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Old 10th May 2014, 00:33   #331
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

Actually we didn't detour. We went through bhagalpur. But i didn't find it too bad. I think similar to going through burdwan for example. There might be a detour option other people know...
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Old 10th May 2014, 00:41   #332
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

in terms of road surface the worst part of route 2 (going north) is between bhagalpur and the bridge towards NH31
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Old 13th May 2014, 22:37   #333
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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Originally Posted by shanti ambi View Post
Actually we didn't detour. We went through bhagalpur. But i didn't find it too bad. I think similar to going through burdwan for example. There might be a detour option other people know...
Someone in this forum correctly said that the problem of taking this route is Bhagalpur town. Just at the end of last month I was struck at Bhagalpur for over an hour in a traffic jam. That is why I was interested to know if there was any other road. And it seems that Bhagalpur town does not have any bypass.
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Old 13th May 2014, 22:46   #334
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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Originally Posted by rahul4640 View Post
Someone in this forum correctly said that the problem of taking this route is Bhagalpur town. Just at the end of last month I was struck at Bhagalpur for over an hour in a traffic jam. That is why I was interested to know if there was any other road. And it seems that Bhagalpur town does not have any bypass.
Bhagalpur town does have a small bypass, but that is even worse.
The road repair work in Bhagalpur is mostly over & it is not so difficult any more to cross the town.
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Old 14th May 2014, 00:21   #335
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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Bhagalpur town does have a small bypass, but that is even worse.
Exactly Sir. It was on that bypass I had to stop for over an hour.
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Originally Posted by hvkumar View Post
The road repair work in Bhagalpur is mostly over & it is not so difficult any more to cross the town.
No Sir, my experience tells me otherwise. It is still difficult to cross Bhagalpur, at least during the busy hours of the day. I went to Darjeeling and returned back taking this route barely fifteen days ago. The bypass road goes through the market and is narrow, often choked with traffic, while the main road goes through the station and is full of unruly auto-rickshaws, rickshaws, pedestrians, motorcycles, etc. Of course, the situation improves once you cross the station area and drive past at least a KM.
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Old 14th May 2014, 00:57   #336
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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Originally Posted by rahul4640 View Post
Exactly Sir. It was on that bypass I had to stop for over an hour.

No Sir, my experience tells me otherwise. It is still difficult to cross Bhagalpur, at least during the busy hours of the day. I went to Darjeeling and returned back taking this route barely fifteen days ago. The bypass road goes through the market and is narrow, often choked with traffic, while the main road goes through the station and is full of unruly auto-rickshaws, rickshaws, pedestrians, motorcycles, etc. Of course, the situation improves once you cross the station area and drive past at least a KM.
Traffic - yes, that won't go away.
But the road repair work was causing more delays, that is no more an issue.
What I meant was that relatively the passage through Bhagalpur town is easier.
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Old 14th May 2014, 01:26   #337
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31st December I drove to North Bengal from Asansol via Suri-Rampurhat-Nalhat-Farrakka-Malda-Raiganj-Dalkhola-Kishanganj and it took me 20 hrs to drive 543 kms where as on 3rd I returned from Darjeeling via Siliguri-Purnia-Bhagalpur-Dumka-Masalia-Asansol around 500kms and took me just 11 hours..
The up route which i took was pathetic with too much truck traffic and huge potholes. I was driving Ford Figo Diesel with 4 co-passengers and boot full of luggage. It was a nightmare.
The new road which is ready from Dumka to Asansol via Masalia is great with minimum traffic. I would like to suggest this new route to people traveling from Kolkata even if its some extra kilometers but worth it.


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Old 14th May 2014, 02:18   #338
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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Originally Posted by rahul4640 View Post
Someone in this forum correctly said that the problem of taking this route is Bhagalpur town. Just at the end of last month I was struck at Bhagalpur for over an hour in a traffic jam. That is why I was interested to know if there was any others.
I confess, having two small babies we broke the journey in bhagalpur since Sikkim Kolkata was too far. This ended up being the right decision in terms of driving hours etc.
It took is about 15 minutes of bhagalpur driving to get in at about 6pm and about 25 minutes to drive out to the nice road to Dumka. Hotel name rajhans. Overpriced but ok.
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Old 14th May 2014, 12:39   #339
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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Originally Posted by lovecars21 View Post
The new road which is ready from Dumka to Asansol via Masalia is great with minimum traffic. I would like to suggest this new route to people traveling from Kolkata even if its some extra kilometers but worth it.
Dumka-Kolkata route is also in very good shape, except for a short stretch where a bridge is being built shortly before Sriniketan More. But I observed that the road from Bhagalpur town till you reach Jharkhand was not in a very good shape. Although it did not have large potholes, yet the top road surface had been peeled off and consequently you had to drive cautiously. Of course, it still has very little traffic when compared it with NH-34.
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Old 15th May 2014, 07:05   #340
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Originally Posted by rahul4640 View Post
Dumka-Kolkata route is also in very good shape, except for a short stretch where a bridge is being built shortly before Sriniketan More. But I observed that the road from Bhagalpur town till you reach Jharkhand was not in a very good shape. Although it did not have large potholes, yet the top road surface had been peeled off and consequently you had to drive cautiously. Of course, it still has very little traffic when compared it with NH-34.


