[themagicclicks]

I am just back from a trip to Sikkim and took NH34 from Moregram both during onward and return leg (not kidding!).

This is really good to hear, that at least some part of NH34 is slowly getting to a motorable state, from what I experienced a year back, this is indeed a sea change. Hopefully things get better soon.

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by themagicclicks

This is really good to hear, that at least some part of NH34 is slowly getting to a motorable state, from what I experienced a year back, this is indeed a sea change. Hopefully things get better soon.

On my way to Siliguri, I asked the guy at the toll booth (Farakka-Baharampur section) when the Farakka-Raiganj 4 lane section would be functional. He informed that the work would start at an accelerated rate just after the Durga Puja. Going by this, one planning to drive around December should expect much better surface.

[Red Panda]

Originally Posted by gearhead_mait

One important thing to remember regarding Kaliachowk (as gmhossain pointed out earlier) - Just a 2-3 kms before the Kaliachowk crossing, private vehicles (and some Tata Ace and Boleros as well) are allowed to take the opposite lane (left flank of course) and merge with the correct lane about 500 metres before the crossing. One needs to make sure that he/she takes the opposite lane at the right time, as there is hardly any opening to the other lane if you follow the usual lane and you would be royally stuck between the trucks, and this lane hardly moves.

gearhead_mait, this diversion before Kaliachowk, are there any road signs or one has to just follow other private cars to cross this section?

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by Red Panda

gearhead_mait, this diversion before Kaliachowk, are there any road signs or one has to just follow other private cars to cross this section?

There are no signs as such. Actually between Farakka and Kaliachowk, there is a mix of four lane good roads and two lane average roads. It is at one such diversion from two lane to four lane, that one has to take the left flank of opposite lane. Follow the local cabbies. A marker could be the long queue of trucks on both flanks of the usual lane (In four lane usually trucks occupy a single flank and leave the other flank for the small vehicles to pass).

[NomadicLife]

Based on my recent trip to Bhutan I am trying to point out moderate to good road vs prevalent NH60 and NH34.


The difference is about 80 KM.

Please do not take this route. The craters will swallow you car. This road of 50 km took us 2.5 hrs. It completely spoint our mood of a road journey. I was travelling with an Innova

[themagicclicks]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Do this route [if you have to] prior to fog starts setting in. Fogs in plains are unpredictable.

Sheel, I am travelling around 18th and 25th of November this year along the Deoghar - Banka - Amarpur - Bhagalpur - Purnea to Siliguri and back, what are the chances of dense fog slowing down the drive extremely at that time of the year?

regards,
Neelanjan

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by themagicclicks

Sheel, I am travelling around 18th and 25th of November this year, what are the chances of dense fog slowing down the drive extremely at that time of the year?

Fogs are unpredictable, no?

Around 15 days back, I faced fog and it was dense to limit my speed to ~70. But post that, haven't seen much fog. Maybe, I can update around that time period.

[pyrodrive]

Done guwahati to kolkata and back in tata nano.

Thanks to inputs by bleakpearl and sheel , took the kishanganj- bhagalpur-dumka route.
Road update-
Siliguri to kishanganj- patchy road surface. Roads broken in places and big potholes with sharp edges can appear out of nowhere and damage any car.
kishanganj to purnea - excellent roads
purnea to bhagalpur- good roads towards purnea side till you leave NH31. After that worst roads as you near bhagalpur. Dusty road with huge potholes. seems like driving throught a paddy field.
bhagalpur- worst experience of the entire trip. while going we took the alternative ' byepass' and got stuck inside the town where they closed the road and dug a big hole wth jcbs in the centre of the road. Had to enter some narrow n crowded byelanes and lost couple of hours. But that is nothing compared to the return journey. This time took the straighter route and got stuck in a most chaotic traffic jam I have seen and it took more than 3 hours to get out of the mess. Lost so much time that we could make it only as far as purnea that day.
Bhagalpur-amarpur-banka : Bad roads with some huge craters that almost swallowed up the poor nano.
But road construction is going on and should be good soon.
Banka-deoghar-massanjore : great roads. Kudos to jharkhand for such good roads. Bihar needs to learn something from its neighbour.
Siuri- bolpur- burdwan-kolkata : good roads . After you get on the NH2 its a smooth fast run straight to kolkata.

Eateries: best avoided in bihar unless you go into the cities. Highway road side dhabas did not look too hygenic. A good restaurant is ther between bolpur and burdwan.(On the left as you come from burdwan side). In a drive from kolkata to siliguri by this route, if you are hygeine concious, I would suggest to have breakfast in this place and pack up some food for lunch.
Note on the siliguri- guwahati part : good roads throughout except a section near barpeta . But the good roads are interspaced by culvert constructions and diversions with bad sections.

[Red Panda]

Looks like, Kolkata to Siliguri long drives still will be a "Pain in head" for a very long time. Atleast in some stretches. Sometimes I dream, Kolkata to Siliguri and other highways as smooth as the Kona Expressway or the Yamuna Expressway. Ahh, alas! And then I wake up. :P

[subhojitb]

Originally Posted by gmhossain

Bijoya greetings!

SH-7 seems to remain in bad shape as reported by Unavowed_X9 here. On the other hand, AJ-got-BHP did Krishnanagar-Karmipur stretch via SH-11 and found it to be in excellent shape as reported here http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3767893.


