[erlebrito]

Hi everyone,

Have to make a trip to Ranchi from Goa and thought I would try out my new Safari Storme 4X4 for the journey.

Could anyone suggest the best route?

Was thinking of using the Goa - Nagpur (Via Sholapur) and then driving from Nagpur to Ranchi.

I will be with my family.

I have used the East Coast GQ Road a year and a half ago on my trip to Bhutan from Goa and enjoyed it immensely. Would it be advisable to use the same route this time too?

How is the road condition from Nagpur to Ranchi and what route should I follow?

Any suggestions would be more than welcome.


Cheers,

Erle Brito

[ampere]

Originally Posted by erlebrito

Was thinking of using the Goa - Nagpur (Via Sholapur) and then driving from Nagpur to Ranchi.

Thats not a good option.

You should look at :

Goa-Belgaum-Pune-Ahmednagar-Mehkar-Akola-Amravati-Nagpur-Raipur-Ranchi.

See this:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ad-bhilai.html

[erlebrito]

Originally Posted by ampere

Thats not a good option.

You should look at :

Goa-Belgaum-Pune-Ahmednagar-Mehkar-Akola-Amravati-Nagpur-Raipur-Ranchi.

See this:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ad-bhilai.html

Thanks Amp,

Was wondering if I should use the Adilabad Road to hit Nagpur. Last year in May, whilst returning from Nagpur to Goa, the road was incomplete in many places. Has it been completed and do you have any updates about the same?

Cheers,

Erle

[ampere]

Originally Posted by erlebrito

Was wondering if I should use the Adilabad Road to hit Nagpur. Last year in May, whilst returning from Nagpur to Goa, the road was incomplete in many places. Has it been completed and do you have any updates about the same?

I think you should use the Amravati route. Its nicely four-laned for a long stretch. See the travelogue by @Sommos.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by erlebrito

Thanks Amp,

Was wondering if I should use the Adilabad Road to hit Nagpur. Last year in May, whilst returning from Nagpur to Goa, the road was incomplete in many places. Has it been completed and do you have any updates about the same?

Cheers,

Erle

Go via Pune-Nagpur-Raipur.

Goa-Hyd is just average roads and again bad sections on NH7 at MH-AP border and around Hinganghat should deter you from taking this section.

[erlebrito]

A big thank you to everyone who has written in to advise about the road conditions. Route in finalised and it is going to be via Nagpur, Raipur to Ranchi.

Cheers everyone - Will have all details on the trip posted on my return.

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by erlebrito

A big thank you to everyone who has written in to advise about the road conditions. Route in finalised and it is going to be via Nagpur, Raipur to Ranchi.

Cheers everyone - Will have all details on the trip posted on my return.

What would be your route from Raipur to Ranchi ?

[erlebrito]

Originally Posted by Sommos

What would be your route from Raipur to Ranchi ?

Hello there Sommos,

Was wondering what the route should be from Raipur to Ranchi.

Would be very happy if you could give me an idea which route to take. Am leaving tomorrow morning and driving the first leg to Nagpur via Ahmednagar and Akola.

Much obliged.

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by erlebrito

Hello there Sommos,

Was wondering what the route should be from Raipur to Ranchi.

Much obliged.

1. One way is to take Raipur-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Rourkela-Ranchi. Here the road from Raipur to Sambalpur is under conversion, so there are lots of diversion; Sambalpur to Rourkela is one of the best roads and Rourkela to Ranchi is NH23. It was very narrow earlier but I have no idea of the present condition.

2. The other would be Raipur-Bilaspur-Champa-Pathalgoan-Jashpur-Gumla-Ranchi. Roads are absolutely fine here except some portion around Champa, which is a coal belt. Pathalgoan to Gumla portion passes through some very lonely countryside with sparse population, so it is better to cross this area during daytime.

3. Another way would be Raipur-Raigarh-Pathalgoan and the rest is same as above.

4. If you wish to travel on NH all the way, a slightly longer route (about 100 KM more) would be Raipur-Bilaspur-Ambikapur-Daltonganj-Ranchi.

I have personally used route 2 twice in the last four years while travelling to Bokaro by car and with family. Wish you a happy journey.

[drive_factor]

I don't know if you get to read this.

We did GOA > PUNE > NAGPUR > JAMSHEDPUR in the first week of January 2015. Secondly, I have a fair idea of the RAIPUR > RANCHI route due to commercial reasons. Thus based on these IMHO a safer route would be NAGPUR > RAIPUR > SAMBALPUR > RAURKELA > RANCHI.

