[21Archer84]

Originally Posted by subbaraomr

thanks 21Archer84. Look forward to your friend's feedback. we are traveling 1st April so hopefully your friend would have the time to give an assessment of the road. when I drove through Humnabad last year the road was quite bad and in fact I burst a tyre, totally ripped apart from the side wall. Bit wary of repeating the experience.

Sure. That would be my pleasure.

Sad to hear about your past experience . I was equally worried when I saw the road after Akkalkot, my friend insisted we were on the right track, else I would have taken the alternate route to connect SH10

[kabir3551]

Hi Friends! i am planning for a trip to Bidar (Nanak Jhira Gurudwara). Can anyone update me about the road condition?
I read about road till Hyderabad. I guess I have to take a left turn from Humnabad to SH218. Any recent trip done by anybody?

[subbaraomr]

Originally Posted by 21Archer84

Sure. That would be my pleasure.

Sad to hear about your past experience . I was equally worried when I saw the road after Akkalkot, my friend insisted we were on the right track, else I would have taken the alternate route to connect SH10

hello Archer: Has your friend traveling Pune- Hyderabad done the trip yet? i am looking forward to his feedback as we are travelling on 1 April and have enough time to change routes.

[21Archer84]

Originally Posted by subbaraomr

hello Archer: Has your friend traveling Pune- Hyderabad done the trip yet? i am looking forward to his feedback as we are travelling on 1 April and have enough time to change routes.

Hi. I'm sorry to say this but my friend has changed his plans and would not be driving down to Hyd. Instead he'll be riding a bus next weekend. We should probably wait for someone else to respond or take help of Mr.HVK or his associates.

[deepv]

Originally Posted by subbaraomr

... when I drove through Humnabad last year the road was quite bad ...

Originally Posted by subbaraomr

... looking forward to his feedback as we are travelling on 1 April and have enough time to change routes.

Subbarao .. I can understand your dilemma, have gone through such experience a couple of times.
However I would suggest sticking to NH9 unless we have sure shot information that the road between Akkalkot and Aland (and thereabout) has been relaid, and I doubt that happening at so quickly (if at all).
Looking at a couple pages of this thread, its best to use NH9 and keep at safe speed in Solapur - Humnabad section.

[Drivethru]

Originally Posted by subbaraomr

looking forward to his feedback as we are travelling on 1 April and have enough time to change routes.

Please stick to NH9. Solapur-Hyderabad is bit of challenge with few narrow and patchy sections which calls for slow speeds and caution. Before this month end I have a trip to Hyd and plan to take NH9.

[kabir3551]

Subbarao and Drivethru read that you will be travelling to Hyderabad on 1st April. Can you pls try to click pics and upload so that I can get an idea as to how the road conditions are?? Your pics would be of great help.

[subbaraomr]

We leave on 1st A[rol 16 and will take NH9. We will post our experience.

Originally Posted by kabir3551

Subbarao and Drivethru read that you will be travelling to Hyderabad on 1st April. Can you pls try to click pics and upload so that I can get an idea as to how the road conditions are?? Your pics would be of great help.

we are also traveling on 1st. will share our experience

[kabir3551]

Drivethru and Subbarao any update regarding your trip to Hyderabad?? Also share pics that you might have clicked during the journey. Waiting for your updates.

[21Archer84]

I was hoping to hear from someone on the road conditions and the preferred route. I'm driving down to Pune this weekend and would like to have a suggestion from somebody who's done this route recently.

[Drivethru]

Originally Posted by 21Archer84

I'm driving down to Pune this weekend and would like to have a suggestion from somebody who's done this route recently.

Please stick to NH9. Pune-Solapur route is good. Post solapur roads are average with mix of good, bad and patchy roads. I travelled Mumbai-Hyderabad twice in the last month and I took NH 9. I'm not aware of alternate route conditions. Mumbai - Hyderabad took me around 12-13 hours including fuel, food breaks. Pune-Hyderabad is manageable in 10 hours. If you stay close to hadapsar you save some time.

[subbaraomr]

Originally Posted by 21Archer84

I was hoping to hear from someone on the road conditions and the preferred route. I'm driving down to Pune this weekend and would like to have a suggestion from somebody who's done this route recently.

21Archer84:
sorry, I missed teambhp last few days and you are probably traveling already. I traveled April 1 to 6 from Pune to Hyderabad.

