[gmhossain]

Originally Posted by black_panther

Attachment 1086077

For those who intend to take the NH 34 route and want to bypass Kolkata, might take the Belgharia expressway and use the road shown above to get on to the Kalyani highway. The link is official and wide enough for even trucks and buses. This avoids the 3 km road through Birati to get on to the highway at Majerhati More.

Yesterday I tried above slip road for the first time for getting into Airport-bound Belghoria expressway from Kalyani Expressway. I must say that in current road condition this appears to be the best option for getting into Jessore/VIP road from Kalyani Expressway. We returned via NH-34 as we had some work at Barasat.

Now I am wondering how does one get into Kalyani Expy from Belghoria Expy if one is coming from Airport? Is there a way get into the slip road?

Thanks,

[black_panther]

Yes. Please refer to my earlier post on this thread. The connecting road till majherhati more is about a km long and newly laid. They got rid of the speed breakers this time. But drive slow in this stretch as one would encounter bicycle traffic here.

[gmhossain]

Originally Posted by black_panther

Yes. Please refer to my earlier post on this thread. The connecting road till majherhati more is about a km long and newly laid. They got rid of the speed breakers this time.

Thanks! Yesterday I followed your suggested route. For onward journey, I drove as Kalyani Expy -> Majerhati More -> Shahid Nani Saha Sarani -> sharp right turn just before the underpass, followed by an u-turn onto airport-bound lane of Belghoria Expy. It was indeed pretty good.

However for return journey, at which point should I get off from Dankuni-bound lane of Belghoria Expy? I couldn't find it in your earlier post nor in Google Maps. Or did I miss something?

Thanks once again,

[black_panther]

There is an unofficial gap in the median exactly beside the ramp, which is bad in shape and not recommended for hatches with low ground clearance.

There is another one which is much better in shape for which one need to drive forward then take an U turn and drive back to the ramp (recommended).

[Secretariat]

Did the drive up to Siliguri yesterday through the Bhagalpur route.

I was coming in from Bangalore; so decided to halt at Durgapur to make the feared journey to Siliguri easier with a head start. I am on a sedate, long distance drive on a sedan, so chose Thumping Soul's recommended full route through Deogarh, even though it was far longer, to take advantage of the better roads.

Route was Durgapur-Domohani-Masalia-Dumka- Deogarh - Banka - Bhagalpur and then onwards to Siliguri.

My observations

- This thread had mentioned that the route through Masalia was very good. However I encountered bad roads to and through Domohani, so this stretch wasn't good at all and it took me 2.5 hours to reach Dumka





- Dumka to Deogarh is a superb road. Zero traffic. I was elated.





- Deogarh to Banka is however broken up in quite a few places. Nowhere as bad as the Hansdiha route, but it does slow you down. Traffic is sparse though.


The road starts like this - great






Then it becomes like this - still great





But, in many places like this - not so great





- Banka onwards, the road is better upto Bhagalpur and is not a problem. Unlike 1100 D's experience I had no problem either at Banka or at Amarpur. Even though the roads are narrow, there was little traffic and absolutely no trucks at all.

- Through Bhagalpur is a familiar story. I tried to follow Thumping Soul's suggested route, but got lost in the mayhem. When I asked around, nobody knew Tatarpur Chowk or even Vikramshila Setu !! I got fed up and simply resigned to use the GPS set to Naugachia and suffer whatever route it had to be. The bridge itself was completely empty, so much so that I even stopped to take a photograph of the river !

- Another surprise was the jam at Dhalkola. I had understood that this was a problem only for the NH34 routers, and that the route via Bhagalpur avoided this problem. Instead I got stuck for half an hour - main road, side road, everything was jammed and other cars were also stuck.

All in all, it took 12 hours driving time and 14 hours elapsed time after adding the breaks and the half an hour spent admiring the trucks at Dhalkola. YUK . Sedate driving style though.

Overall, Thumping Soul's route suggestion worked for me as I was prepared to go the extra distance to avoid extremely bad roads. My sedan did not get its belly scraped even once (hurray). But its not a great choice for everybody as the extra distance (56 kms) and the not so good roads between Deogarh and Banka, become negatives.

[Babuda]

Originally Posted by Secretariat

Did the drive up to Siliguri yesterday through the Bhagalpur route.

This thread had mentioned that the route through Masalia was very good. However I encountered bad roads to and through Domohani, so this stretch wasn't good at all and it took me 2.5 hours to reach.

Where did you turn off from NH 2 towards Masalia - Dumka? I did this stretch last September and the road condition was pretty good.

[Secretariat]

Originally Posted by Babuda

Where did you turn off from NH 2 towards Masalia - Dumka? I did this stretch last September and the road condition was pretty good.

I was intending to turn off at Kala more, but I think I might have made a mistake and turned earlier. Still, even the stretch past Domohani wasn't great although there was the nice advantage of absolutely no trucks.

[Babuda]

Originally Posted by Secretariat

I was intending to turn off at Kala more, but I think I might have made a mistake and turned earlier. Still, even the stretch past Domohani wasn't great although there was the nice advantage of absolutely no trucks.

I had specifically mentioned in my last update on this thread, that you need to take a right turn bang opposite Jubilee Pump (an important landmark) on the Asansol bypass. The road goes through Gourandi, Masalia and ends a hundred metres ahead of the Clock Tower in Dumka. The road is a driver's delight with plenty of twists and turns and was in really good shape when I drove on it last September. BTW, I've also used this stretch on my way back from Bhutan in 2013 and found it to be in even better shape this time.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by Secretariat

- Another surprise was the jam at Dhalkola. I had understood that this was a problem only for the NH34 routers, and that the route via Bhagalpur avoided this problem. Instead I got stuck for half an hour - main road, side road, everything was jammed and other cars were also stuck.

