[narayans80]

Completed my trip on this section doing Solapur-Shani Signapur-Shirdi. My observations are in line with what Avi aka mobike008 has mentioned.

The horrible section is between Tembhurni bypass and Jeur bypass end. Beyond that its not that bad and you can maintain a decent pace except for a small bad section at Karmala bypass.

Here are my notes on the section's drive:

The route also had known bad roads from Tembhurni. I was skeptical on the timing, so decided on a 400-430am start previous night.
- We were really up and on the road at 440am.
- At that hour Solapur-Pune was near empty. I set to 105 and cruise and except for 3-4 vehicles and a diversion between Mohol and Varwade toll.
- Fastag at Sawaleshwar and Varwade was not manned at this hour. So it worked as it normally should.
- Thanks to the early start and nil traffic, at 540am I was at the turnoff on Tembhurni bypass.
- This is where we encountered one of the 2 worst sectors in the entire trip.
- I was expecting to be in Tembhurni bypass at daybreak at thought I’d be doing under natural lights. But it wasn’t to be.
- Tembhurni bypass to Jeur bypass end had half baked 4-lane sections which were hugely potholed here and there. They would suddenly merge and split out of the blue, none of this was marked. There were deep craters in between as well. Some sections were doable at 60-80 and some at 10-20 :P
- From Jeur bypass end, things improve instead of a half baked 4-lane you get a average to good 2-lane all the way till Ahmednagar. The only bad section here was Karmala bypass which was manageable (by which time sunrise happened).
- Took a 10 minute break between 640 and 650 am at Karmala Vittal Kamat which hadn’t opened for the day. So we had what we carried and moved on.
- Beyond Jeur bypass you can maintain 80-110 easily (car suspension permitting).
- As warned umpteen times, went through Nagar and was a breeze.
- Nagar-Ghodegaon-Aurangabad road was kid in candy shop scenario after experiencing Tembhurni-Nagar. We parked near Shani temple at 900am.

One doubt is, how is Shetfal-Karmala road? This was the road that Google Maps suggesting, which I didn't pay attention to due to recommendation from multiple people to do Tembhurni-Karmala-Nagar.

[unoczar]

Hey guys,

I'm traveling to Aurangabad from Hyderabad this month.

Thinking of doing Hyderabad-humnabad-naldurg-osmanabad-beed-aurangabad.

Any updates on roads etc would be appreciated.

I've done nizamabad - bhainsa route previously, but MH side of the border is very bad in this.

PS: Sorry for posting here, but this seemed like the more active thread currently. Mods- please shift post to hyd-aurangabad thread if deemed necessary.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by unoczar

I'm traveling to Aurangabad from Hyderabad this month.

Since you asked in this thread, I can answer how the route via Tembhurni, Nagar is. You can find the detailed update from the post above your querys'. In this route Tembhurni-Jeur bypass is by far the worst stretch, if you weather it out, rest of the stretch is decent enough to maintain 80-100 km/h. You can see I've done Tembhurni bypass-shane Singnapur in 3 hrs. Given how good the 4-lane beyond Nagar was, I expect another 1:20 hrs to reach Aurangabad.

I can tell you that Solapur-Tuljapur is great 4-lane, barring a handful of bridge constructions. Beyond that I have no idea. Osmanabad wasn't the recommended route for Shirdi, three's a discussion about that in this very thread.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Guys : I will try to be as much detailed as possible about this route as I dont see a latest update on this stretch for a long time. Hope this helps future travelers

Last I visited Shirdi was 2007 (visited many times before that) and due to some reasons I never could plan it in the last one decade and this plan evolved 3-4 days before the trip on Feb 4th.

I'm truly astounded and surprised by the overall development that I have witnessed of Sai Baba Temple, Shani Shingnapur Temple and overall infrastructure development across that area as I had a different imagery of that place more in tune with what I had envisioned dated back to 2007

After contemplating about the road conditions and talking to a couple of friends and also viewing Brajesh Bhai (Zen 91) updates, I was apprehensive of this road that that I might be stuck in bad roads, heavy traffic jam etc

Read on for the full story about the road conditions, hotel option and most importantly the darshan details

After contemplating the Hyd-Nirmal-Nanded-Aurangabad-Shirdi route which was nearly 100kms more, I decided to stick to traditional route as proposed by many on this thread

Hyderabad to Shirdi (Feb 4th), 2017

Hyderabad-Pargi-Kodangal-Sedam-Gulbarga-Akkalkot-Solapur-Tembhurni-Karmala-Ahmednagar-Shirdi (644kms)

Guys, It's time to visit Baba again

Driving to Shirdi over the weekend. Request latest update on this route

I'm especially interested in knowing the road conditions from Hyderabad to Solapur via Zaheerabad, Humnabad etc. Is this road completely developed until Solapur?

