[vivek_vt]

I read somewhere about a person doing Delhi-Pune in 29hours without much of high speed driving.

Even I have a wild week planned that time which begins with my college cultural festival in Pilani, followed by Chandigarh (my home) for diwali, Metallica and then F1. Hope to bump into you and your Vento

I am also doing a Delhi-Hyderabad car trip but not at that time. Starting from Delhi this friday (if all goes by plan). Will update about the timings and road condition once i am done with that. All the best for your plan. And since the date is much far from now I would suggest you to do a run-in before that. Come over to hyderabad for a few drinks.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by vivek_vt

I read somewhere about a person doing Delhi-Pune in 29hours without much of high speed driving.

Even I have a wild week planned that time which begins with my college cultural festival in Pilani, followed by Chandigarh (my home) for diwali, Metallica and then F1. Hope to bump into you and your Vento

I am also doing a Delhi-Hyderabad car trip but not at that time. Starting from Delhi this friday (if all goes by plan). Will update about the timings and road condition once i am done with that. All the best for your plan. And since the date is much far from now I would suggest you to do a run-in before that. Come over to hyderabad for a few drinks.

Oh yes, in fact I had read earlier about something similar in the past, just that I was looking for specific inputs; a few of which people have provided.

Nice to hear about your itinerary. Will definitely pm you around that time - we should meet up at either of the events!

As for run-in before that, I'll try my level best. But i'm saving my holidays for the mega event, so all I'll have are the weekends


Edit : Quoting nix1976in's post from the "Road Updates" thread out here - to save a copy for later reference on the road condition.

Originally Posted by nix1976in

NH8 is good all through...just drove all the way from Jaipur to Mumbai on the 1/2 Sept with a break at Baroda. Didnt see any evidence of rain damage anywhere....Baroda to Mumbai was covered in 5.5 hrs with 1 b/f break as well...so no issues there except after Virar for a few kms where construction is going on the highway!

[CANPUSH]

With VW Vento, running in is not an issue to my belief. If you travel to Delhi with breaks of 15 20 minutes every 2-3 hrs, by the time you reach Delhi, running -in if really needed will be done. (May be you take Pune-Nashik-Saputara road while going to ensure slow travel)

On return you will not have to worry about rpm if you do that.

Also I remember my friend did Delhi- Mumbai in 18 hrs stopping only to eat and nature calls single handed. With 3 drivers that should not be an issue.

I am not sure Vento headlights are powerful enough for 100 kmph+ speed during the night. Better check some day or get them augmented with more powerful but same geometry enhancement.

Happy journey.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by CANPUSH

With VW Vento, running in is not an issue to my belief. If you travel to Delhi with breaks of 15 20 minutes every 2-3 hrs, by the time you reach Delhi, running -in if really needed will be done. (May be you take Pune-Nashik-Saputara road while going to ensure slow travel)

On return you will not have to worry about rpm if you do that.

Also I remember my friend did Delhi- Mumbai in 18 hrs stopping only to eat and nature calls single handed. With 3 drivers that should not be an issue.

I am not sure Vento headlights are powerful enough for 100 kmph+ speed during the night. Better check some day or get them augmented with more powerful but same geometry enhancement.

Happy journey.

+1 to your points.

That was my same line of thought. Infact we were planning to stop at food locations every 2-3 hours - thus satisfying both the car & car owners

18 hours - that's the shortest I have heard/read on the forum!

As for the headlights, haven't seen much of an issue with other owners. Seriously I'm not worried about the car being a handicap on the return journey, concern would be only about the drivers!

[CANPUSH]

The fastest I remember was during the London-Sydney rally way back in late 70s (Must be 1977 or 78) the lead group covered Delhi Mumbai in 16 hrs flat! As fast as Rajdhani Express!!!

That also with old highway before 4 lanes. Ofcourse the traffic must be much less those days, The flowers in the garlands that were worn to the cars while leaving Delhi were still fresh when the leader reached Mumbai.

I think, if you time your travel correctly 20-21 hrs without driving like rally driver should not be impossible. My friends is actually a rally veteran who has completed Himalayan Rally twice. And he traveled in a BMW series 8 which is anyway one of the really powerful yet comfortable machines.

What I mean time is to reach those Toll plazas at such time that not many trucks are there. For example, second toll plaza on Delhi Jaipur Highway (between Gurgaon and Manesar) is known to take hugh time because of truck traffic.

May be some BHPian from that area will be able to tell you right time to cross that!

