[zzzehar]

Hello folks, reviving this thread after one year.

I am planning to do Chennai to - Delhi coming Friday. I see that the central India route is significantly shorter but almost everyone says that road conditions are bad.

Shortest Route: Chennai to Hyderabad (outer) - Nagpur - Gwalior - Agra - Delhi

The other option via Bangalore - Hubli - Pune - Mumbai - Surat - Vadodra - Udaipur - Ajmer - Delhi is longer by almost 700 KM but I hear that road are exceptionally good.

Has anyone done this route recently and can throw some light on the road conditions. Is it worth driving 700 KM extra in favor of good roads? Will the bad road cost me as much time? Google Maps suggest time as 35 hours for shorter route and 41 hours for longer one.

[Krishnan V G]

Hi, hardly a few weeks back we had driven from Gurgaon to Chennai. You can comfortably take the Chennai Ongole Hyderabad Nagpur Gwalior Agra Delhi route. Roads of the route are nearly in fantastic driving conditions. Just go ahead. You will slow down between Adilabad and Hinganghat and between Jhansi and Agra. However even these stretches are not that bad.

[zzzehar]

Originally Posted by Krishnan V G

Hi, hardly a few weeks back we had driven from Gurgaon to Chennai. You can comfortably take the Chennai Ongole Hyderabad Nagpur Gwalior Agra Delhi route. Roads of the route are nearly in fantastic driving conditions. Just go ahead. You will slow down between Adilabad and Hinganghat and between Jhansi and Agra. However even these stretches are not that bad.

Thank you so much Krishnan! Can you give me the day wise itinerary you followed? I need to book hotels but most of the towns sound alien to me.

A few questions if you can answer -

1. Is the highway single or double?
2. Are there good options to eat en-route and good bathroom facilities?
3. Do I need to cross through the cities or will it be outskirts? I heard traffic is pretty bad in Agra, Jhansi area.
4. In how much time did you cover it? How many KMs were you able to clock daily?
5. Anything else I need to be aware of?

Thanks

[Krishnan V G]

Originally Posted by zzzehar

Thank you so much Krishnan! Can you give me the day wise itinerary you followed? I need to book hotels but most of the towns sound alien to me.

Hi, my answers to your questions above:

1. Large sections of the highway route are four lane roads but some are two lane roads. About 60-70% is four lanes and the rest would be two lanes but can easily drive.
2. We always carry home cooked food with us. However lots of options available. Between Chennai and Hyderabad you have Amaravathi restaurant outside Gudur. Between Hyderabad and Nagpur, you have Haldirams restaurant in the heart of Nagpur if you pass through. The Yamuna Expressway itself has restaurants both sides of the highway. There are several threads about the restaurants on thjs route and you may check for the same.
3. Most of the cities you will bypass and hence no need to go into the cities en-route. You don't have to and you should not get into Agra and Jhansi. I use google maps extensively to map the routes in advance and save them for later use. As I have done Gurgaon to Chennai and back about 3-4 times in the last 18 months and hence know by heart.
4. Day 1 we drive from Gurgaon to Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, a distance of about 650 kms. We start by 5 am and reach Sagar by 3.30 pm including some halts. We stay at Hotel Deepali Residency in Sagar, close to the highway. It's a fantastic place to stay with very clean rooms and food. Day 2 we drive from Sagar to Hyderabad through Narsinghpur, Chindwara, Saoner, Nagpur, Adilabad and Nirmal, a distance of about 800 kms. Start at 5 am and reach by 5-6 pm. Day 3 again start by 5 am from Hyderabad and drive to Chennai via Narketpalli, Addanki, Ongole, Nellore and Gummidipoondi, a distance of about 650 kms to reach Chennai by about 3 pm, again with a few halts.
5. Suggestions: always start early, avoid night diving, there are very good fuel stations right through the route where you can fill in and stop for bio breaks at these places, use bypass routes to avoid getting into cities and if you have more than one to drive the car, then rotate. Between Agra and Jhansi, drive carefully as the roads are not that good and you will find people driving in the Opp direction.

Please do not hesitate to ask for directions if you are not sure. Ensure that you have downloaded the google maps on your device for the route that you have chosen to drive. Keep it ready for offline use. Don't drive at high speeds as there are places where they have speed checks too.

[Doc_nikhil]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Stick to the Madras-Bangalore-Bombay-Udaipur-Jaipur-Delhi route. Good roads. Excellent facilities. Totally safe.Avoid the central India route which has lots of bad sections and poorest of facilities.