Also, how are the rains in this part of Maharashtra?

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by mobike008

It's time to visit Baba again

My Tembhurni-Karmala-Nagar update from December is here (same page, first post).

From what I read, the Gulbarga detour isn't worth anymore and offlate everyone has been taking NH9 for Hyd-Pune

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by narayans80

My Tembhurni-Karmala-Nagar update from December is here (same page, first post).

From what I read, the Gulbarga detour isn't worth anymore and offlate everyone has been taking NH9 for Hyd-Pune

Thanks. Looks like it will be a slightly faster timing than last time of 12 hours. Google shows it as 11 hours

I'm only worried about the last stretch until Solapur with respect to road conditions and hoping not to encounter pouring rains in Maharastra

Will keep you all posted of my route and overall conditions since it is now monsoon time

[samkat1]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Thanks. Looks like it will be a slightly faster timing than last time of 12 hours. Google shows it as 11 hours

I'm only worried about the last stretch until Solapur with respect to road conditions and hoping not to encounter pouring rains in Maharastra

Will keep you all posted of my route and overall conditions since it is now monsoon time

How's the road condition there? Planning for a Pune trip next month.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by samkat1

How's the road condition there? Planning for a Pune trip next month.

July 15th & 16th Drive to Shirdi from Hyderabad

Hyderabad-Solapur-Tembhurni-Karmala-Ahmednagar-Shirdi (625 kms)


Hyderabad to Solapur (310kms) : This route is awesome until exactly 100kms before Solapur and this is when the nightmare starts.

100kms until Solapur is pure torture. When we drove this stretch it was raining/drizzling for 80% of the time we were on the road. While the weather was just gorgeous but, due to continuous rains the roads were terrible with potholes, slush, loose gravel and driving them them was bone jarring experience

Solapur to Tembhurni (80kms) : 4 Lane bliss can be covered in 1 hour or less

For Pune, it is all 4-lane from Solapur to Pune so after tackling those 100kms prior to Solapur, it's all hunky dory

Tembhurni to Karmala to Ahmednagar (145 kms) : Due to the festival season, there were literally 1000's of people on the road walking from Ahmednagar or before villages to Pandharpur and being a 2-lane road, one side of the road was completely blocked by the walking pilgrims

Without exaggeration, there might have been more than 25,000 people walking on the road. Please avoid during "Ashaad Festival" which happens twice a year. Keep track of those days and never travel on this stretch

It was the most exrcuciating 145kms of my life and they were so immersed in their devotion that heavy rains also didn't deter them and they were dancing, singing and walking on the road. We would see a group of 20-100 people every 1/2 km

Basically, had to go through literally 2-nightmares (Solapur 100kms stretch and 145kms of driving on one side with traffic coming from opposite in same lane)

It was exactly the same way for return journey as we returned the very next day so we encountered the walking devotees again and unfortunately, return journey was even more painful with traffic jam for 10kms (no kidding).

I had no option but, go off-road most of the times into bad roads/slush and terrible terrain including climbing small hills and coming on other side to pass cars, some of the roads SUV owners would shudder and rather wait behind traffic and continue on main road

Aspire left me totally impressed yet again as I was doing every possible maneuver to get ahead of the massive traffic jams..LOL!

