[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Vipin Kumar

Considering this timing, I was also contemplating on taking the NH86 from Kanpur (as I start from Lucknow), and then travel via Damoh. But I have no clue about the road conditions beyond Kanpur.

Vipin Kumar

That is never in good shape, which is the reason why it was not recommended in the first place.

[nikesh]

Hi Vipin,

I would suggest you stick to route suggested by Kumar sir as I did that last Monday from Allahabad to Nagpur via Rewa and Bandhavgarh and his recommendations were spot on!!

I started at 7.30 AM from Allahabad(Civil Lines) and reached Jabalpur around 4.30 PM with an 45 minutes lunch break and few tea breaks. The route taken was Allahabad - Rewa - Bandhavgarh - Umaria - shahpura - Maihar - Jabalpur. I drove Vento and can confirm that with GC being 170 it didn't got touched anywhere below in this entire stretch.

Route breakup for your help :
1) Allahabad - Rewa : All the way single laned road with moderate traffic mostly trucks, some local autos and mahindra bolero/scorpio with few innovas(rare). I just got one honda city in the entire route and few altos. Thats it!! You can easily maintain 90-100 kmph on this stretch except for 20 kms before Rewa which is a half-baked road with just stones and immense dust. Here you would struggle with dust and chances of puncture. Keep your vehicle either in the leftmost side or, the rightmost side on this bad patch. That's the only way to survive your tyre here. I did check my tyre after crossing this stretch if they were still with air :-)) after this you will comfortably reach Rewa. Make sure you take the left to Rewa city approx 7 kms before Rewa arrives. Other landmark is there is a toll on Rewa bypass which you don't have to take. So take left before this toll.

2) Rewa - Bandhavgarh - Umaria : Extremely poor signage in Rewa city as you will need find boards for Shahpura or, Umaria and even local people aren't aware of their landscape much. Hence ask either for Shahpura or, road to bandhavgarh. There are many left and rights within rewa city and again with very poor signage so I had to use GPRS and seek help from outside whenever stuck. Road from Rewa to Shahpura starts with a thin state highway again single lane all the way but very smooth so you can sail quite fast. Surroundings around the road become beautiful with each passing kilometer and excellent roads in ghat section as well. Keep chasing for shahpura and much before shahpura you will find a right turn going towards Bandhavgarh National Park. There the signage is shown nicely by M.P. Tourism. About 10 km before the national park on this road you will get a left turn that you need to take that goes all the way between the national park to Umaria. Restaurants inside the park were expensive. I did stop casually but realized that Umaria will be a better stop for lunch hence proceeded further. Umaria is only 25 kms from the park but the initial 15 kms that goes within the park is very bad. Looks like they have left it for wild animals. Youwill be asked to make entries about your whereabouts in the register that they maintain on your entry and exit. Its their normal process.. Once you sail successfully through the bad patch of national park you can take halt for lunch at Umaria where there are good restaurants and cheaper too.. Here just remember that when you reach Umaria from national park you hit a T-junction from where the right turn goes towards Shahpura and left to Umaria city. In case you plan to have lunch, take left and there are quite few good ones in a km radius. Once you are full, come back on this road towards shahpura.

3) Umaria - Shahpura - Maihar - Jabalpur : Good scenic roads, all single lane but fun to drive. You can maintain good speeds as per your comfort and track to Maihar is supersonic. Once you arrive at Maihar there is no bypass and you go across the small town with crowds around you all eager to touch! From Maihar to Jabalpur again a beautiful road going around the hills and super smooth. Not much eating options on the way though so keep your water cans and fuel tank filled up adequately prior to this.

Hope these details are helpful and you have a nice trip. This entire stretch is lonely from Rewa itself hence would suggest you have a tubeless repair puncture kit for you handy and spare tyre in good shape as the repair options will be quite distant.

Wish you good luck !!!

[nikesh]

Hi Vipin,

I would suggest you stick to route suggested by Kumar sir as I did that last Monday from Allahabad to Nagpur via Rewa and Bandhavgarh and his recommendations were spot on!!

I started at 7.30 AM from Allahabad(Civil Lines) and reached Jabalpur around 4.30 PM with an 45 minutes lunch break and few tea breaks. The route taken was Allahabad - Rewa - Bandhavgarh - Umaria - shahpura - Maihar - Jabalpur. I drove Vento and can confirm that with GC being 170 it didn't got touched anywhere below in this entire stretch.

