[maksins]

I am planning to drive my Tata Tigor AMT from Mumbai to Raipur this week. I wanted few suggestions from the experienced members here.
@Moderators: I could not find a thread for this complete route, so I am creating this thread.
I have been driving for 10 years but don't have lot of long drives experience. The longest I have driven is 11 hours, but that was in US. I find the driving situations much different in India. I have driven my Tata Tigor from Mumbai to Shirdi (approx 5-6 hours drive).
It would be very helpful if experienced members can provide some suggestions.
Route: Time is not a constraint, I prioritize better road conditions and safety (e.g. less traffic, heavy vehicles). After reading through many posts of this forum, I found this to be the most suggested route (I live in Powai):
Mumbai-Nasik-Aurangabad-Jalna-Mehkar-Karanja-Amravati-Nagpur-Raipur
Can somebody suggest the current road and traffic conditions, especially the Jalna-Mehkar-Karanja stretch?

I am plan to take overnight break, possibly in Jalna or Mehkar (never been there), which approx half-way between Mumbai and Raipur. Is that a good idea?

Should I hire an outstation driver for the half the route (say up to Amravati) and then I can cover the last 8 hours by myself? This is an insistence from my family where I am going, but I do not prefer this.

My AMT car usually is comfortable and has good ground clearance, but it's no SUV. It's been driven only 5000km in last 2 years. If I stick to highways, do I need to worry about my car?

I little anxious as I have never driven for more than 20 hours by myself and insight from the members here would go a long way in planning my trip.
Look forward to your suggestions.

[Shanmd]

Originally Posted by maksins

Look forward to your suggestions.

Hey, I'd done this route to Bhilai, a few years ago. Bombay-Nasik-Jalgaon-Akola-Amravati-Nagpur-Durg-Bhilai.

I was in no hurry so took this kinda longish route. But the roads were great for 80% of the way. Now, this is old information. I would think that currently the best roads will be on the following route. Bombay-Pune-Aurangabad-Jalna-Akola-Break-Akola-Amravati-Nagpur-Raipur.

Food options would be better in this route too is my guess. Pre-pandemic, the route that I took barely had any decent place to eat. Or maybe I missed almost all of them.

Hope this helps start off the conversation here.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by maksins

Route: Time is not a constraint, I prioritize better road conditions and safety (e.g. less traffic, heavy vehicles). After reading through many posts of this forum, I found this to be the most suggested route (I live in Powai):
Mumbai-Nasik-Aurangabad-Jalna-Mehkar-Karanja-Amravati-Nagpur-Raipur
Can somebody suggest the current road and traffic conditions, especially the Jalna-Mehkar-Karanja stretch?

I am plan to take overnight break, possibly in Jalna or Mehkar (never been there), which approx half-way between Mumbai and Raipur. Is that a good idea?

Jalna is a tier 3 city, Mehkar is even smaller town and I doubt you would find accommodation in these places. Between Mumbai and Raipur, sadly there are no good places at halfway distance. One way it could work is if you stay overnight at Aurangabad, even though it is about 8 hrs from Mumbai. Aurangabad-Raipur would take about 14 hrs but roads past Amravati are in supreme shape so last leg of drive would be relaxed.

For Aurangabad, take Mumbai-Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur-Ahmedmagar-Aurangabad route. There is some traffic between Talegaon-Shikrapur but this route has ample facilities to take break.

Between Jalna-Amravati, there is absolutely nothing except couple of restaurants in Mehkar so plan accordingly.

Don't worry about the car. Except a few patches (check here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ueries-16.html (Pune - Nagpur : Route Queries)) roads are in good shape.

If I were to plan, I would start from Mumbai at 10-11 AM, reach Aurangabad by 5-6 PM and stay at hotels around this (https://g.page/lemon-tree-hotel-aurangabad?share bang on the highway). Start at 5:30 next morning and reach Raipur by 7 PM.

P.S: I will be doing exactly this next week except I'll stopover at in-laws place in Aurangabad for couple of days and then onwards to Bhilai.

Happy driving!

Originally Posted by Shanmd

I would think that currently the best roads will be on the following route..
Bombay-Pune-Aurangabad-Jalna-Akola
Break
Akola-Amravati-Nagpur-Raipur.

Some say Jalna-Chikhli route is good, I haven't been there but I can confirm firsthand Akola-Amravati is terrible, made worse by trucks, trucks and more trucks. Jalna-Karanja is no better but it is at least shorter so lesser of the two devils.

[Abhi5868]

Just a few days ago I made a round trip to Nagpur from my place via Raipur. So here's some updates from that stretch:-
Sakoli and Lakhni have a flyover under construction, that's gonna slow down your speed a little. Although the traffic may vary.