GMap will suggest the shorter route via BILASPUR. But I believe the overall conditions are dicey beyond CHAMPA-KORBA towards JH border. My steel supplies from SAIL BHILAI arrive via this route and it takes an average of 4 days for the trailers to enter my factory. More dangerously one of my transporter got his XUV5OO snatched near Patelgaon when he went to find out his missing Trailer. Thus you need to take a concious decision. However, most truckers coming from western India prefer this route to enter Jharkhand as they avoid entering an additional state Orissa.

If you decide to go via NH6 then stick to it till SAMBALPUR. Then take the SH10 Sambalpur – Jharsuguda – Rourkela road to reach ROURKELA. And then take NH23 to RANCHI via BIRMITRAPUR > KOLEBIRA > GUMLA. This will bring you straight to RANCHI ORR.

I did most of the above route (albeit continuing straight to Jamshedpur from Sambalpur) and know it is doable. We did as below:

Pune - Raipur via Nagpur: 1100km. Night at Raipur.
Raipur - Jamshedpur via Sambalpur: 700km

In your case I am assuming you are driving from GOA to NAGPUR via PUNE. If so than I would like to share my experience as below:

GOA - PUNE
Take the flavour of the month route. Which I am assuming you doing are I type this.

PUNE - NAGPUR

• While going to PUNE from NAGPUR we had branched out to the KARANJA/MEHKAR//JALNA route shortly after AMRAVATI bypass. Till KARANJA we had a good run on the 2 lane SH but conditions started deteriorating as we neared MEHKAR. It was a frustrating battle of wits against rutted surface, sundry animals/humans/tractors and powerful head beams of the oncoming traffic. This ordeal eased greatly once we crossed JALNA but added approx 3 additional hours to our RAIPUR - PUNE segment. We left RAIPUR at 6am and reached PUNE at 1.30am broken and bruised.

• Thus while coming back we took JALNA - CHIKLI - KHAMGAON - AKOLA route to reach NAGPUR. From JALNA bypass (which itself is horrible) we took the road to DEULGAON RAJA > CHIKHLI > KHAMGAON NH6 bypass route. There are a couple of crowded bazaars to cross but overall this is a sparse road specially after CHIKHLI. In our personal opinion this route didn't wear us out as much as the KARNJA/MEHKAR route and certainly it is very scenic. Tank up before hitting this stretch as facilities limited.

• From KHAMGAON to AKOLA and on to MURTIZPUR we encountered heavy CV traffic. Conditions got better thereafter and from AMRAVATI onwards it was an excellent drive till NAGPUR.

• To bypass NAGPUR town don't take the Outer Ring Road. Half of it is single lane and doesn't have any surface. We took the ORR while outbound and cursed our luck. While returning we took Rd # 260 in G’map and it was ok. From NAGPUR till RAIPUR you have a very good stretch particularly once you enter CG.

We left PUNE Nagar Road at 4am, crossed NAGPUR around 5pm and reached RAIPUR around 11pm with just one major stop for dinner at Royal Khalsa Dhaba Bhilai. For lunch we munched on some excellent Guava we picked near Chikhli.

Below is the exact G’map for our inbound route between PUNE - RAIPUR.
http://goo.gl/maps/E1s0H

There are several staying options right on the Raipur outer road. We stayed at Hyatt which comes up just when you rejoin NH6 after completing the ring road. We just walked in to get a good deal of Rs 5,700 without breakfast as that starts around 6.30am.

RAIPUR - RANCHI
If you are deciding to take the route via SAMBALPUR then consider the below:

RAIPUR > SAMBALPUR > ROURKELA > RANCHI
Approx 650km / 15 hours.

http://goo.gl/maps/CM2FV

From RAIPUR stick to the NH6 till SAMBALPUR. Just after ARANG the road is being 4 laned but in current condition you can still maintain good speed. Don’t even think of taking the detour via NUAPADA. It adds 60km extra and you still get bad roads plus local traffic. While going to GOA we had taken this detour and spent 10 hours to reach RAIPUR from SAMBALPUR. While coming back we struck to NH 6 and did the segment in 6.5 hours.

From CG/OR border till SAMPALPUR you will again be in a good 4 lane stretch. Just before SAMPALPUR turn left to take the so called “L&T Road” which is a fantastic but highly accident prone 2 lane SH. Put all your caution while driving at least till crossing JHARSUGUDA after which you will have a relatively fast and easy drive till ROURKELA. You may decide to halt for the night here

ROURKELA - RANCHI

Take the road to BIRMITRAPUR (OR/JH border) and then KOLEBIRA > KHUNTI to reach RANCHI. You will have mixed type of roads and surface. Lots of twists and forest area. Throughout you will have small settlements and a busy traffic. But overall condition is ok. Parts of this stretch come under so the called naxal influence but I am yet to hear any harm to general travelling public.