Route breakup for your help :
1) Allahabad - Rewa : All the way single laned road with moderate traffic mostly trucks, some local autos and mahindra bolero/scorpio with few innovas(rare). I just got one honda city in the entire route and few altos. Thats it!! You can easily maintain 90-100 kmph on this stretch except for 20 kms before Rewa which is a half-baked road with just stones and immense dust. Here you would struggle with dust and chances of puncture. Keep your vehicle either in the leftmost side or, the rightmost side on this bad patch. That's the only way to survive your tyre here. I did check my tyre after crossing this stretch if they were still with air :-)) after this you will comfortably reach Rewa. Make sure you take the left to Rewa city approx 7 kms before Rewa arrives. Other landmark is there is a toll on Rewa bypass which you don't have to take. So take left before this toll.

2) Rewa - Bandhavgarh - Umaria : Extremely poor signage in Rewa city as you will need find boards for Shahpura or, Umaria and even local people aren't aware of their landscape much. Hence ask either for Shahpura or, road to bandhavgarh. There are many left and rights within rewa city and again with very poor signage so I had to use GPRS and seek help from outside whenever stuck. Road from Rewa to Shahpura starts with a thin state highway again single lane all the way but very smooth so you can sail quite fast. Surroundings around the road become beautiful with each passing kilometer and excellent roads in ghat section as well. Keep chasing for shahpura and much before shahpura you will find a right turn going towards Bandhavgarh National Park. There the signage is shown nicely by M.P. Tourism. About 10 km before the national park on this road you will get a left turn that you need to take that goes all the way between the national park to Umaria. Restaurants inside the park were expensive. I did stop casually but realized that Umaria will be a better stop for lunch hence proceeded further. Umaria is only 25 kms from the park but the initial 15 kms that goes within the park is very bad. Looks like they have left it for wild animals. Youwill be asked to make entries about your whereabouts in the register that they maintain on your entry and exit. Its their normal process.. Once you sail successfully through the bad patch of national park you can take halt for lunch at Umaria where there are good restaurants and cheaper too.. Here just remember that when you reach Umaria from national park you hit a T-junction from where the right turn goes towards Shahpura and left to Umaria city. In case you plan to have lunch, take left and there are quite few good ones in a km radius. Once you are full, come back on this road towards shahpura.

3) Umaria - Shahpura - Maihar - Jabalpur : Good scenic roads, all single lane but fun to drive. You can maintain good speeds as per your comfort and track to Maihar is supersonic. Once you arrive at Maihar there is no bypass and you go across the small town with crowds around you all eager to touch! From Maihar to Jabalpur again a beautiful road going around the hills and super smooth. Not much eating options on the way though so keep your water cans and fuel tank filled up adequately prior to this.

Hope these details are helpful and you have a nice trip. This entire stretch is lonely from Rewa itself hence would suggest you have a tubeless repair puncture kit for you handy and spare tyre in good shape as the repair options will be quite distant.

Wish you good luck !!!

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by nikesh

I started at 7.30 AM from Allahabad(Civil Lines) and reached Jabalpur around 4.30 PM with an 45 minutes lunch break and few tea breaks. The route taken was Allahabad - Rewa - Bandhavgarh - Umaria - shahpura - Maihar - Jabalpur. I drove Vento and can confirm that with GC being 170 it didn't got touched anywhere below in this entire stretch.

Looks like its raining experiences on this route here @ TBHP when its just about a week away from taking this route . I will be actually starting from Varanasi and then via Allahabad over Naini bridge taking the Rewa road (NH27). Incidentally I too would be driving a Vento . Some clarifications please. I got a little confused with your route as you said you reached Shahpura and then went to Maihar till Jabalpur. Is that a typo? Because if you take SH22 from Shahpura you reach Jabalpur pronto.

Originally Posted by nikesh

You can easily maintain 90-100 kmph on this stretch except for 20 kms before Rewa which is a half-baked road with just stones and immense dust. Here you would struggle with dust and chances of puncture. Keep your vehicle either in the leftmost side or, the rightmost side on this bad patch. That's the only way to survive your tyre here. I did check my tyre after crossing this stretch if they were still with air :-)) after this you will comfortably reach Rewa. Make sure you take the left to Rewa city approx 7 kms before Rewa arrives. Other landmark is there is a toll on Rewa bypass which you don't have to take. So take left before this toll.

Could you please tell which highway took (SH/NH) going from Rewa? Is this SH9 which goes via Govindgarh and Beohari? Unless you want to take this route why would one need to enter Rewa city at all so I am guessing you took this. Please confirm. Otherwise if one wants to go directly to Maihar, the NH7 bypass and then NH7 probably is better since its good till Maihar after which it is broken. Thanks much for the tip on the roads. Is it just unpaved and/or filled with potholes.