You're ought to find traffic in Bhilai, regular city traffic during the day time and trucks at night/early morning. Also there's a flyover under construction in latter part of the city, so unless you're going to cross Bhilai at Wee hours there are chances that you'll have to slow down considerably.

Apart from these, the stretch is silky smooth and you can cruise through easily in almost any vehicle. Just take care around the ghats between Sakoli and Deori.Wish you a very Happy journey.

[maksins]

Thanks @shanmd, @ksameer1234 and @Abhi5868
Your suggestions are very helpful.
I may make a stopover in Aurangabad.
What I gather from the information from all the posts in different threads that the route up to Mehkar is relatively in better shape, so I definitely want to do the stretch between Mehkar and Amravati during the daytime as much as possible.
I have identified some restaurants and hotels based on the feedback of BHPians here and from Gmaps on each stretch and I may make a stopover depending on how comfortable I am on that day.
Please do share your experiences when you take up these routes. I plan to do as well.

[prasanna.sub82]

Hey guys, I couldn't find a thread that talks about the routes in MP.. I plan to drive from Mumbai to Kanha in 2wks and found 2 options that Gmaps show:

1. Mumbai - Nasik - Dhule - Shirpur - Betul - Chhindwara - Kanha

2. Mumbai - Nasik - Aurangabad - Nagpur - Seoni - Kanha

Any experiences with both the routes? Also any recent updates on Covid related checks etc ?

[psp62in]

Hi Maksins, Have you completed your trip?

I am planning to travel Mumbai - Lonar(2 night stay) and onwards to Amravati. Would like to have your feedback on the route you took till Nagpur and the road conditions.

For the trip from Mumbai, Essentially I need to choose between Mumbai-Pune expressway-Ahmednagar-Aurangabad OR Mumbai-Nashik- Aurangabad. Google Maps show more or less time, my choice would depend on road and traffic condition feedback.

On the return trip, again, is Akola-Jalgaon-Dhule is a practical option, or I should stick to the one of the two options via Aurangabad stated earlier.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by psp62in

I am planning to travel Mumbai - Lonar(2 night stay) and onwards to Amravati.

Please see this thread for latest route updates. https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ueries-18.html (Pune - Nagpur : Route Queries)

For the trip from Mumbai, Essentially I need to choose between Mumbai-Pune expressway-Ahmednagar-Aurangabad OR Mumbai-Nashik- Aurangabad. Google Maps show more or less time, my choice would depend on road and traffic condition feedback.

Stick to Pune route. Try and start from Mumbai early (around 4:30 AM) to beat Pune-Ranjangaon traffic. I used to take Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur route earlier but now go through Pune city via Khadki-Yerwada-Viman Nagar which has far better roads and little traffic before 6:30 AM.

On the return trip, again, is Akola-Jalgaon-Dhule is a practical option, or I should stick to the one of the two options via Aurangabad stated earlier.

Akola-Dhule is bad and has heavy truck traffic. Better to stick to Aurangabad route. Amravati-Aurangabad route has several route options (none is perfect, some are better than others). Check suggestions here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ueries-18.html (Pune - Nagpur : Route Queries) and plan accordingly.

[maksins]

Originally Posted by psp62in

Hi Maksins, Have you completed your trip?

I am planning to travel Mumbai - Lonar(2 night stay) and onwards to Amravati. Would like to have your feedback on the route you took till Nagpur and the road conditions.

For the trip from Mumbai, Essentially I need to choose between Mumbai-Pune expressway-Ahmednagar-Aurangabad OR Mumbai-Nashik- Aurangabad. Google Maps show more or less time, my choice would depend on road and traffic condition feedback.

On the return trip, again, is Akola-Jalgaon-Dhule is a practical option, or I should stick to the one of the two options via Aurangabad stated earlier.

I took the the Mumbai-Nashik-Yeola-Gangapur-Aurangabad route. Nashik to Yeola route is quite good with no truck traffic. Roads before and after Gangapur have patches of non-existent road, but with minimal traffic. I live in Powai, so exiting through Thane saved me some time. But I have heard by other members that Pune route is also quite good.

The condition of roads after Aurangabad is well known. Good roads upto Jalna but heavy truck traffic and two lane roads up to Mehkar.

I have not returned back, so do not know about Jalgaon-Dhule route, but based on the feedback here, I would not suggest it.

Btw, I saw plenty of open restaurants on route!

[gaddi_punk1]

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for all the useful information and wonderful trip reports over the years!
I’ve been watching all the posts till now just like that “neighbour” 'jo aapke ghar ki khidki se aapke bedroom main jhaanktaa rehta hai'…. But finally, I got enough courage
'Ke main Bedroom me hee aa gaya'!

