[AJ-got-BHP]

Originally Posted by nihilultra

Dear Friends

I am planning to go to Deoghar from Kolkata in the second week of June.

Can you tell me, which is the best route, going by road conditions and safety?

Google Map is showing me the following route:

Kolkata - Bardhaman- Panagarh - Durgapur - Raniganj - Asansol - Chittaranjan - Jamtara - Sarath- Pichhli - Bhadwari - Deoghar.

Is this a good route to take?

Hello nihilultra !!

I guess a fellow Xaverian's Travelogue belonging to yours truely might help. Sharing a link : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...nath-figo.html

[nihilultra]

Originally Posted by AJ-got-BHP

Hello nihilultra !!

I guess a fellow Xaverian's Travelogue belonging to yours truely might help. Sharing a link : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...nath-figo.html

Thank you Arav! I have been keenly following all your wonderful travelogues. How did I miss this! I will definitely bother you a couple of times then

[Samratrek]

Dear BHPians
I am planning to drive from Raxaul (Birgunj Nepal border) to Siliguri through India in the next 10/15 days.
Though the shortest distance is through Nepal i.e. 430 km, I would like to explore the roads in North Bihar.
Google Maps is giving the following route:
Raxaul-Motihari-Muzaffarpur-Darbhanga-Pratapganj-Forbesganj-Araria-Bahadurganj-Thakurganj-Siliguri.
I am aware about the Raxaul-Muzaffarpur stretch, need information on the remaining section i.e. the Muzaffarpur-Siliguri stretch.
I think Sheel can help me on this.
By the way "nihilultra", me too a Kolkata SXCian 1994 Chem Batch.
Regards
Samrat

[rahul_kej]

Originally Posted by Samratrek

Dear BHPians
I am aware about the Raxaul-Muzaffarpur stretch, need information on the remaining section i.e. the Muzaffarpur-Siliguri stretch.
I think Sheel can help me on this.
By the way "nihilultra", me too a Kolkata SXCian 1994 Chem Batch.
Regards
Samrat

Muzzafarpur to Araria is excellent 4 lane highway. After Araria two lane road starts and the roads are rough for approx 20km stretch but after that excellent two lane marked roads till Siliguri, where you can maintain good average speed too due to less traffic.

So the route is Muzzafarpur Darbhanga Forbesgunj Araria Bhadurganj Thakurganj Panitanki Siliguri.

After Panitanki be little careful with speed checks right till Siliguri.

[Sheel]

Post Araria and till a place called Jokihat, there will be lots of unruly local traffic, plus all kinds of market right on the road and the roads are being laid and it might be raining, so do exercise caution.

Rest, Rahul has summed up.

[mmchak@gmail.co]

Between June and Now, there is not a single info on this route - well I take in this fashion, route via SH7 is becoming a standard one, old NH34 is getting better, though still quite unpredictable and people still take burdwan, darjeling more moregrame route... any new update?

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by mmchak@gmail.co

Between June and Now, there is not a single info on this route - .. any new update?

Sorry, I forgot to make an update. Did this route on 24th of August and returned on 26th.

Road surface is good overall.

Two deterrents, one is the large number of speed breakers in JH sector on good roads and the other [as usual] is Bhagalpur.

While going and coming to Bhagalpur, timing is a key. While exiting Bhagalpur [and going towards JH] try to do this after 8 AM and before 12 -1 in the noon. And when coming to Bhagalpur and going further ahead to North Bengal, would suggest this time as well, but you may delay it by 2 hours at the very best, not longer.

On 24th, we exited Bhagalpur at 18:00 hrs and we were in Kolkata at 1 in the morning with breaks [fuel, bio tea/dinner].

While coming back, I was riding a Triumph Speed Triple S 765 and had a nightmare post Dhaka more towards Bhagalpur. Lines of truck parked because of no entry and when a bus/truck approached from other end, it was a mayhem. I had to crawl through mud/slush on those soft sticky Pirelli Diablo Super Corsa tires.

Apart from Bhagalpur, its almost a smooth sailing. Road surface though has a bit of deterioration from Vikramsila Setu till NH-31 and slightly from Bhalapur onwards till Bihar border, but nothing much bad. I think going by experiences, I will continue to pick this over the NH-34 till its completely sorted.

[themagicclicks]

Driving to Gangtok on 24th of September, as of now, situation seem to be "not so good" and NH10 had a massive landslided just about 2 days ago. Any one who traveled recently or teamBHPians from Siliguri specially Rahul (@rahul_kej ) with updates on road condition from Siliguri to Gangtok?

Any help and guidance will be greatly appreciated, travelling with an infant means trying to preempt holdups or avoid extreme bad roads. I selected Gangtok because in November road to Pelling was in a pretty bad shape, where as that to Gangtok of course is much better, but things seem to have deteriorated this late, in early September, this year.

[rahul_kej]

Originally Posted by themagicclicks

Driving to Gangtok on 24th of September, as of now, situation seem to be "not so good" and NH10 had a massive landslided just about 2 days ago. Any one who traveled recently or teamBHPians from Siliguri specially Rahul (@rahul_kej ) with updates on road condition from Siliguri to Gangtok?