Solapur onwards covering those 100kms towards Hyderabad was hell. Low visibility, heavy rains and those potholes was painful experience

It was a mixed experience of the road trip

But, Sai Baba Darshan was so surreal that we forgot all these issues and now looking forward to our next road trip to Shirdi

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by mobike008

It was a mixed experience of the road trip

Oh dear! Thats terrible, there goes any plans of using Hyd route to reach Shirdi. Did you notice any improvements in road condition in the Tembhurni-Karmala sector, I guess you might've been totally preoccupied by the huge number of people walking on the road

[hserus]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Oh dear! Thats terrible, there goes any plans of using Hyd route to reach Shirdi. Did you notice any improvements in road condition in the Tembhurni-Karmala sector, I guess you might've been totally preoccupied by the huge number of people walking on the road

That road has never been in any sort of good condition, and it isn't helped by the local population being very religious. Please just fly to Pune and take a Myles / Zoomcar. Pune - Shirdi is in quite decent condition except for the Ahmednagar bypass (that the locals persist in calling 'Nagar').

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by hserus

Please just fly to Pune and take a Myles / Zoomcar. Pune - Shirdi is in quite decent condition except for the Ahmednagar bypass (that the locals persist in calling 'Nagar').

If flying from Hyderabad, why Pune? Why not Shirdi directly on a non-stop flight? Or direct overnight train?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

If flying from Hyderabad, why Pune? Why not Shirdi directly on a non-stop flight? Or direct overnight train?

Correct me if I'm wrong but there's a lot of trains from Hyderabad to Manmad or Nagarsol after which you rent a local Bolero or other share cab to take you 50-70 km to Shirdi. Very few trains to Sainagar Shirdi.

The flight? One a day from Hyderabad to a location about as far from Shirdi from where you take an AC bus or hire a cab. And worse I think that flight is Air India.

What's the point?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by hserus

Pune - Shirdi is in quite decent condition except for the Ahmednagar bypass (that the locals persist in calling 'Nagar').

If you ignore this "Bypass", the actual route via Nagar is still in good shape albeit the traffic that one has to experience while crossing the town.

So ideally, it's not that the bypass is bad; it's rather better not to consider this bypass at all and do as rest of the world heading to Shirdi from Pune Does : Go through Nagar town!

And from Airport, it makes much sense to consider the standard route to Shirdi via Nagar rather than other option of heading the Nashik way till Sangamner and then touch Shirdi which many do as well. After all, Nagar Road and Airport are 5 minutes away, well almost.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Oh dear! Thats terrible, there goes any plans of using Hyd route to reach Shirdi. Did you notice any improvements in road condition in the Tembhurni-Karmala sector, I guess you might've been totally preoccupied by the huge number of people walking on the road

Tembhurni->Karmala->Ahmednagar is pretty much the same. I mean the surface isn't too bad that I should complain. It is decent road where you can keep a constant 100kmph (provided you dont run into traffic) but, the truck traffic on that route is alarmingly high at all times

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

If flying from Hyderabad, why Pune? Why not Shirdi directly on a non-stop flight? Or direct overnight train?

Originally Posted by hserus

The flight? One a day from Hyderabad to a location about as far from Shirdi from where you take an AC bus or hire a cab. And worse I think that flight is Air India.What's the point?

Taking a flight from Hyderabad to Shirdi is simply not an option and no body in their right mind would take one

Return Fare for 1 Pax is INR 17K/- (No kidding, just check it out)

Last year took us 13 hours door to door but, this year it was 12.5 hours door to door including the traffic and issues we encountered so I would say the road conditions are improving as each year passes

However, our time of year (rainy season) was wrong and it was an unavoidable trip so had to do it irrespective of the weather and road conditions

In retrospect, we enjoyed the adventure and I look forward to driving back to Shirdi next year (but, when weather is bone dry)

Originally Posted by paragsachania

If you ignore this "Bypass", the actual route via Nagar is still in good shape albeit the traffic that one has to experience while crossing the town.

Big Warning. Never take the "Bypass" road when you are approaching Ahmednagar. It is meant for mostly trucks and road condition is also not that great (Last year we took that went for 5kms and took a u-turn and went through Nagar city)

Always go through the Ahmednagar city and it is a much better route to head towards Shirdi

Also, the last 80kms from Nagar to Shirdi is a breeze....2 lane road but, completely divided and it's great fun to drive on this stretch

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Big Warning. Never take the "Bypass" road when you are approaching Ahmednagar.

If you happen to stop-by the Bangalore-Pune-Shirdi thread, this warning appears more than once on one page, since more than 3 years now .



I had even driven this 'Bypass' from the other side (Aurangabad) when returning from Bangalore and took a U-Turn.