[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by karthik_rao

Hi,
Am planning a drive down from Mumbai to Ahd on Feb 13. I have heard that the going is pretty slow till Surat. Anybody done this lately? After reading all the great stuff on the GQ, I was hoping to get to Ahd in 5-6 hours. Is that too unrealistic?

How does this compare with Mumbai-Kolhapur, for instance? I hear of people doing that in 5-6 hours. Or even Mumbai-Nashik? I did Nashik-Mumbai in 2:30 12 days back without even pushing hard. The multi-laning at Kasara has really made a big diff.

You are right, progress will be very slow.
- Heavy traffic jams at Ghodbunder junction
- Dense slow-moving traffic till Vapi
- Flyovers under construction and resultant traffic jams (often 30-60 minutes) between Ghodbunder & Surat
- Occasional traffic jams at MH-GJ check post
- Traffic jams between Ankleshwar & Bharuch thanks to 1 of the 2 bridges across River Narmada being closed to heavy vehicles

Doing Bombay-Ahmedabad n 6 hours can be ruled out for now. Budget 8-10 hours depending on how fast you drive and how agile you are to sidestep traffic jams. This sector is not comparable with Mumbai-Kolhapur/Nashik. Traffic is much higher. The best I have done Bombay-Ahmedabad is 6.5 hours, and last month I took 7.5 hours onward and 8 hours return without stops.

[maddy42]

There is this hotel which we stopped at on the way to Daman. No idea what it is named but looks like its on a farm and bang on the highway about 2 hrs from mumbai.

The place has horses, Dogs and all such stuff and serves good food. Lots of parsis visiting daman stop here as i heard.

One more query!! Why is the water in the beach of daman dirty brown? This grossed us out to even touch the water on our visit and we stuck to playing on the sand instead of entering the water

[karthik_rao]

Thanks HVKumar. Such a pity, I may drop my plan for now and take a flight, as I dont have that much time on this trip :-).

Dont know how routes via Bhiwandi-Vajreshwari or Bhiwandi-Pali would work. Anybody tried these lately? I am in Powai, so getting to Eastern Express at 6 AM will hardly take me 10 min.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by karthik_rao

Dont know how routes via Bhiwandi-Vajreshwari or Bhiwandi-Pali would work. Anybody tried these lately? I am in Powai, so getting to Eastern Express at 6 AM will hardly take me 10 min.

Avoid going via Bhiwandi & Wada to Manor on NH8, the road is being widened and is in very bad shape. I took that route last month end driving from Bombay to Rajkot and it was a very unpleasant experience. Moreover, navigating Bhiwandi town is difficult during day time, only feasible if it is early morning.

[h@r$h@l]

Originally Posted by karthik_rao

Hi,
Am planning a drive down from Mumbai to Ahd on Feb 13. I have heard that the going is pretty slow till Surat. Anybody done this lately? After reading all the great stuff on the GQ, I was hoping to get to Ahd in 5-6 hours. Is that too unrealistic?

Doing that route is 5-6 hours is relatively impossible. With the current road conditions, 6 hours you should be reaching Surat. As mentioned by Mr. Kumar, there are a few road works going on which will take up a lot of your drive time till Surat. Once past Surat you can get to Ahmedabad in about 4 hours.

As mentioned the Ankleshwar - Bharuch Patch is always jam because of one way bridge for heavy vehicles. I would advise you to get into Ankleshwar, cross the Golden Bridge and get to bharuch and get out on the other side and re join NH8. Via the interior route you are sure to be on the other side within 30 mins. If you stick on NH8 you can get out in 30 mins if lucky and if not it can be as long as 2 hours at times. I drive on Ahmedabad - Surat route thrice a month and hence speaking from my own experience.

Getting into Ankleshwar and using the internal route has 2 benefits; less traffic and you also save 16 rs of the toll

[BunnyPunia]

Originally Posted by h@r$h@l

Doing that route is 5-6 hours is relatively impossible. With the current road conditions, 6 hours you should be reaching Surat. As mentioned by Mr. Kumar, there are a few road works going on which will take up a lot of your drive time till Surat. Once past Surat you can get to Ahmedabad in about 4 hours.

As mentioned the Ankleshwar - Bharuch Patch is always jam because of one way bridge for heavy vehicles. I would advise you to get into Ankleshwar, cross the Golden Bridge and get to bharuch and get out on the other side and re join NH8. Via the interior route you are sure to be on the other side within 30 mins. If you stick on NH8 you can get out in 30 mins if lucky and if not it can be as long as 2 hours at times. I drive on Ahmedabad - Surat route thrice a month and hence speaking from my own experience.