Though landslides can happen anytime but rains has subsidised lots here. Your travel is after 8 days so i don't think that will be an issue. Currently clearing process is going on in a section just after Siliguri and road will be operational by today.

[Sheel]

Vikramshila Setu to be non operational from 28th September to 15th October.

If you are looking for an alternate route and wish to avoid NH-34, there is nothing feasible at the moment.

[sayakc]

Gentlemen,

I have some more bad news. Excerpt from today's Times of India, Kolkata edition.Summary: "Farakka Barrage will remain out of bounds for most traffic.It says transport vehicles and light vehicles will be allowed on the Farraka for *some* time."

Q1. What exactly (e.g. two wheelers, cars ?) does constitute transport and light vehicles?
Q2. Is there any detour within Bengal which can help bypass this closure? Or is the Purnea-Bhagalpur the only other alternative.

Kolkata:

The 2.25km-long road bridge over Farakka Barrage, which connects south Bengal with north Bengal and countries like Nepal and Bhutan, will be out of bounds to most traffic for 6-8 months from early October for full-scale repairs after nearly 40 years.


This was announced by West Bengal transport minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday following a meeting with the Farakka Barrage authority. He said chief minister Mamata Banerjee had consented to the emergency repair work.

Adhikari said the West Bengal traffic police would map the alternative route. The map will be placed before the transport department and traffic channelization will be done accordingly.

However, light vehicles and transport vehicles will be allowed to pass along the barrage road for some time.

“We asked for a traffic diversion for 6-8 months as overhauling the bridge has become necessary. In 2012, a study showed only 3,000 vehicles passed over the barrage in a day, but a recent study shows the road over the barrage caters to 12,700 vehicles a day, the majority of which are heavily laden multi-axle goods carriers,” Farakka Barrage general manager Saibal Ghosh said.

“A recent study by Road Research Institute laid bare the serious damage of the bearings of the bridge. This emergency overhauling is to prevent any untoward incident,” he added.

Adhikari said the government was thinking of alternative means of commuting via a RoRo (roll-on and roll-off) barge for goods vehicles, buses and passengers. Farakka Barrage is planning a separate four-lane bridge on its side as the twolane bridge on it fails to cater to the increasing traffic load, said a barrage official.

Originally Posted by Sheel

Vikramshila Setu to be non operational from 28th September to 15th October.

If you are looking for an alternate route and wish to avoid NH-34, there is nothing feasible at the moment.

Originally Posted by gmhossain

Kolkata - Burdwan stretch (also known as Durgapur Expressway) is a part of GQ. So it is a high traffic sector round the clock. However, I suggest you to decide on your place of night halt based on your convenience. It takes about an hour and half of drive between them.

[Red Panda]

Oh No! I have plans to drive to Siliguri on 13th October. Feeling worried now.

[gearhead_mait]

The decision is a direct outcome of the series of bridge collapse incidents happening in the state. This particular headline has the potential to be discussed in a separate thread as the Farakka barrage is the lifeline between South Bengal and North Bengal extending to Bhutan, Sikkim and North East regions and will directly or indirectly impact all the routes going towards the aforementioned regions.
As it stands from the news, all the routes through NH12 (erstwhile NH-34) would be impacted, be it going all the way through NH12 or taking SH7 to Moregram or through Panagarh-Moregram.

Only alternative is the route through Bhagalpur:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ding-nh34.html

But, the Vikramshila setu is closed till 15th October for repair. And as the headline suggests, Farakka bridge repair will also start in early part of October. So, will there be any overlap where the entire connection to North Bengal is broken? I don't think so. So, this puts the Farakka bridge repair work to start post 15th October, 2018. But will Bhagalpur be able to take the entire traffic once Farakka repair work starts? The RoRo service ("RoRo (roll-on and roll-off) barge for goods vehicles, buses and passengers") was a thing of the past when the traffic volume was much less. Will that be enough in todays time? And for us small vehicles, it is mentioned that light vehicles will be allowed to pass over the bridge for some time. Till when? And what after that?

A lot of open ended question is lurking in the air. Lets see how the repair work and related traffic management is tackled, provided the importance of the Farakka bridge and the 8 month long repair tenure which mainly coincides with the tourist season(s).

[gmhossain]

Originally Posted by sayakc

Q1. What exactly (e.g. two wheelers, cars ?) does constitute transport and light vehicles?

There are two parts of the planned repair. First one is relatively easy one: fixing top layer and expansion joints. This can be done by blocking one lane at a time and allowing one-way traffic periodically through other lane. However, replacing bearings (junctions between piers and super-structures) would require complete stoppage of traffic.

So, unless the truck traffic is diverted through Vikramshila setu, it would be a nightmare even if Farakka barrage road remains half-open. In this case, I think, all passenger vehicles will be allowed.

Originally Posted by sayakc

Q2. Is there any detour within Bengal which can help bypass this closure? Or is the Purnea-Bhagalpur the only other alternative.

There is no detour option within Bengal!

I am driving to Malda tomorrow (after a while actually!). If I gather any local news, I shall update.

Best,

[prasanna_indaje]

Following web page says diversion will be in place from mid November for single and multi axle vehicles :

http://echoofindia.com/kolkata-repai...ge-soon-141153