Originally Posted by zzzehar

Hello folks, reviving this thread after one year.
Shortest Route: Chennai to Hyderabad (outer) - Nagpur - Gwalior - Agra - Delhi

Originally Posted by Krishnan V G

Hi, my answers to your questions above:
1. Large sections ....where they have speed checks too.

Hello,
My friend and myself are planning a drive from Delhi to Chennai with stopovers at night at Sagar and Hyd, making it a three day drive. How is the route now?
road conditions? To quote zzzehar,

1. Is the highway completely four laned now?

2. Are the good options to eat en-route and good bathroom facilities still there? How easy is the availability of good quality diesel? We will be driving 2011 Skoda Yeti.

3. How much time should we allot to cover Delhi - Sagar / Sagar - Hyd / Hyd -Chennai?

4. How are the roads via Nellore compared to the Vijayawada route? is it four laned like the Vijayawada route?

5.Anything else I need to be aware of?

6. In the preliminary posts, HVKumar was stating that the Mumbai route is better but due time constraints, we will be doing the central India route. How bad is the truck traffic?

7. We are planning to be doing mostly day driving and stopovers for the night. Also This will be our first time doing such a long distance. Any helpful tips and pointers?

Any help in these points would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Doc_nikhil

[Krishnan V G]

Hello Doc Nikhil,

Here are my responses to your set of questions above:

1. No, not all the sections of the route from Delhi to Chennai is four laned. Even now.
2. There are innumerable good options to eat en route as well bathroom facilities. You have excellent petrol pumps/fuel stations on the way, all the way from Delhi to Chennai including COCO fuel stations/petrol pumps on the route. Good quality diesel availability is a non issue.
3. Depends on what time you leave early in the morning and also your destination for the day, and many other factors. We normally leave Gurgaon by 5 am on Day 1 and reach Hotel Deepali International at Sagar by about 3-4 pm. The road between Gwalior to Jhansi is bad with some sections of about 130-150 kms is really bad and would slow you down. We leave early as we don't drive in the nights and early leaving also ensures that you are out of the city much before the daily city traffic starts. On Day 2, we start from Sagar usually by 4.30 am as this is the longest distance of the three day trip from Gurgaon to Chennai. Please take the Sagar-Narsinghpur-Seoni- Nagpur bypass- Hinghanghat-Adilabad- Nirmal - Hyderabad route. This route is fantastic almost the entire distance. You can stay in any of the Hotels close to the highway so that your exit next morning from Hyderabad to Chennai is easy. Sagar to Hyderabad should take about 12 hours, again depending on several factors.
4. Day 3: Hyderabad to Chennai go through the Hyderabad Nalgonda Ongole Nellore Chennai route. Should take about 10 hours for this stretch. Have driven this stretch about 10 times, and it's very comfortable to drive. There are speed breakers across the highways and you need to be careful about them.
5. Nothing in particular. Leave early, no night driving, follow the rules, rotate driving if more than one driver, take small breaks, don't overspend, put fuel only in good fuel stations...
6. Have always done the central India route. Have driven Gurgaon to Chennai 7 times up and the same number of times back. The only route change that we have done is taking the Seoni route from Sagar to bypass Nagpur as Nagpur city is going through lots of constructions and hence too many diversions.
7. The Skoda Yeti is one of the best vehicles to drive and nothing to worry. We also had a Skoda Yeti 2011 model that we have driven from Gurgaon to Chennai and back several times.

Have a great trip...

[Doc_nikhil]

Originally Posted by Krishnan V G

Hello Doc Nikhil,

Here are my responses...The Skoda Yeti is one of the best vehicles to drive and nothing to worry. We also had a Skoda Yeti 2011 model that we have driven from Gurgaon to Chennai and back several times.[/list]
Have a great trip...

Thank you for the precise response, sir. It will greatly help our travel, no doubt! Yes, both of us will be taking turns to drive, and I have zeroed in on Hotel deepali for the stay in Sagar, after reading your brief review about it in the older post. Another doubt I have is, do we have any other options to bypass the bad stretch between Gwalior and Jhansi? When you say "bad stretch" does it mean we have to crawl along with almost non existent tarmac or is it not so terrible that we can maintain an average of 30-40kmph? We are planning to leave delhi by noon. My friend will be reaching delhi only early in the morning and I want him to have a few hours of proper rest before we set off. Thanks once again for your help.

Regards,
Doc_nikhil.

[Krishnan V G]

It's a combination of diversions (because of road widening) and poor quality of roads, speed breakers etc., not to mention about the way local guys drive on these roads. But with caution, you can still drive on this stretch. Haven't driven this Gwalior to Jhansi stretch in the evenings/nights but it's possible that traffic may be less by then. My last drive on this route was in Oct 2018. Things might have improved by now. Not sure.