I am excited as its my first trip report. This was pre COVID trip which I did on Feb-2020 (sorry it took me so long to Join Team-BHP).

So one of my friend who recently moved to Raipur from Mumbai wanted to take his car-Wagon-R to be precise! Yeah wahi 'Gareebono ki SUV', to all the way to Raipur.

He asked me to join him for this Road trip…. and Since I am a Hard-working IT guy, who has the same office schedule every day from 8 Am to 9 Pm, alive only on the weekends and I save all my holidays for my family gatherings, hence I politely said ‘NO’ to him.

But 'fir usne Dosti todne ki Dhamki de di'! which was OK with me but then suddenly I remembered 'ke isse toh udhar ke paisey wapas lene hain aur agar Dosti tod di toh woh paisey nahi milenge' So I had to say Yes...

Jokes not so apart.... Actually, He strengthened his proposal by offering me a return flight ticket from Raipur to Mumbai... so as a Peanut earning IT guy who never got the opportunity to go on the ‘Onsite trip’ sponsored by the company, I had to say 'YES' to him for this sponsored trip.

Well Sorry guys for my bad jokes above, I won’t bore you further. Let me start with my shitty trip report.

As I stay in Pune, I asked him to drive to Pune from Mumbai so that we can start early next morning.

We did Pune to Raipur in two legs (but actually on eight legs! 2 uski aur 2 meri aur 4 Wagon R ki)!

1st day: Pune to Akola (Pune-nagar-Auranbad-Jalna-Rajur-Tembhrni-Jafrabad-Chikhli-khamgaon-Akola)

2nd day: Akola to Raipur (Akola-Amravati-Nagpur-Bhandara-Rajnandgaon-Raipur)

We started from Pune at 6:15 am after having a very light breakfast of 4 plates bun maskas, 2 bread omlets and 3 cups irani chai each @ Kohinoor cafe Pune (those who are not aware, Kohinoor cafe is a very old Irani cafe on MG road and serves one of the best Irani chais & Bun Maskaas in town).


Pune-Nagar-Aurangabad:

Pune to Aurangabad road is a 4 lane Highway with pretty good road condition. As suggested by other members we drove through Ahmednagar avoiding bypass and there wasn’t much traffic. We reached at Ellora caves at 11:15 AM and went in for a sight tour for 3 hours (yeah, I emotionally blackmailed him for this: ‘ke lage haath yeh bhi dekh lete’).

But on a serious note You need to have at least a day if you want to see all of Ellora (We could do only 3 caves in 3 hours)!






Anyways We had our lunch at Fauji dhaba on Aurangabad-Dualatabad road while returning from Elloraa. As we had a very light breakfast in the morning, we did a heavy lunch of 2 masala papads with some chutney!

Just kidding. We had some chicken tandoori and dal-rice! The food was good, especially the non-veg.

Aurangabad-Jalna

We started for Akola around 3 PM and went through Aurangabad (avoiding bypass), but traffic was a bit heavy and the road condition was fine. (4 lane highway).

We reached Jalna around 4:30 PM and took Bypass (753 A towards north for Rajur-Chikhli).


Jalna-Rajur

Jalana Rajur is a bi-lane road which is heavily patched and with few potholes here and there. There were lots of speed breakers as well, so road condition was not that great. Traffic was also Ok.

Rajur Tembhurni Chikhli

from Rajur to Tembhurni is a cement road for first 10 or so kms and then its heavily patched Tar road with lots of potholes. We totally relied on Google maps as there was no direction or sign boards. From Tembhrni to Chikhli road work was going on so there were lots of diversions. Took a small tea break at some roadside tea stall.



Chikhli to Khamgaon

We reached Chikhli around 6:45pm and started for Khamgaon. Here comes the interesting part, when we started from Chikhli towards khamgaon there is a new highway having cement roads and 4 lanes where you can easily speed up till 100 kmph. It was fun driving that fast, and we were excited and happy but our happiness didn’t last long as we suddenly encountered a lot of sections holding construction work due to which there were no roads at some stretches, yeah literally no roads at all!

Aissa lag raha tha jaisey contractor ko paisey nahi mile isliye wo beech main hee kaam chod ke bhaag gaya.

Also, there were No signboards or caution/advisory on the roads. So please drive very carefully on this stretch.

Now we moved further and were excited to drive on upcoming Asian Highway 46 (Dhule-Kolkata highway) at Khamgaon. We were hoping a very nice 6 lane highway with smooth roads.

Oh Boy, we were absolutely wrong! Khamgaon to Akola AH46 is a 2-lane road which is heavily patched due to which all your body parts went in continuous vibration mode.