[neofromcapone]

just ask the winning driver to drive you back to pune.

[harishnayak]

@Ninjatalli - Have done this stretch and beyond thrice by road Alto , Spark and New Swift

The latest one being almost the situation you are in with a car ( all new Swift ) which had done only 500 kms when we started from Delhi last weekend however more challenging as we were only 2 drivers.

Started from Delhi at 6:30 am ( Drove non-stop ) and reached pune via jaipur-ajmer-Ahmedabad-Mum-Pune in flat 30 hours which also included stop over at Lonavla and Bhushi Dam.

The net on road timing being close to about 25-26 hours excluding the stopover at Lonavla/Dam.

We were in a hurry as we had to drop the car at my friends place there and i was supposed to fly back the next morning to Delhi.

The highway is a dream so start early and you definetely have an advantage with 1 extra driver and a more powerful car .

Here is the link to my FB with few pics of the trip

Facebook

[nikhilbelsare]

Wow! I am also thinking of doing exactly the same trip to attend F1 race (Pune to Delhi). I will be joined by 2 more people making it 3 travelers. I was thinking of traveling in my new Honda Jazz but was not sure if I should take a new car for such long a drive. My itinerary is not finalized as yet. But it will be quite a bit similar to yours. I am counting on getting 2-3 days free time around that weekend. In the worst case I might have to take a flight to Delhi and back.

I recently did a trip from Pune - Jaipur. End of June 2011 to be precise. The roads were nice throughout Gujarat and Rajasthan. There are some places where traffic could be an issue. Especially near Navasari and Bharuch in Gujarat and Ajmer. There are lot of under construction patches of the road around these areas. We used Fiat Punto for this trip. Traveled ~3100kms round trip.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Oct 26th : Pune - Thane - Surat - Vadodara - Ahmedabad
- Leave Pune early morning and reach Ahmedabad by mid afternoon. Spend the evening with friends/relatives & celebrate Diwali.
- Distance : 680 kms
- Travel time : 9 - 12 hours(approx)

This is totally doable. We had left at 5am from Mumbai on day 1 and reached Ahmedabad around 1.30pm.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Oct 27th : Ahmedabad - Udaipur - Jaipur - Delhi
- Leave Ahmedabad early morning, and reach Delhi by night.
- Distance : 950 kms
- Travel time : 13 - 15 hours (approx)

This was the part that I have no worries about. We got ample time to spare, if required we could stopover & spend the (27th) night mid-place and do sight-seeing and reach Delhi the next day.

I'll suggest take a halt mid-place. The roads are nice till Udaipur. But there are quite a few bad patches on NH-8 from Udaipur to Jaipur. My suggestion would be to avoid NH-8 and Ajmer. Take NH76. Udaipur to Chittorgarh is an awesome, almost empty 4 lane divided highway. From Chittorgarh you can take NH79 to Jaipur.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Oct 28th : Metallica concert

I am going to miss this.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Oct 30th (Night) : Delhi - Jaipur - Ajmer

Oct 31st : Ajmer - Udaipur - Ahmedabad

Again, avoid Ajmer if possible. Driving in the night with all diversions will be quite grueling.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by CANPUSH

What I mean time is to reach those Toll plazas at such time that not many trucks are there. For example, second toll plaza on Delhi Jaipur Highway (between Gurgaon and Manesar) is known to take hugh time because of truck traffic.

Well, I'll be doing that section in the night on the return trip, so shouldn't be much of a trouble hopefully.

Originally Posted by neofromcapone

just ask the winning driver to drive you back to pune.

Didn't know the F1 cars came with backseats

Originally Posted by harishnayak

@Ninjatalli - Have done this stretch and beyond thrice by road Alto , Spark and New Swift

Here is the link to my FB with few pics of the trip

Facebook

Nice! Btw your link leads to nowhere!

Originally Posted by nikhilbelsare

Wow! I am also thinking of doing exactly the same trip to attend F1 race (Pune to Delhi). I will be joined by 2 more people making it 3 travelers. I was thinking of traveling in my new Honda Jazz but was not sure if I should take a new car for such long a drive. My itinerary is not finalized as yet. But it will be quite a bit similar to yours. I am counting on getting 2-3 days free time around that weekend. In the worst case I might have to take a flight to Delhi and back.

Honestly speaking if you (and your friends) are up to it, then you should be doing the trip in the car. Alternatively, if you haven't booked your flight tickets yet, do check again - the ticket prices have reached the skies!