Originally Posted by nikesh

2) Rewa - Bandhavgarh - Umaria : Extremely poor signage in Rewa city as you will need find boards for Shahpura or, Umaria and even local people aren't aware of their landscape much. Hence ask either for Shahpura or, road to bandhavgarh. There are many left and rights within rewa city and again with very poor signage so I had to use GPRS and seek help from outside whenever stuck. Road from Rewa to Shahpura starts with a thin state highway again single lane all the way but very smooth so you can sail quite fast. Surroundings around the road become beautiful with each passing kilometer and excellent roads in ghat section as well. Keep chasing for shahpura and much before shahpura you will find a right turn going towards Bandhavgarh National Park. There the signage is shown nicely by M.P. Tourism. About 10 km before the national park on this road you will get a left turn that you need to take that goes all the way between the national park to Umaria. Restaurants inside the park were expensive. I did stop casually but realized that Umaria will be a better stop for lunch hence proceeded further. Umaria is only 25 kms from the park but the initial 15 kms that goes within the park is very bad. Looks like they have left it for wild animals. Youwill be asked to make entries about your whereabouts in the register that they maintain on your entry and exit. Its their normal process.. Once you sail successfully through the bad patch of national park you can take halt for lunch at Umaria where there are good restaurants and cheaper too.. Here just remember that when you reach Umaria from national park you hit a T-junction from where the right turn goes towards Shahpura and left to Umaria city. In case you plan to have lunch, take left and there are quite few good ones in a km radius. Once you are full, come back on this road towards shahpura.

Again it does look like you took SH9 from Rewa and then SH10 going through Tala, Parasi and then Umaria. Sorry for getting so confused. Will be of immense help if you could upload your route map.

[hvkumar]

I think Nikesh mixed up the roads a bit - when he explained - and the route is as follows:

Rewa-NH7-Maihar-turn off NH7-Bandhavgarh NP-Umaria (where you intersect the NH78)-Shahpura (where you join the Amarkantak-Jabalpur road)-Jabalpur.

Here it is on G Maps:
Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India to Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India - Google Maps

However, but for the mix-up in listing out the route, Nikesh's description of the route is perfect. Please correct me in case my deduction is wrong, Nikesh

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by nikesh

2) Rewa - Bandhavgarh - Umaria : Extremely poor signage in Rewa city as you will need find boards for Shahpura or, Umaria and even local people aren't aware of their landscape much. Hence ask either for Shahpura or, road to bandhavgarh. There are many left and rights within rewa city and again with very poor signage so I had to use GPRS and seek help from outside whenever stuck. Road from Rewa to Shahpura starts with a thin state highway again single lane all the way but very smooth so you can sail quite fast.

You can either take the Rewa bypass or go through city (the former preferred). You can go on NH7 itself Maihar before turning off for Umariya. Therefore, in case you are lost inside Rewa town, ask for the NH7/Jabalpur road.

Surroundings around the road become beautiful with each passing kilometer and excellent roads in ghat section as well. Keep chasing for shahpura and much before shahpura you will find a right turn going towards Bandhavgarh National Park. There the signage is shown nicely by M.P. Tourism. About 10 km before the national park on this road you will get a left turn that you need to take that goes all the way between the national park to Umaria.

Nikesh, are there any night drive restrictions on this forest route? Registration at check posts?

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

I think Nikesh mixed up the roads a bit - when he explained - and the route is as follows:

Rewa-NH7-Maihar-turn off NH7-Bandhavgarh NP-Umaria (where you intersect the NH78)-Shahpura (where you join the Amarkantak-Jabalpur road)-Jabalpur.

Here it is on G Maps:
Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India to Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India - Google Maps

However, but for the mix-up in listing out the route, Nikesh's description of the route is perfect. Please correct me in case my deduction is wrong, Nikesh

Ah thanks HVK sir. The manager of the hotel I am staying at has been insisting me to take the Beohari route through SH9 and SH10. Since there is no prior feedback on this route I am not too keen. A member did post on this thread that the route is also pretty good. Though I did find quite an extent of this route on ghats and it runs through NH75 which could be iffy. Would you have any knowledge of this route?

[nikesh]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Ah thanks HVK sir. The manager of the hotel I am staying at has been insisting me to take the Beohari route through SH9 and SH10. Since there is no prior feedback on this route I am not too keen. A member did post on this thread that the route is also pretty good. Though I did find quite an extent of this route on ghats and it runs through NH75 which could be iffy. Would you have any knowledge of this route?

Apologies for the typos in the route details. Route suggested by Kumar sir is what I took and have already detailed the road condition and the possible obstacles.