Not a surprise, but this jam is not regular as well.

At Dalkola, there is a railway crossing, when ever there is a opening of the gate, expect a traffic hold up, second reason being, most buses pick & drop passengers under the overbridge & third being trucks waiting for their entry passes (this being a border)

30 mins is a bit long though, 10-20 mins is the standard hold up time, secondly, nowadays, one gets held up at the check post because of the long line of trucks (just after the bridge)

[gmhossain]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Not a surprise, but this jam is not regular as well.

At Dalkola, there is a railway crossing, when ever there is a opening of the gate, expect a traffic hold up, second reason being, most buses pick & drop passengers under the overbridge & third being trucks waiting for their entry passes (this being a border)

It seems there is now a silver lining as far as Dalkhola bottleneck on NH-34 is concerned. NHAI has now invited a tender for an EPC contract for completion of 5.5 km long 4-laned Dalkhola bypass including a Railway Over Bridge on NH-34. This project was earlier stalled due to land acquisition issue. Now NHAI states that entire required land has been acquired and has been fenced-off to avoid encroachment before the construction begins. Sheel, do you have any on-ground update on this?

In the same note, NHAI has also invited a tender for construction of 10.3 km long 4-laned Islampur bypass on NH-31. Both the tenders are scheduled to close by the end of Feb 2015. There is no doubt that if both these are implemented then it will massively improve the current situation for Kolkata-Siliguri route.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by gmhossain

It seems there is now a silver lining as far as Dalkhola bottleneck on NH-34 is concerned. NHAI has now invited a tender for an EPC contract for completion of 5.5 km long 4-laned Dalkhola bypass including a Railway Over Bridge on NH-34. This project was earlier s

In the same note, NHAI has also invited a tender for construction of 10.3 km long 4-laned Islampur bypass on NH-31. Both the tenders are scheduled to close by the end of Feb 2015. There is no doubt that if both these are implemented then it will massively improve the current situation for Kolkata-Siliguri route.

That is good news, but sadly I do not have updates as of now. Though I cross Dalkola every 7-10 days, so if some construction is happening and I happen to see it, I will update.

The land acquired I assume runs parallel to the NH 34 after crossing the railway crossing. I had seen some construction/bridge construction some months back or an year back.

The Islampur section will cut short at least 15-20 mins on an average day.

Imagine crossing Purnia had there been no bye-pass, situation would have been somewhat better than Bhagalpur, but you would curse it still.

[rahul4640]

I am leaving for Darjeeling tomorrow. From my residence in north Calcutta I shall move along NH-2. I may even be going up to Panagarh (Darjeeling More), because I am told that the Panagarh-Moregram route is now reasonably repaired. I plan to take the usual Dumka-Hansdiha-Bhagalpur route. If this route is much broken, I shall take the Banka route on my return trip. I shall give an update of the route when I return.

[gmhossain]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

I am leaving for Darjeeling tomorrow. From my residence in north Calcutta I shall move along NH-2. I may even be going up to Panagarh (Darjeeling More), because I am told that the Panagarh-Moregram route is now reasonably repaired.

I drove on a stretch of Panagarh-Morgram route on 7th March on our way to Malda through Mallarpur-Rampurhat-Nalhati-Morgram. Although, I noticed some recent pothole repairing work, a stretch of about 7-8 km was in pretty bad shape between Rampurhat and Nalhati. Considering the quality of repairing, my suggestion to you would be to follow the usual NH-2B route.

I should mention that I was stuck in a jam on NH-2B at Gushkara for about 45 minutes on 4th March. It's being potato harvesting season, literally hundreds of tractors loaded with fresh potato was lined up for their turn to enter some Cold Storage near Gushkara town. On top of that there was a huge Bolpur-bound traffic on the eve of Basantautsav!

For return journey, I took NH-34 all the way on 8th March. The stretch of NH-34 between Beldanga and Bethuadahari remains horrible. Maybe I should say slightly "less horrible" compared to the situation in the end of December, as pothole repairing work has finally started in this stretch. Starting from Kaliachak at 5:30 am, I reached Kalyani More at 12:30 pm in our hatchback with my daughter and better-half on-board. We had three breaks of around 45 mins and two holed-ups, one for 5 min on Farakka barrage (due to a broken truck) and second for 10 min near Paglachandi river bridge due to the widening work. So I managed to cover 255 kms on NH-34 in 6 hours of driving time! I guess, yesterday I should have bought a lottery ticket

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by lovecars21

on 3rd I returned from Darjeeling via Siliguri-Purnia-Bhagalpur-Dumka-Masalia-Asansol around 500kms and took me just 11 hours.

I am presently in Darjeeling and wish to return by Bhagalpur-Deoghar-Dumka-Asansol route. Will you please give me some direction? Where in Dumka do I get this Masalia road?

[Babuda]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

I am presently in Darjeeling and wish to return by Bhagalpur-Deoghar-Dumka-Asansol route. Will you please give me some direction? Where in Dumka do I get this Masalia road?

As you enter Dumka, you'll spot the Clock Tower dead ahead. There's also a massive overhead directional board. Take a right (adjacent to a shop selling chips & soft drinks); the entrance is a bit narrow, but don't worry. This road will take you through Masalia - Gourandi and you'll end up on NH 2, bang opposite the Jubilee Pump on the Asansol bypass.