The route from Solapur was slow and full of diversions but not patchy as I feared. Of course it took us 7 hours to travel from Balaji Sarovar Premier Hotel to Secunderabad club making it an average of 45km per hour with a fifteen minute break since I did not want to damage my suspension for the sake of speed. As long as you provide for this extra time you should be able to enjoy the drive and save your car.

There are a lot of diversions and lots of work going on, particularly between Omerga and Hyderabad. you can clip on the stretches that have been thrown open but be aware of the oncoming vehicles who will be speeding as well and taking chances. These stretches come to sudden end so you are advised to speed up but be cautious.

It was heartening to see the level of activity with earth movers and automatic road laying equipment- we should have an excellent road in place before end of the year. When I traveled this route January '15 not much work was going on. The road was full of diversions showing work was started but abandoned-quite possibly due to fund issue. Now they are in full swing.

Great learning having driven 10,000kms on highways last three years, which I gained from discussions with my wife during almost 30 days we spent on the road. I share for my younger friends- since we are senior citizens I think most of the people on this group must be younger than us.

1. Indians do not know road rules, least of all highway driving rules
2. Indians believe their breaking a rule is once in a while and for short distances (typical of villagers and rural drivers) but for a person driving 500kms/day this becomes an absolute hazard 100 times a day.
3. Most Indian drivers have not been taught highway etiquette and do not know that their cars are dangerous at high speeds ( i was amazed to see a Nano racing me, a Renault Fluence with all safety features, between Patnitop and Jammu).

Moral of the story:
Driving is a pleasure. Enjoy it safely. Be slow, patient, cautious, caring and courteous. your mind will be calmer and you will be able to enjoy the drive and drive many times more. Risky driving and losing your temper will put your mind in a toxic mood and emotional state of mind. A disturbed emotional condition is a recipe for mistakes, road rage and disaster.

Last and most important: the driver who irritates you and you take a panga with may be a ruffian and you donot want to tangle with him

Cheers, Wish you all many many happy drives and Long Life.

[dpkbehera]

I am planning to drive from Hyderabad to Pune and back next week.From the above posts i could summarize the following points i.e.
a) The drive is around 525-550 kms and takes around 9-10 hours. There is only one highway to be taken i.e. NH9
b) The road from Hyderabad to Solapur is not so great especially the Humnabad to Solapur section. This section is quite significant i.e. around 145 kms.

Would appreciate any useful suggestions considering the heat wave that is going on. Also would appreciate pointers for Breakfast and Lunch Joints from Hyderabad to Pune and back.

[joshuakeys]

Hi Team,

I have done this road very recently(1st week of April) and doing it again on 20th April. What i have noticed is the 4 lane work is going on rapidly, loads of diversions.

The diverted roads are good enough to do 100KMPH, but the problem is you share the road with on coming traffic.

The stretch between Humnabad and sholapur is still a disaster, i haven't seen any progress or any work being carried out on this stretch.

Sholapur to Pune is a bliss as its known to all.

Will keep posted about the latest status of the road condition when i am done with the round trip between 20th and 25th.

well not related to the road condition but, I have done the Day journey last time, no much traffic, may be its a weekday. What surprised me is, through out the drive till i reached KA border, there is no vegetation at all.

All the way its dry black soil/land. Meaning, if you are doing a day journey get ready to face the heat. carry loads of hydrating stuff along.

Cheers.
Josh

[21Archer84]

Originally Posted by subbaraomr

21Archer84:
sorry, I missed teambhp last few days and you are probably traveling already. I traveled April 1 to 6 from Pune to Hyderabad.

Hi. Thanks for your inputs. That was some inspiring quotes to the end which being a human we can break very easily.

I drove from Hyd on Sunday. I took the mehdipatnam-parigi-gulbarga-akkalkot-solapur route. Though it was longer by distance(~60-80kms) and time the road conditions were decent to very good with road work in progress between Aland-Akkalkot at few patches. There was no road at these stretches.
I left from mehdipatnam at 7:30AM and reached kharadi at 7:30PM with a 15min break for breakfast and about 45mins for lunch. I lost about an hour as I missed the SH and drove into vikarabad.

I don't really know the condition of NH9 so can't compare to judge which route is better. The roads are just brilliant in KA even though it's just 2-lane and decent in TS. MH had the worst roads of the trip between Aland -Solapur. Hope it helps someone looking for a different route and experience.