Getting into Ankleshwar and using the internal route has 2 benefits; less traffic and you also save 16 rs of the toll

Did Delhi-Pune-Delhi a few days back.
The Mumbai-AHM stretch has improved a lot though 5-6 hours is just not possible.
We took 8 hours from New Mumbai to AHM in a diesel hatch with 105-110km/h cruising speeds and two little breaks. Even if you push, you can bring it down to 7.
There are still lot of diversions into 300-500mtr single lane patches almost till Daman/Silvassa crossing. From there on, the route is much better apart from a major bottleneck near a toll booth (forgot the exact location)

[varun.ppl]

Originally Posted by BunnyPunia

Did Delhi-Pune-Delhi a few days back.
The Mumbai-AHM stretch has improved a lot though 5-6 hours is just not possible.
We took 8 hours from New Mumbai to AHM in a diesel hatch with 105-110km/h cruising speeds and two little breaks. Even if you push, you can bring it down to 7.
There are still lot of diversions into 300-500mtr single lane patches almost till Daman/Silvassa crossing. From there on, the route is much better apart from a major bottleneck near a toll booth (forgot the exact location)

AFAIK, Delhi-Ahd is 940 odd kms. Till Jaipur, roads are quite dreadful & horrible being a 4 lane highway(the 6 laning is going on), after that roads improve.

But, Bunny even if you were maintaining 110 odd kms per hour (which is highly unrealistic on Indian roads; sorry to doubt your credentials) you still reach 880 kms in 8 hours, about 60 kms from AHD.

Can you please share light on how did you manage to reach Ahd in 8 hours, coz when i did it, it took me 11.5 hours last year that is & only once i could cover more than 100 kms in an hour, that was between kishangarh & bhilwara & that time also i drove considerably well over 150kmph for a distance of 10 kms on a stretch.

I am extremely sorry, if my tone sounds challenging, but since i m planning to go to Ahd, i wanted to check the present state of affairs of NH8 & NH76. If it really takes 8 hours, i will prefer driving.

[jigbarai]

It all depends on what time of the day one is travelling, and how likely one is to end up in bad traffic.

If the load is light, even with all the ongoing construction work - you can make decent speeds but not so if you get stuck somewhere. Mostly driven by luck I guess these days in Mum-Srt route

[BunnyPunia]

Originally Posted by varun.ppl

AFAIK, Delhi-Ahd is 940 odd kms. Till Jaipur, roads are quite dreadful & horrible being a 4 lane highway(the 6 laning is going on), after that roads improve.

But, Bunny even if you were maintaining 110 odd kms per hour (which is highly unrealistic on Indian roads; sorry to doubt your credentials) you still reach 880 kms in 8 hours, about 60 kms from AHD.

Can you please share light on how did you manage to reach Ahd in 8 hours, coz when i did it, it took me 11.5 hours last year that is & only once i could cover more than 100 kms in an hour, that was between kishangarh & bhilwara & that time also i drove considerably well over 150kmph for a distance of 10 kms on a stretch.

I am extremely sorry, if my tone sounds challenging, but since i m planning to go to Ahd, i wanted to check the present state of affairs of NH8 & NH76. If it really takes 8 hours, i will prefer driving.

Hey Varun, please read again, i said we reached from New Mumbai to AHD and not New Delhi to AHM
Delhi to AHM does take 11-12 hrs depending on what time u leave delhi

[kalpeshc]

Hows this route nowadays? What about the traffic conditions at Ghodbunder in the afternoon (2ish)

[INNOWAGON_CL]

How is the progress of the sixlaning by NHAI to Surat. Will it be completed by August 2011 as claimed by NHAI?

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by INNOWAGON_CL

How is the progress of the sixlaning by NHAI to Surat. Will it be completed by August 2011 as claimed by NHAI?

Most of the 6-laning is done, except in a few sections. However, many flyovers are under construction and in those places road narrows down to 2 lanes and jams occur at intersections.

[kalpeshc]

How's the road conditions in this monsoons? Does this highway also have a pothole problem?

[kalpeshc]

Any good 'clean' eating joints for a brief stop between Mumbai/Surat on the highway?

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by kalpeshc

Any good 'clean' eating joints for a brief stop between Mumbai/Surat on the highway?

Several restaurants in Manor (including a Vittal Kamat's),
McD 7 kms after Vapi
Visamo in Valsad bypass