Taking the Dumka-Kolkata route one needs to cross towns like Rampurhat, Bolpur and Panagarh before getting on the NH 2. My last experience on this stretch was not good. The roads are narrow with traffic. Even the road surface is bad. Compared to this road the newly made road from Dumka to Asansol via Masalia is far better. Its a 100 kms stretch and it took only 30 mins to cover. Hence i suggested this route. Now a days if compared to roads of West Bengal to those of other states, it stands nowhere.




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Old 15th May 2014, 16:52   #341
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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... Its a 100 kms stretch and it took only 30 mins to cover. ......
I am sure you meant one and a half hours.
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Old 15th May 2014, 17:19   #342
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I am sure you meant one and a half hours.

You are right. I am sorry. It took an hour and a half to drive 100 kms from Dumka to Asansol.


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Old 15th May 2014, 19:41   #343
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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Originally Posted by lovecars21 View Post
Taking the Dumka-Kolkata route one needs to cross towns like Rampurhat, Bolpur and Panagarh before getting on the NH 2. My last experience on this stretch was not good. The roads are narrow with traffic. Even the road surface is bad. Compared to this road the newly made road from Dumka to Asansol via Masalia is far better. Its a 100 kms stretch and it took only 30 mins to cover. Hence i suggested this route. Now a days if compared to roads of West Bengal to those of other states, it stands nowhere.
Rampurhat, Bolpur and Panagarh? Sorry no. To reach Dumka from Calcutta you need not go to those places. You possibly did not take into account the exact route described earlier by Anirban in this thread, while describing this route in detail. Though the road I took took me to the vicinity of Bolpur town (at Sriniketan more), it was only the town of Suri that I passed through. I did not go through Rampurhat and Panagarh, while I guess Purandarpur may not be described as a town. Trust me, the road I took was decent.
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Old 18th May 2014, 16:51   #344
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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Rampurhat, Bolpur and Panagarh? Sorry no. To reach Dumka from Calcutta you need not go to those places. You possibly did not take into account the exact route described earlier by Anirban in this thread, while describing this route in detail. Though the road I took took me to the vicinity of Bolpur town (at Sriniketan more), it was only the town of Suri that I passed through. I did not go through Rampurhat and Panagarh, while I guess Purandarpur may not be described as a town. Trust me, the road I took was decent.

Correct, the route from Cal is: Durgapur expressway, Burdwan bypass, Just before leaving Burdwan, turn right towards Guskara. Before Bolpur, Cross road towards Sriniketan (bypassing Bolpur). Road to Suri, through Suri, on passed the dam to Dumka. they are all good roads except one-bridge north of Sriniketan but not much traffic to queue etc. All roads marked on google maps. I am familiar with roads round here since I live in Shantiniketan usually. Those roads are quite fun to drive and little heavy traffic except perhaps between burdwan and bolpur.
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Old 25th May 2014, 20:26   #345
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re: Kolkata - Siliguri route via Dumka, Bhagalpur or NH-12 (old NH-34)

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This guide was sorely needed, now that both NH60 via Siuri to Morgam and NH34 via Krishnanagar are looking terrible options to go to North Bengal.

Assuming you turn off at Bardhaman & go via Bolpur, where does one exactly turn off at the expressway - and do you have to go through Bardhaman & Bolpur towns?

Wonder how the rains are going to treat these roads!!
I have just returned from a trip to Malda from Kolkata. I took the route via State Highway 7:

Kona Expressway-Durgapur Expressway-Burdwan-Khargram-Panchgram-Moregram-Farakka-Malda.

The stretches of the NH34 four lane work is complete and the State Highway 7 is in very healthy state(better than NH34, and you bypass the worst section of NH34 between Barasat and Baharampur).

I have shared the route details with the pictures in my travelogue:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ear-malda.html
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