Even I have done Mumbai - Ahmedabad in the past - nice roads, except for the Narmada bridge the road is quite easy & fast to travel.

[harishnayak]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Well, I'll be doing that section in the night on the return trip, so shouldn't be much of a trouble hopefully.


Didn't know the F1 cars came with backseats


Nice! Btw your link leads to nowhere!


Honestly speaking if you (and your friends) are up to it, then you should be doing the trip in the car. Alternatively, if you haven't booked your flight tickets yet, do check again - the ticket prices have reached the skies!

Even I have done Mumbai - Ahmedabad in the past - nice roads, except for the Narmada bridge the road is quite easy & fast to travel.

Pics were just for the reference. You can always search me by typing harish nayak and i can add you. All the best!!

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by nikhilbelsare

The roads are nice till Udaipur. But there are quite a few bad patches on NH-8 from Udaipur to Jaipur. My suggestion would be to avoid NH-8 and Ajmer. Take NH76. Udaipur to Chittorgarh is an awesome, almost empty 4 lane divided highway. From Chittorgarh you can take NH79 to Jaipur.

Again, avoid Ajmer if possible. Driving in the night with all diversions will be quite grueling.

Avoid Ajmer and take a left towards Nazirabad (NH79/NH76). Once I went through Ajmer and I felt NH79-76 far better (see image)


Last month I traveled on NH79-NH76 route while doing Jaipur-Bangalore in an Indica (Solo drive)

Started at 1 am and:

About 1.5 hrs stop (nap) for headlight failure (Lesson: Don't use any high wattage lights),
Police caught at Gujrat boarder for checking
Hotel check in for bath/nature calls (1.5hrs)
Food breaks
Heavy rain at Thane area / traffic blocks
and reached Pune at 3am (26 hrs) at a speed of 80-90 km/hr

Considering you have a far better car and three drivers, you can easily do it in much much lower running time.

Also I got following advise from HVK to cross Narmada and bypass Mumbai (reverse order) while doing my trip:

"Bharuch-Ankleshwar bypass on NH8 is to be avoided because of the narrowingf of the River Narmada bridge. When you are approaching from Baroda side, you will near Bharuch (<5 kms) - at the point where you see a large fertliser plant to your right, there is a flyover, which you must NOT take (flyover goes onto the bypass). Instead take a right turn under the flyover, go 1 km or so, then take a left turn into town. Go straight on that road through Bharuch town and immediately after crossing the Bharuch railway station you will cross the Narmada on the Golden Bridge - a narrow 1881-built bridge. Once on the other side, you will reach Ankleshwar town shortly and rejoin NH8 beyond the traffic jams."

"HOW TO BYPASS BOMBAY via New Bombay - from South side

Zero point is Kalamboli where the Pune- Bombay expressway ends.
Keep going towards Bombay. You will cross several flyovers through Kharghar and Belapur. Belapur can be identified by the large number of office buildings to the left (including Konkan Bhavan, Park Hotel). After Belapur, the road climbs up a hill and comes down to the other side. The traffic signal at that junction is the Uran Phata. After crossing that signal you will cross Nerul (you will see the light pillars of the DY Patil cricket stadium on your left), and you climb up a flyover after crossing Nerul.

Expressway end-Belapur, 8 kms

Ahead of the Nerul flyover, you will see a complicated flyover coming up (the Turbhe flyover). Over the flyover is Bombay(it curves away to the left). Your road is the road to Thane (marked straight)( keep to the right and avoid going on the flyover). This place is Turbhe. Keep going straight and you will reach a messy junction with a signal and then a flyover curving away to the left. Keep below the flyover to the left (flyover starts to the right) and keep going straight. SET your trip meter here, since from here (Turbhe) exactly 10 kms you have to take a turn.

Belapur-Turbhe Flyover, 7 kms

You are now going on the Thane- Belapur road - goes through industrial area. First you will cross Turbhe Railway Station (RS) on your left. You will see a few flyovers – take only the straight subway type flyovers and avoid the 2 ones which curve to your left. You will see the Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) to your right. You will cross the Rabale and Kopar Khairne RS to your left.

10 kms from Turbhe, the road goes down into a subway (DO NOT Take the flyover going straight to Thane) and in the subway, turn left. This is Airoli, and the subway (after you turn left) goes under the railway line. The left turn will be marked for MULUND.

Turbhe-Airoli, 10 kms

Keep going on this road ( the Airoli Bridge road) and you will cross the Thane Creek (1 km bridge), at the end of which there is a toll gate (Rs 30). Followed by an octroi gate.