[Doc_nikhil]

Originally Posted by Krishnan V G

It's a combination of diversions (because of road....Things might have improved by now. Not sure.

Thanks once again! Shall do the route abs update you sir.

[sameer sultan]

I am planning to drive from Chennai to Gurgaon next month as one of my friend is taking up a new job in Delhi hence the trip. I have shortlisted the following route based on inputs from Krishnan V G in this thread:

Day 1 Chennai to Hyderabad

Day to Hyderabad to Sagar

Day 3 Sagar to Gurgaon.

The last update on road conditions is from 2019. I would like to know if anyone has recently travelled on this route and how are the road conditions?

I have done Chennai to Hyderabad earlier so I am aware of the road conditions.

Our ride will be the Hyundai Tucson.

Thanks!

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by sameer sultan

The last update on road conditions is from 2019.

You can refer the Delhi-Bangalore thread (Delhi to Bangalore : Route Queries) for the rest.

Gwalior-Agra used to be the worst stretch, even that I hear has improved over the last 2 years.

One thing you have to be careful north of Nagpur is cattle menace. Tons of them, nowhere near the numbers you see them in Madras suburbs.

You can shoot for ButiBori on day 1, you'll easily dismiss Hyderabad in 9 hours time, especially if you are both driving.

[anu21v]

Hello Guys,

I have to return by Chennai registered car via car movers and I also have to go to Chennai along with my family in the same timings. I have this Diesel HB (nissan) which has served for 10 years and is not allowed to drive in NCR any further.

I am looking for your advise on whether

A. should I take a Road route to Chennai using this car (around 10,000 Fuel + Toll + Self driving + couple of road Stay)

or

B. Send the car by movers, and go by train (Train Ticket- 14000+Car-Shipping-20000 = Total 34,000).

Normally I would be happy to go out on car as the car is in excellent condition, gives great mileage, easy on the body, and has been serviced just the 2 weeks ago. But a total distance of 2100 KM route and unknown quantity of NH16 stretch is just scaring me to go with 2 Kids.

I am also looking for your views on road condition and whether it can be done in 2 days trip. Day 1 from Delhi to Nagpur, Day 2 from Nagpur to Chennai. Also, are there any good stays mid-way between HYD to Chennai


Looking for you all suggestions.

[searacer932]

Originally Posted by anu21v

Hello Guys,

I have to return by Chennai registered car via car movers and I also have to go to Chennai along with my family in the same timings. I have this Diesel HB (nissan) which has served for 10 years and is not allowed to drive in NCR any further.

I am looking for your advise on whether

A. should I take a Road route to Chennai using this car (around 10,000 Fuel + Toll + Self driving + couple of road Stay)

or

B. Send the car by movers, and go by train (Train Ticket- 14000+Car-Shipping-20000 = Total 34,000).

Normally I would be happy to go out on car as the car is in excellent condition, gives great mileage, easy on the body, and has been serviced just the 2 weeks ago. But a total distance of 2100 KM route and unknown quantity of NH16 stretch is just scaring me to go with 2 Kids.

I am also looking for your views on road condition and whether it can be done in 2 days trip. Day 1 from Delhi to Nagpur, Day 2 from Nagpur to Chennai. Also, are there any good stays mid-way between HYD to Chennai


Looking for you all suggestions.

My suggestion is -

a) Send your family / kids over flight/train as appropriate
b) Drive down from NCR to Chennai in your Nissan Sunny. (Would prefer this any day over untrusty package & movers).

Take your time and do the drive in a relaxed way and don't rush. All the best for your journey!

[DrPoison]

Hi! My wife and I are moving from Manali down to Vellore, Tamil Nadu in August. We plan to drive down in our Baleno 2019 CVT with our two cats!

I'd like suggestions on which route would be better:
Day 1 Manali, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Day2 Jaipur ,Ahmedabad, Day 3 Ahemdabad, Mumbai/Pune, Day 4 Pune, Bengaluru, Day 5 Bengaluru Vellore? Or
Day 1 Manali, Delhi, Day2 Manali Gwalior/Jhansi, Day 3 Jhansi Nagpur, Day4 Nagpur Hyderabad, Day 5 Hyderabad Vellore

I'd be driving most of the way, with my hopefully driving in between to relieve me.

Thanks in Advance!

[Yieldway17]

Originally Posted by DrPoison

Hi! My wife and I are moving from Manali down to Vellore, Tamil Nadu in August. We plan to drive down in our Baleno 2019 CVT with our two cats!

I don't have a route suggestion but very interesting move from a nice and cold Manali to Vellore which is one of the hottest cities in TN and maybe even India in the summers.