This road will meet the excellent Ranchi ORR and depending upon your final destination in town you will find easy connections from several split off’s.

Try to stick to the below timings if you plan to do it in a trot.

• Raipur - Sambalpur : 7 hrs
• Sambalpur - Rourkela : 5 hrs
• Rourkela - Ranchi : 5 hrs

In our case, we left Raipur at 6.30am, crossed Sambalpur at 2pm (including a 45 min lunch break at Punjab Dhaba Bargarh) and reached Jamshedpur around 10pm.

PLAN B:
If the above drive is too hectic then you can break down as below:

• Nagpur > Rourkela : Night at Rourkela. Very good staying options. Start early from Nagpur.
• Rourkela > Ranchi : Starting around 7am you can be at Ranchi for a late Lunch.

Best of luck for a safe journey. Should you require any assistance in OR/JH regions then do PM me your mobile number.

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by drive_factor

Secondly, I have a fair idea of the RAIPUR > RANCHI route due to commercial reasons. Thus based on these IMHO a safer route would be NAGPUR > RAIPUR > SAMBALPUR > RAURKELA > RANCHI.

Thanks for your details about the road, but how is the NH23 between Rourkela and Ranchi. When I last travelled on this route some 7/8 years back it was very narrow single lane (not even two laned) plus it crosses through some mining areas.

From your post I guess you're based at Jamshedpur and do you visit BSP for your business, just curious.

[erlebrito]

Hi there,

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately got it now on my return but will be posting a long travelogue with all the details of the trip. Needless to say, and thanks to God, the trip was very enjoyable and largely uneventful even though we used the Pathalgaon route and were forced to stay in Pathalgaon for the night.

My Mobile Nos. are 9823787447 and 9595307447

Please save them for any advice I could offer on the whole of the western and southern part of the country, which I drive through regularly.

Cheers,

Erle Brito

[erlebrito]

Hello everyone,

Just thought I'd put up a small write-up about the entire trip, which went off quite nicely, I must add.

First of all, I chose to go with the advice of the BHPians and went through Pune.

Started off the trip by taking the lovely road, via the Chorla ghats to Belgaum. This is a road I am very familiar with as we have a estate in Virdi, just as the ghat commences. Started off from Candolim at 5:30 in the morning and got the sunrise whilst climbing up to Chorla and what a fantastic sight it was.

Reached Milan Hotel in Belgaum at precisely 7:00 and had a nice breakfast there. Left at around 7:45 and took the NH4 to Pune. As usual the NH4 is a fantastic road to drive on, with the exception of a few areas where the Two-Laning is still going on but all in all a great road to drive on. We did a reasonable pace and were in Pune around 11.

Issues started once we took the Nagpur highway from Pune. the road is fine but is a single carriageway for most of the distance and is overcrowded with Buses, Cyclists, Motorcyclists and Bullock Carts all alone the way.
It is fine for anyone who has all the time in the world, but is quite bothersome for anyone who likes to travel at a reasonable pace. the traffic on the roads all the way to Amravati, is horrendous and the roads are quite bad for most of the way.
The progress time on the road was quite slow and we finally reached Akola only at 9:00 p.m. where we decided to rest for the night. We found a Club on the highway and t was quite passable. The rooms were around 3K but the toilets were quite dirty.

Next morning, we left at 5:30 for our journey onwards. Made it to Nagpur ORR by 9:00 and was on the Raipur highway by 9:30. We made it to Raipur by 12:00 and that was where all the hassles began. I took the Bypass and was confronted by a cloud of dust churned up by a thousand trucks. Braved our way through al of it and finally emerged on the road to Bilaspur after two hours, having covered a distance of 18 Kms at a unheard of pace of 9 Kms / Hour. Stopped at a Dhaba for Lunch and had some amazing stuff there.

We then headed out to Bilaspur which was the same story. Took us half an hour to traverse Bilaspur. We then took the route via Pathalgaon and this was when my Garmin went off and took us through a route which was through the forests of Korba which were quite deserted. This was a harrowing part of the journey as my father-in-law who was with my son and me for the drive had no clue about the Red Corridor or Maoists or about plain dacoits and did not believe there were dacoits and robbers in present day India (Blame that on the sense of security we get in our wonderful Goa). We finally reached Pathalgaon at around 7:30 and i decided to stay there.