You will hit the Eastern Expressway (EEH) - flyover going from left to right. Left goes to Ghakopar/Bombay, straight to Mulund, and you turn right towards Thane. Down this road after 1 km is a flyover after which is a toll gate (Rs 30). After the toll gate, you will see trucks line up at another octroi gate and a stone tower, indicating that you have left Bombay and entered Thane. The road goes up a slope and when you come down that slope you see a flyover. Go over the flyover. 1 km down the road around a long curve, you will see another flyover - go on it - and this is a 1.5 km elevated road.

After you come down this long flyover (you will see ITC Fortune Hotel & Jupiter Hospital to your left and Hotel Lerida to your right), you will see yet another flyover - sign boards saying Nasik (on flyover).DO NOT take this flyover - go underneath (left side). The road meets traffic coming from the left, and curves to the left to meet first a small junction, then a small round. Keep going straight - you are now in the Ghodbunder road. You will see the Cinemax multiplex on your left, Ford showroom on your right.

Go on this road 16 kms and you will reach the NH8 junction at Ghodbunder (immediately after a toll gate - Rs 15), which is after you climb up and down a small ghat. Some flyovers under construction on this road.

At the NH8 junction, turn right (left goes to Dahisar/Bombay) and it is all the way.

This whole journey should take you 1-1.5 hours. The only traffic blockage you may face is at Thane near the last flyover on the route.

DON’T take the road from Kalamboli via Taloja, Shilphata, Mumbra and Kalwa to Thane, it is shorter but road condition is not good. And you can get confused too

Kalamboli, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India to Ghodbunder Rd, Thane, Maharashtra, India - Google Maps

[Ushuaia]

Ninja,

Best of luck for your trip, Coolcloud in his last post has provided a good alternative to crossing Narmada bridge.

I did Pune to Gurgaon 2 weeks back solo with 3 meal/fuel breaks and 1-2 quick stops. This route is doable in 28 hours flat unhurriedly only when certain elements are kept in mind
- Before any long drive, if you dont want to feel too tired take 1-2 hrs nap. excitement will overcome but has to be controlled to ensure you are fresh at start
- Though there are multiple approaches for this route 2 of them worked well in the recent past
1. Start from Pune at 2.30 PM in the afternoon then you by-pass through Mumbra, catch some shut-eye/rest to time near Himmatnagar and your entry on Jaipur-Gurgaon highway at 2- 2.30 PM in the afternoon. by far the best time to cross over
2. Though advised against, started from Pune at 8.00 PM, crossed over through Thane, Ghodbunder, Valsad bypass crossed Ahmedabad at noon, hit Jaipur 11.30 PM (Peak truck ktraffic) managed to reach Gurgaon by 2.30 AM, since I was in a small hatch could weave through. Keep left the moment you see trucks on this route.

- Ensure you are tanked enough when you enter Vadodra - Ahmedabad closed loop road, I was skeptical but found a Reliance pump towards Ahmedabad dont attempt this when empty.
- As advised by Coolclouds take the NH 76 its a better paved route, but be careful of Bovine friends squatting, especially the black ones at night are nightmarish
- Some stretches in Rajasthan have liquified road surfaces, which are awesome for older cars as they really shake your joints off sleep. In a Vento you may only feel some sway
- What I recollect from a conversation with VW folks, most of their cars come with factory run-in. You only need to be careful not to rev-hard while shifting down and and keep your pick-ups smoother

Rest my friend is a country of willing souls!! So help is never far!

So long! would love to see a long travelogue.

[kchatt]

Hi All,

I, am planning to ride from Pune to Gurgaon to attend the Rider Mania (annual Bullet owners meet). I am new to Pune and have no clue of the best route.

I tried the MapsofIndia and got two options one via Bhopal and the other via Rajasthan.

Need help to finalize the route post which I will concentrate on logistics.

Any help is appreciated.

Kaushik

[acsandeep]

contact HV kumar sir,he is an encyclopedia of the roads or you can call him live GPS.He will definitely help you,here is his fb page Log In | Facebook.

[Ashish B]

Hi Buddy,

The faster way would be

Pune-Mumbai Bypass-Vapi-Surat-Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar-Himmatnagar-Udaipur-Chittorgarh-Nasirabad-Ajmer-Jaipur-Behror-Gurgaon.

The roads are great (except a few bottlenecks) and you can maintain good average. Jpr-Del is a very busy stretch.

Cheers!