Regarding bad patches on road before Rewa its a sand paved road but full of nasty stones. So be on you extreme left and beware of some big stones left out by truck drivers post their puncture repairs. Average speed 40 kmph possible. The bad patch inside the bandhavgarh national park is a broken road which again can be easily crossed if you keep your vehicle on extreme right side. Average speed here will be between 10-30 kmph.

Road around bandhavgarh is very sparsely populated and you will have to make register entries couple of times in that stretch for security reasons. Could find any restrictions on night driving though!

In M.P. roads can be worse at the moment than your wildest imagination which i discovered in my recent M.P. road trip . So avoid taking any unknown roads because the only vehicles that you will see being driven there are Mahindra ones which can sail through any bad patch. With sedans like Vento, stick to suggested route by the experts. Don't worry about few extra kms as you can easily cover that on good stretches that I have already confirmed you.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Ah thanks HVK sir. The manager of the hotel I am staying at has been insisting me to take the Beohari route through SH9 and SH10. Since there is no prior feedback on this route I am not too keen. A member did post on this thread that the route is also pretty good. Though I did find quite an extent of this route on ghats and it runs through NH75 which could be iffy. Would you have any knowledge of this route?

No, I have no idea about the Beohari route. But should be good because most of the MP SHs are in very good condition currently.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

No, I have no idea about the Beohari route. But should be good because most of the MP SHs are in very good condition currently.

Thanks HVK sir. I just got off the phone with the manager of the hotel and he insisted that the roads are so good through Beohari (SH9-SH10), even "the water in your stomach will remain still", his words actually . He also said that the road after Rewa to Maihar has some bad sections and said by the time one reaches from Rewa to Maihar by NH7 one could reach Bandhavgarh taking this route. He also said that the road is also very scenic in the ghat sections for one to enjoy. So I guess I will be willing to experiment this time around. Rest is up to my luck

[nikesh]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Thanks HVK sir. I just got off the phone with the manager of the hotel and he insisted that the roads are so good through Beohari (SH9-SH10), even "the water in your stomach will remain still", his words actually . He also said that the road after Rewa to Maihar has some bad sections and said by the time one reaches from Rewa to Maihar by NH7 one could reach Bandhavgarh taking this route. He also said that the road is also very scenic in the ghat sections for one to enjoy. So I guess I will be willing to experiment this time around. Rest is up to my luck

All the best do take some snaps if possible

[ampere]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

He also said that the road is also very scenic in the ghat sections for one to enjoy. So I guess I will be willing to experiment this time around. Rest is up to my luck

Does this SH also go over the dam on Son at Ban Sagar?
Would make a nice view if yes.
I have been hearing of late that the water level has been receding of late.

- Also how is the road up to Shahdol?
- Any timings to cross Bandhavgarh once you leave the SH at Tala?

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by ampere

Does this SH also go over the dam on Son at Ban Sagar?
Would make a nice view if yes.
I have been hearing of late that the water level has been receding of late.

- Also how is the road up to Shahdol?
- Any timings to cross Bandhavgarh once you leave the SH at Tala?

Yeah this SH goes right by Ban Sagar after getting down the ghats so should be very scenic. One TBHP member on this thread did post that the road till Shahdol is good. I will be actually staying at a hotel near Tala so don't think I would need to cross into Bandhavgarh. I can only find out more details once I reach there next week . Hope there is connectivity available to do live updates (end of day) if I can thought not while driving .

[Vipin Kumar]

Originally Posted by nikesh

I would suggest you stick to route suggested by Kumar sir as I did that last Monday from Allahabad to Nagpur via Rewa and Bandhavgarh and his recommendations were spot on!!

I drove Vento and can confirm that with GC being 170 it didn't got touched anywhere below in this entire stretch.

Thank you so much Nikesh, It is really helpful. I assumed that there was confusion regarding Maihar. Mine is a Fiesta (what is now called classic) and has the same GC as Vento. (Did you make any other posting in the forum about your Vento experience?)

My originating station is Lucknow, and I can reach Allahabad only by 10.30/11.00 am. So either I must stay at Allahabad for a night or I have to prepare to reach Jabalpur by 8.00/9.00 pm, I assume.

By one lane, I hope you mean the regular highway with a line in between for demarcating it into two.

Can't we really reach a point of repair with a punctured tubeless tyre itself?

And did you stay at Jabalpur or continue the same day to Nagpur?

Vipin Kumar.

[Vipin Kumar]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

That is never in good shape, which is the reason why it was not recommended in the first place.

Thanks a lot. That really saves me from an unforeseen ordeal.

Vipin Kumar.