a very bad experience couple of months back when I followed Google maps for an unknown stretch of road. So, I am little inquisitive- whether it is a bad road, narrow road, too many diversions, roads through many villages or unsafe road?

And, is it safe to drive with family from Delhi to Hapur at 3-4 AM? I am planning to start by 2 AM from GGN to avoid i. Ongoing agitation, ii. Dense fog condition. Or this would be wrong to start so early? I am a newbie and hence avoid driving very fast. Night, fog etc. cause further speed drop.

Yes Riju, the first one. Good roads, light traffic and proper highways. Albeit undivided, in certain stretches. I am not sure if it would be safe in those hours, because it will be foggy too. The real menace seemed like the tractors with sugarcane coming the wrong way and with utter disregard for other road users. I would suggest you start from Gurgaon, 4ish, cross Hapur around 530ish. Had it been summer, it would have been a different decision. Happy journey my friend!:)

Will recommend starting around 4:00 AM from GGN, as stretch between Pilkhuwa & Garmukteshwar was notorious for safety concerns. In this way you can have nice break at Gajraula.

Also, with foggy conditions Nilgai will be a bigger menace on this route, so keep attention on either sides of the road too.

RijuC - did you face any issues at the Delhi border due to protests? I am planning a trip to Auli.

My schedule is on 22nd Dec. Certainly I'll try to give update for the border situation.

At 4 AM whether it would be more / dense fog than 3 AM? Or almost the same condition?

As the time approaches 6 AM / sunrise, fog engulfs my area (outside city bounds). Due to this reason I wanted to start early.

However, now I'll plan to start at 3:30~4 AM, thanks for the precaution note.

And the Nilgai issue is a new thing. It would be very difficult to spot them in foggy weather. I won't do any hurry/ speed up.

Thanks again to all for the suggestions and safety advices.

Apologies for the delay in reply, in theory fog should dissipate after sun rise, but fog conditions also depends on nearby water bodies, open land, temperature and wind speed. You can expect dense fog at Garmukteshwar and around open field stretches.

However, don't fret over this, drive carefully in a lane with blinkers on if you face dense fog and enjoy the ride. Early morning ride in fog has it's own charm stupid:.

Update:
Started from GGN on 22nd December early morning 04:15 hrs. Woke up at 2 AM and could see weather was clear, no fog. Hence decided to start by 4 AM. Once I touched highway, NH8 I felt I need some food. So there was a refreshment break, too early into the journey, for 15 mins. Crossed Delhi and then Jamuna without any problem. Upto pilkhuwa, 6 AM there was no problem. Suddenly the area got engulfed by dense fog. And it was zero visibility. I couldn't follow the vehicle in front of my car. And this was first time dense fog for me. So I decided to stop at a roadside tea stall. Was waiting to clear up or more light after sunrise. After waiting for 45 minutes, decided to follow some big trucks.

It was a good decision. Within 50 meters of that tea stall the road suddenly became narrow. I would have either hit the concrete road barrier or some vehicle.

Somehow I could manage by tailgating the vehicles, and all vehicles were moving slowly.

Suddenly I could see a Bikaner wala. And next was Moga Punjabi tadka. Stopped there for a pav bhaji and khullad chai breakfast. It was still foggy. 8:40 AM and I started from there.

There were few diversions and bad stretches. At one place we had to take the kuchha road because of the long trucks jam. However all these were manageable.

We were not allowed to take the moradabad bypass due to the ongoing farmers agitation. Traffic was diverted to moradabad city, and it was a big traffic jam and waste of time. Could see some boards showing direction for Nainital and Jim Corbett on the right hand side. However, seeing the traffic I decided to go through the moradabad city. Horrible traffic conditions inside the city- wasted almost 1 hr 15 mins.

Followed the Google maps direction till the fork shaped point, and then took the left side road to thakurdwara. Road was empty, however faced some big craters. Kashipur road was not so good, and high traffic. Kashipur to ramnagar road was good. Ramnagar to Taj Resort and then to Dhangari gate was also good. Reached Taj at 1:30 pm.

Total time=4:15 AM start, 1:30 PM end; 15 mins early morning break+ 45 mins fog wait time+ 30 mins breakfast+1 hr 15 mins in Moradabad city.

