[haldar_siliguri]

Hello all,

I have an upcoming drive from Kolkata to Siliguri, and I have decided to do it only on 4/6 lane highways. Please advise which is the routing, Do i go via Gaya or Bihar Sharif? (Leg 1 - Kol-Pat)

I have already gathered a fair bit of idea, but would also love more inputs on route, travel time, noteworthy dhabas. etc

Vehicle - 330i

P.S. - I start travel 24 hrs from now, so hopefully you guys see my msg before then

Regds

[Sheel]

Hi Haldar!

To go to Calcutta, you would have to come to Purnia, take a right turn at Purnia zero mile for Forbesgunj/Araria and continue towards Darbhanga/Muzaffarpur.

Till Muzaffarpur, it is an absolute blast, less traffic and proper 4 lanes with decent tarmac. Once you reach Muzaffarpur, you will have to negotiate a bit of bad roads and worse traffic to enter the Hajipur road. Initial road here doesn't have a 4 lane and traffic will tire you as well as the bad humps prior to toll & bridge will have to be carefully negotiated in the BMW.

Patna is a nightmare in itself. From Patna, there are no 4 lanes to reach GT road. You would either have to go via Gaya or via Sasaram.

I have done the exact route on 21st but not between Patna/Gaya. Roads are good but not 4 lane.

After Muzaffarpur, you might be tired & exhausted. You may drive till Lucknow and then catch the GT from there if you wish to drive only on 4 lane.

The route which I have taken & will take with a D segment sedan shortly.

Purnia - Bhagalpur - Amarpur - Deoghar - Dumka - Messanjore - Bolpur [shantiniketan] - Bardhaman - Calcutta

At Bhagalpur, there is a bypass. More here

[haldar_siliguri]

Originally Posted by Sheel

To go to Calcutta, you would have to come to Purnia, take a right turn at Purnia zero mile for Forbesgunj/Araria and continue towards Darbhanga/Muzaffarpur.

Thanks. I had seen your post prior to the trip began and had taken your inputs into consideration. Just the fact that it was from Cal to Siliguri and not the opposite.

So I finally did the trip. The routing was Calcutta-Asansol-Gaya-Patna-Muzaffarpur-Dalkhola-Siliguri. I did it in around 18hrs, which was for 1132kms from start to finish. I started at 0445hrs and reached home in Siliguri around 2330hrs.

And while that seems like a lot of time, I'd like to point out the obvious here, which you had talked of as well. Which was the road between Gaya to Patna to Muzaffarpur. That stretch of 170 kms alone took nearly 6 hrs. There was absolutely nothing good about that stretch. From 1 hr to cross the freaking Gandhi Setu alone to the public using the roads being of the most irritating nature, it literally drained the life out of me.

So barring the above stretch, I did the other approx 960kms of the trip (on GT road and E-W corridor) in 12 hrs flat, including all sorts of fuel and meal stops.

I don't have much of a collection of trip photos to share, but whatever I have, I shall write up a review a post sometime soon.

Regds

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by haldar_siliguri

And while that seems like a lot of time, I'd like to point out the obvious here, which you had talked of as well.

Well well well, am just about to drive to Patna again [in the next ~2 hrs] via Muzaffarpur. Shall remain off the grid for maybe a week.

Thanks for the update & glad that my inputs helped you.

Patna is a royal mess.

[DDIS_RE650]

How is now road condition between Patna to Kolkata? Now Patna has some good roads to connect to Hajipur, please advise how long it will take to drive to Kolkata from Patna.