So looks like at present the best route, surface-wise, to Baharampur from Kolkata would be:

(1) Kalyani Expy: Kampa Crossing - Bara Jaguli
(2) NH-34: Bara Jaguli - Krishnanagar
(3) SH-11: Krishnanagar - Karimpur - Domkal - Baharampur

There are few rough but doable patches even in above route. Lastly, sorry for the delay in replying to your pm as I was off to Orissa for last few days.

Best,

Just returned from the trip to Behrampore - Murshidabad. Had a great drive and a great trip. All the credit for the route goes to BHPian gmhossain. Thanks a ton for all your help

For the update to others that might help:
The onward journey took around 7.5 hours to cover 285km with sedate driving style including a 35 minute breakfast break at Krishnanagar. Kalyani expressway is in top shape. Had a minor stretch of around 4 km of not-so-good (I would not say bad) roads near Bara Jaguli and the rest of the NH34 till Krishnanagar is having good roads.
After Krishnanagar, took SH11 and was greeted with even better road surface and scenic roads till Islampur. After that till Behrampore, though the scenic beauty ceased, the road was relatively good.
However, the traffic in Behrampore town itself is very ill managed with couple of intersection points of the NHs and SHs with 5-6 local lanes merging onto it and only a homeguard managing it. The return journey took close to 9.5 hours thanks to a traffic jam at behrampore (1.5 hrs) and at Madhyamgram (about 1 hr).
Murshidabad town is a quiet one basked in history with the famous Hazarduari and Katra masjid to name a few. Hoping to write a travelogue. Till then, posting some pictures of the route

NH34 after Bara Jaguli


After crossing Krishnanagar and taking SH11


Near Tehatta


Near Karimpur

[gmhossain]

Originally Posted by subhojitb

Just returned from the trip to Behrampore - Murshidabad. Had a great drive and a great trip. ...

Murshidabad town is a quiet one basked in history with the famous Hazarduari and Katra masjid to name a few. Hoping to write a travelogue.

It's good to hear that you had a smooth drive to Baharampur! Please do put up a travelogue. I have not seen any recent travelogue on Murshidabad at Team-BHP.

Best,

[Samratrek]

I am an Indian working in Nepal but since last 3 -4 months my I20 is lying idle in my garage due to some agitations in the terai of Nepal & also unavailability of Petrol.
As such I decided to use my Indian No. Wagon R for drive to Siliguri & Lataguri with wife & daughter during my Diwali & Chhat holidays from my home city Kolkata as I was on a 8 day holiday.
I had used this site exclusively to find out for the best route to Siliguri from kolkata,but one of my friend who happens to be posted in Kolkata told me that NH 34 is nowadays fine.
So I took the kolkata -Ranaghat-krishnanagar-bethaudari-berhampore-Morgram-Farakka-malda-dalkhola-bagdogra-siliguri route.
Another post in this site had a deviation from krishnanagar to Berhampore through SH 11 & after going through the journey I understood why that deviation was mentioned.
Krishnanagar to Berhampore through NH 34 @ 70 kms or so is utterly horrible I wonder how the wagon R didnt have a break down.It is full of 8 inch deep craters along the entire stretch nonstop wd advise everyone to the take the SH 11 deviation.
The Berhampore Morgram Farakka was excellent 4 laned like the Durgapur expressway & farakka onwards to Dalkhola was also fine but you wont be able to average 70kmph as there as deviations & small incomplete streches.Post Dakhola was again fine but the NH 31 was not maintained properly with patches suddenly appearing which can take you by surprise if you are night driving.

[AJ-got-BHP]

Drove down from Nabadweep to Kolkata last week taking the NH-34 Route via Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Chakdah, Jaguli, Barasat, Jessore Road, Airport.

The road is in pretty good shape in this stretch apart from a few rough patches here and there. The 135 Km road took me exactly 2 Hours time !!

To be honest, I guess it was possible because I hardly got any traffic on my way back, having departed from Nabadweep @ 11:30pm (around midnight) and reached home @ 1:30am

So people who are planning a trip to Mayapur or Nabadweep Dhaam in the coming winters, please go ahead and plan as there is nothing much to worry about at all !!

[Unavowed_X9]

Originally Posted by NomadicLife

Please do not take this route. The craters will swallow you car. This road of 50 km took us 2.5 hrs. It completely spoint our mood of a road journey. I was travelling with an Innova
Attachment 1432954

Specifically did this route with an intention to try first-hand, and did that at night! I was in my Pajero. You are right, the craters will swallow your car. I have seen a couple of loaded trucks lying sideways as they couldnt negotiate the craters. During the drive, the vehicle would point to the ground while entering the crater and point skywards at the exit. Powdered dust all around that hampers visibility. Did all the Deogarh, Jamtara, Dumka sections as a recce to try it firsthand and im not impressed. I may be differing from the views of many bhpians, but doing the 70km bad stretch coupled with traffic on the Kol-farakka-Siliguri route was mentally less taxing compared to the frequent turns/diversions/passing through villages on the alternative routes. Atleast you know that its a beeline!

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by Unavowed_X9

.... I may be differing from the views of many bhpians, but doing the 70km bad stretch coupled with traffic on the Kol-farakka-Siliguri route was mentally less taxing compared to the frequent turns/diversions/passing through villages on the alternative routes. Atleast you know that its a beeline!..

Absolutely! Going through the feedbacks regarding Bhagalpur route now, the route through NH34 (from Morgram, connecting via Suri to DGP expy) to Siliguri seems to be the best bet. Nowadays, one should leave aside 45 minutes for Kaliachowk crossing and max 15-30 minutes for Dalkhola crossing. Bad roads, though still exist in this stretch, but are patched up at many places.