[vikas.mishra]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

The route I took does not go via siddapur. Once you cross Jog falls continue on the same route, you will cross a tollgate at a place called mavingundi after Jog falls. This route is via sagar-talaguppa-jog falls-gersoppa-honnavar. This route is good except for few turns in the ghat section. The road in ghat appears to be newly patched but that too is gone rough at a few places. Some part of the ghat road is still the very old single laned road. But all this is good to drive, I drove in my Santro without any trouble, if you have a bigger car, it is even simpler.

Rajiv,

I can see that you took around 13 hours to reach Goa - were you going very fast or is the traffic low so that even if you are not going very fast, you can maintain a good average ?

Regards,
Vikas

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by vikas.mishra

Rajiv,

I can see that you took around 13 hours to reach Goa - were you going very fast or is the traffic low so that even if you are not going very fast, you can maintain a good average ?

Regards,
Vikas

Hi Vikas,

I tried to go at 80KMPH at all smooth stretches, but with many interruptions due to cows and people on road. The road from Shimoga to sagar is quite OK to accelerate to 90KMPH and I will say you can have an average speed of 60KMPH easily. After sagar till Jog falls too it is OK to maintain a high speed. But after that the ghat begins and speed drops to 30-40KMPH or less. NH-17 is fine till Ankola and after that till Goa border you have to go via patchy road, the same area was badly affected in October rains. You may have to drop to 20KMPH at a few places due to broken area.

Fortunately this road has very less traffic, only few KSRTC buses and some local transport vehicles, except on NH-17.

[diogo]

Anybody travelled on the Kittur - khanapur - ramnagar- anmod - mollem route in the last two weeks? I am planning to drive in two weeks time.

last update was that bad roads between ramnagar and anmod. Any road repair works going on there?

[diogo]

Nobody seems to have travelled this way off late...?

Looks like will have to take the Belgaum - ambolim - sawantwadi route...

[buvan]

Even I am planning for this route

Agumbe-Shimoga-Hubli-Dharwad-Kittur-Belgaum-Amboli(Halt) -362 kms on 26th December (Part of 11 days bike ride)

[goandude]

Started at 0530 on 13 morning from Big B on OMR took ORR BEL rd and hit NH4 by 0600. work on Tumkur bypass is progressing slowly. then till CDurga fab road. (OT:: A good place to halt is the VRH terminal 9 km short of CD. CLEAn toilets okish upma.) Then CD bypass is fast nearing completion IMO 2 months more. Work on the remaining road to Haveri is on, in fact the ranibennur bypass is almost done. sadly I cannot say the same about the two rail over bridges. work there is not progressing but some of the terrible potholes have been repaired. Haveri hubli is fantastic fast drive. Reached hubli by 1200 and pressed on to Yellapur where i reached at 1300. good road but be CAREFUL of the rash ore truckers . road deteriorates slightly on the short ghat section and then again it is good again. roads that were washed out south of karwar in the Oct deluge are done up very well. pleasure to drive on the twisties with a smooth surface. My A drives performed very well. then roads good all the way to Vasco. reached home at 1720 h. total 10 h 50 min drive time plus stoppage of 1 hour. distance 680 km. maintained speeds 90 - 110 kmph.

[explorer09]

Hi,

Am planning to drive down to Dharwad from Bangalore. Planning to start at 5 from Blore. Do you think its realistic to target 12 Noon for Dharwad with one food break?

Regards,
Sandeep

[hvkumar]

oHERALDo :: Karwar Kali bridge shut from Jan 5

There is going to be dislocation in traffic moving to Goa from Karwar side on NH17 thanks to the Kali River Bridge being repaired. Please see above news item and note to reschedule either your route or time schedules appropriately.

HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Karwar Kali bridge shut from Jan 5
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
POINGUINIM, DEC 10
The Kali bridge in neighbouring Karwar along the highway that links Goa with the southern States in the country will be closed from January 5 till February 4 for vehicular traffic, except for two-wheelers and pedestrians.
A notification was issued by the National Highway division of Karwar on December 10 to various agencies and the press.
With the closure of the Kali bridge, four-wheelers will have to take a detour from Sadashivgad-Kadra-Shirwad, an additional distance of 60 kms, to reach Karwar.
The diversion is even longer for heavy vehicles, with the detour along the Margao-Ponda-Baleguli-Haliyal-Ramnagar-Anmod route, an additional distance of over 180 kms to reach Karwar.
According to Officer of the National Highways Umesh Bhat, the Kali bridge was built in 1983 and tests by experts from Bangalore on the bridge revealed that the Central Hinge Bearings are over 25 years old and are in need of replacement.
“This work will be undertaken by a firm from Mumbai at an estimated cost of Rs 1.7 crore. Besides replacing the worn out bearings, other renovation work on the bridge will also be carried out”, Bhat told Herald.
It is learnt that PWD officials from Karwar had approached the River Navigation Department (RND) at Panjim for barges, but the deal ended when the RND was willing to provide barges on a one-year period on contract basis, which was not feasible for the agency entrusted with the work.
Prior to the commissioning of the bridge in 1983 there was ferry service, but that was eventually stopped. It is learnt that restarting ferry services would be laborious and expensive as the river has to be de-silted and a wharf would need to be reconstructed as the old one has not been in use since the past two decades.
The closure of the bridge will result in heavy losses to State-owned busses from Goa and Karnataka, traders of various goods of the southern States with Goa and commuters from Goa and Karnataka.
Business at the two petrol pumps as well as at bar and restaurants located at the border will also be severely affected for a month.

T-BHpian Ranjit, Thank you for bringing this news to our notice.

[ranjitp1]

Thanx,but the real thanx goes out to Bhpian-Misquitas as I found this update on a discreet thread somewhere on this forum.He apparently works for this paper in Goa

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

oHERALDo :: Karwar Kali bridge shut from Jan 5

There is going to be dislocation in traffic moving to Goa from Karwar side on NH17 thanks to the Kali River Bridge being repaired. Please see above news item and note to reschedule either your route or time schedules appropriately.

Subsequent to this announcement, which would be the best route to go to Goa during Jan-Feb 2010

The reason is we need to travel to reach Goa by 29th noon time and return to Bangalore on 1st Feb 2010.

When i searched the Google map, i found following options

1. Bangalore-Hubli - NH63 - Kalghatgi - Haliyal - Alnavar - Londa - NH4A - Tisk - Ponda

2. Above Route till Haliyal - Baleguli - Ponda (this route is shown in the announcement below)

3. Banaglore - Dharward - Kittur - Bidi (SH56) - SH93 - Khanapur - NH4A - TISK - Ponda

4. Bangalore - Belgaum - Khanapur - NH4A - TISK - Ponda

5. Bangalore - Belgaum - Amboli - Pernem - Siolim - Bambolim - Ponda

We plan to leave on 28th after noon ~ 3:30 PM once my daughter returns from school, travel till Hubli, stay for the night and next day morning do onward travel to Ponda. On return we would be leaving on 1st morning from Ponda and drive all the way till Bangalore.

I would need the advice on the road conditions and the timings from Hubli onwards till Ponda. I would be travelling by my ANHC, hence off roading and adventure driving is absolutely NO-NO.

Request the GURUs to advuce me on the right route to be taken considering the likely road conditions.

[hvkumar]

The road between Londa and Ponda is in a bad shape currently, that would rule out Route options 1, 2, 3 and 4, leaving the last route - via Amboli - as the best one. But it may not be a bad idea to go on the detour at Sadashivgarh/Karwar, and as I mentioned before, there are good chances of car ferries to transport cars across the River Kali too.

[Aditya]

Avoid the Lonad - Ponda stretch. It's really bad.
Take route #5. It's the best. My brother is doing this trip on Saturday and I've advised him to take the same. Also it's the best way to get to my home (Pernem).

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

The road between Londa and Ponda is in a bad shape currently, that would rule out Route options 1, 2, 3 and 4, leaving the last route - via Amboli - as the best one. But it may not be a bad idea to go on the detour at Sadashivgarh/Karwar, and as I mentioned before, there are good chances of car ferries to transport cars across the River Kali too.

Originally Posted by Aditya

Avoid the Lonad - Ponda stretch. It's really bad.
Take route #5. It's the best. My brother is doing this trip on Saturday and I've advised him to take the same. Also it's the best way to get to my home (Pernem).

My gut feel was also to take route 5,

Kumar ji, your idea of looking for car ferries is a great one, i would be watching for such a facility, it would be a great experience, i had taken my old palio couple of time via ferries, but never the new ANHC.

thanks for your inputs.

[goandude]

I would suggest bangy belgaum amboli sawantwadi route. it is just 30 km longer than the hubli karwar route and takes about 40 - 50 minutes more driving time. (depending on the time of day as you have to traverse belgaum) if you are headed to north goa then the difference becomes negligible. cheers

[Mani@Blr]

Hi,

I hope the Kali bridge shut-down starts only in Jan (as advertised). I will be driving to Goa this Sat'day via this route (shimoga => Karwar => Panaji)., and dread taking diversions on unknown routes.

Will update you on the status once I reach Goa.