We got really frustrated with the unexpected road conditions and we felt it more due to the awesome suspension of Not-at-all SUV wagon R!

On top of that, we also had to deal with truck traffic which is usually heavy during the night. Since overtaking didn’t seem safe at that time, it took us 1 hour to cover just a 40 km ka stretch!

So, I would strongly advise, avoid driving in this section after sunset.

We stopped for the Night in Akola started at 5 AM for Nagpur.

Akola to Amravati

Same AH46 bi-lane tar, heavily patched road continues till Amravati. Truck traffic was low early morning.


Amravati-Nagpur

Had Breakfast at Hotel Gauri Inn near Amravati. Good food, nice service, clean toilets and ample parking space. Recommended for families.

Now Amravati Nagpur highway is good, 4 lane tar road with almost no traffic. There are frequent Toll booths in this section so kindly carry cash.
Reached Nagpur around 12:15 PM and filled CNG.

Nagpur- Raipur

Best part of the journey! 4 lane smooth roads till Raipur with less traffic. You can drive up to 80-100 kmph easily.

Took lunch break before Rajnandgaon at some random Punjabi Dhaba. We Reached Raipur at 6 PM.


Total Distance covered: Around 1120 kms
Fuel: petrol 2000 Rs + CNG twice (At Pune and Nagpur) around 1000 Rs = 3000 Rs
Total driving time around 21 hours.

Drive safe and keep posting guys.
Thanks!

[OmV]

Hello Folks,
Wishing everyone a very happy new year.
I am posting this query on behalf of my wife. She is driving from Mumbai (Airport) to Nagpur this weekend in a Kiger CVT. The 2 available routes are as follows with Google maps proposing the first one (30 mins and 15km less than the second.)

1. BOM- Nashik-Dhule-Jalgaon-Amravati-Nagpur
2. BOM-Aurangabad-Mehkar-Karanja-Amravati-Nagpur

The key considerations are good road conditions and access to clean restrooms. She is used to long distance driving and is not looking to break the journey over 2 days. This will be the first out of town journey for the Kiger (first service is done with 700kms on the odo).
If anyone has insights into these routes please advise.
Will FastTag be accepted at all/most tolls on these routes?

TIA.

[nitkel]

Originally Posted by OmV

Hello Folks,
1. BOM- Nashik-Dhule-Jalgaon-Amravati-Nagpur
2. BOM-Aurangabad-Mehkar-Karanja-Amravati-Nagpur

The key considerations are good road conditions and access to clean restrooms. She is used to long distance driving and is not looking to break the journey over 2 days. This will be the first out of town journey for the Kiger (first service is done with 700kms on the odo).
If anyone has insights into these routes please advise. Will FastTag be accepted at all/most tolls on these routes?

Route no 2 via Aurangabad is the best option in terms of traffic and road conditions. Fastag is accepted at all toll plazas now so that would not be a problem. After Aurangabad, eateries and restroom options are rather low till Amravati, so do plan your breaks in advance if possible. For restrooms, big COCO fuel pumps are a good place to stop for her as they generally have clean washrooms. I did Nagpur to Pune last week so the roads from Aurangabad onwards are good except for a 15 km bad patch before Amravati. Budget for 17 hrs total travel time so an early morning start will be ideal.

[pallavi_sgi]

Hi All,

Planning to travel from Mumbai to Nagpur in next few days. Route planned is :
1st leg : Mumbai-Nasik-Aurangabad.
2nd leg : Aurangabad - Jalna-Mehkar-Karanja-Amravati-Nagpur.

Taking break in Aurangabad as could not find any decent place for stay at any of the other locations.

Any input on road conditions, eateries, clean restrooms and fuel pumps is Wellcome.

Regards.

[abhi_tjet]

Originally Posted by pallavi_sgi

.
2nd leg : Aurangabad - Jalna-Mehkar-Karanja-Amravati-Nagpur.

Any input on road conditions, eateries, clean restrooms and fuel pumps is Wellcome.
Regards.

I generally go via this route on my way to Raipur. Refuel at Aurangabad. There are no good petrol pumps till you are close to Nagpur.
Roads should be good. Last I travelled on this route in March 2021, and it was very nice barring few small patches.

[Saminxs]

Originally Posted by abhi_tjet

I generally go via this route on my way to Raipur. Refuel at Aurangabad. There are no good petrol pumps till you are close to Nagpur.
Roads should be good. Last I travelled on this route in March 2021, and it was very nice barring few small patches.

Hi folks,

Any update on routes/road conditions for Mum to Bhilai road trip? Exploring the same with my wife.