Checked into the palatial JP lodge (Which was the best in Pathalgaon) for a princely sum of Rs. 700/- and we used our sleeping bags on the beds as the bedsheets and seen quite a few other travellers already and it made no sense to the receptionist who told me that the beds are very clean. I spent a fair bit of time cleaning up the toilet and then we got to sleep. Woke up early and left Pathalgaon by 5:30. The road to Ranchi is fair in most places and we made good time to arrive in Ranchi by 9.

The main reason for our trip to Ranchi was the participation of my 12 year old son, who is a sprinter, in the SGFI National Athletics Championships.
Unfortunately, my son developed an injury to his ankle and had to pull out of the competition in the Semi-Finals for both the 100 and 200 sprints. But the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) had made very good arrangements for the conduct of the games and the Birsa Munda Athletic Stadium is fantastic. In fact the entire games complex is marvellous.
However, one point I must mention here, is that our great Indian heartland (Read that as UP, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand) sends some fantastic "12 and 13 Year-Olds" for the under-14 Championships. I was shocked that we have 12 and 13 year olds in these states who have facial growth which will give a Langur a complex and have such developed upper bodies that even Hanuman himself would feel puny compared to them.Needless to say it is always 'Let the Best Man Win' and at these national championships "Men" certainly won - Not under-14 boys, for sure. My son is 12 and to be 13 soon and has a height of 5 foot and 7 inches and is considered quite tall for his age. But there were 12 year olds who raced with him who were at least 6 foot tall.

Am posting the return leg as a separate post

[erlebrito]

Now about the Return:

We decided to make the return journey from Ranchi to Raipur via Raigarh and then on via my tried and tested route from Nagpur to Mahboobnagar past Hyderabad and on to Raichur, Bagalkot and Belgaum.

We started off from Ranchi and decided we would take the road to Pathalgaon and then drive on to Raigarh and take the road to Raipur from Raigarh. Accomplished this with no hassles and stopped on the way for some lunch. The road was very good for the entire journey and there were a few stretches where the roads were being done up but the roads were largely fine. We reached Raipur around 3:00 p.m. having left Ranchi at around 5:30.

We then headed off to the Nagzira National Park and got to my regular resort at the Chorakhmara gate - Nagzira Tiger resort at around 7:00 p.m.
We had a good rest and went off on Safari the next morning quite early and managed only a quick leopard sighting but the Striped cat did not grant us an audience. We then left Nagzira at around 11 after the Morning Safari and headed straight for the Tadoba National Park, Kolara Gate. The journey is around 300 Kms on Maharashtra State Highways which are quite well maintained.

We reached Chimur and the Kolara Gate at around 2:30 and could not get permission to enter the Park as the regular number of safaris was already enrolled. We decided to take the Safari in the Buffer Zone, which has just been started on the 1st of November, 2014 in the Kolara Gate Buffer Zone and very nicely greeted by a Tiger which crossed the path in front of us.

The rest of the Safari was largely uneventful and we decided to start our return leg straight off. As we left the Park Gate, we headed straight for Chmur and took the highway out to Warora, Wani and then to Pandharkawada where we spent the Night in a small Hotel along the Highway. The Anisha Lodge was quite decent and clean and the rooms were quite liveable. The roads were well tarmaced and all in all the journey was quite good.

The North-South corridor has a small stretch from Pandharkawada to Adilabad, which is a distance of around 20 Kms that is being finished and is in quite a state. But the rest of the road is simply superb. We left Pandharkawada at around 5:30 and were on the Nehru ORR of Hyderabad at 9:00. I just love driving on the ORR and this was no exception. We took the exit to Bangalore and headed off to Mahboobnagar. We reached Mahboobnagar at around 11:00 and had a lovely lunch at Shilpi restaurant which went on till around 12:30. We left Mahboobnagar at 12:45 and headed for Raichur. From there we took the Raichur bagalkot highway and were in Bagalkot by 4:00. We left Bagalkot and were in Belgaum by 5:30. We then took a while to cross Belgaum as it was a Sunday and the roads were crowded with shoppers. We finally hit the Chorla road only at 6:30 and were in Candolim at 8:30.

A super end to a lovely and eventful road-trip.

[erlebrito]

The entire distance covered was around 5400 Kms, which included driving to the game Parks at Nagzira and Tadoba.

I also have all the Garmin routes for the entire journey and would be happy to share them if anyone is interested.

Cheers