Stayed in Gairal Forest Rest House for two nights. It was an excellent place, with renovated washrooms etc. Plus point was the roaring river flowing next to the FRH. One night I stayed at loghut room, and next was in the old British era bungalow.

And the best part was seeing a tigress, almost at the end of the safari. I'll post the photographs after resizing. Overall, the visit of Jim Corbett National Park was excellent, extraordinary.

Travelled on the Republic Day weekend for a much-needed break. Departed leisurely at 9:30 am and stuck to NH9 for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Hapur-Moradabad stretch after which went through Kashipur city to reach Ramnagar. On the Delhi-Ghaziabad stretch, it was easy to do good speeds whereas Ghaziabad-Moradabad was a mixed bag as at several places highway construction works are going on. Moradabad-Kashipur road is a single carriageway for the most part with several villages in between so average speed reduced to 60-80 kph. Crossing Kashipur city took close to 25 minutes as a flyover is being constructed on the main road leaving just enough space for one vehicle to go on each side of the road. Kashipur to Ramnagar was again a well-laid single carriageway. Reached our hotel situated close to the Dhela entry gate by 4:15 pm. This included 3 breaks for a total duration of 1:15 hrs.

Did two safaris, one in Dhela and one in Jhirna. Spotted a tiger from 400 metres away crossing the main road leading to the Jhirna zone from the entry gate but couldn't click any pictures. Overall, the jungle experience was quite calming given the year we all have had.

Took the same route while returning. I was a bit anxious on the return journey since we were returning on the 25th and were seeing several vehicles going towards Delhi to take place in the rally. Google suggested a route through Noida while going back since the other border was closed. This increased the travel time but overall the journey was smooth.

Hi All

A couple of queries related to road conditions from Gurgaon to Jim Corbett. I plan to travel on Thursday for the Good Friday long weekend. My queries are-

a) Are there any road closures on the Gajraula Moradabad section due to farmer protests? I see Google Maps reporting some closure near Joya. Grateful if anyone knows the real on the ground situation

b) Google maps shows this route from Gajraula >>Amroha >>Kanth >> Thakurdwara. Is this a good road or is it prefereable to go via Moradabad bypass?

Also in case you are aware of any new covid restrictions that affect a visit to Corbett, please do let me know. I will have a 4 yr old with me so would be good to know beforehand.

Sad to see that I could not get any response to my query above. Nevertheless, for the benefit of others, I did take this route from Gajraula >>Amroha>>Kanth>>Thakurdwara>>Kashipur and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The roads is extremely well laid with barely a 500m section that has potholes. I started from Noida at 4.40 am and reached my hotel in Ramnagar by 9.30am. this included a stop at Burger king for 20min and a detour to modinagar between Ghaziabad and Hapur. The detour happened because I did not realize when I had to exit onto the NH 9 from the Delhi Meerut expressway. being early hours, I did not face traffic anywhere and the detour also cost me only 5-6mins. If people are leaving early hours, I would definitely recommend this route to reach corbett.

My journey back was a disappointment. On the way back I took the Kashipur >>Thakurdwara>>Moradabad route and then NH9 all the way to Delhi. The stretch between Thakurdwara was certainly not as good as the one from Amroha to Kashipur. Many potholes, sugarcane filled tractors and buses driving fast. Overtaking could certainly not be done with a lot of confidence and I did run my creta into a few potholes while overtaking. The stretch between Moradabad and Hapur (particularly Moradabad Gajraula) should not be called a NH and they should not be charging tolls there given the scale of construction activity going on. It is very unsafe with the volume of traffic and the number of locals criss-crossing the NH randomly. I took almost 6 hours from Ramnagar to Ghaziabad with a half an hour break.


I also had the opportunity to try the Delhi Meerut expressway sections that were opened on Apr 1. While the expressway is good, the stretch soon after crossing republic is still under construction and becomes such a bottleneck that one ends up wasting 10-15mins here. It is bizzare that they have opened all the lanes and service lanes (perhaps 7-8lanes in total) of this expressway only to let the entire traffic merge into 3 unpaved lanes here. I think till this section is completed or a traffic management plan is put into place, the toll is not justified to be charged in future (not being charged currently).

Thanks for the tip. Will be following the same route that you took on your onward journey. We plan to take same route on the return journey as well. If there is any update please let us know.