[vamsi2390]

Hello guys,

I will be travelling to Pune on 28th.
Will start at 12pm from office in financial district/Nanakramguda.

The last I drove on this route was way back in August where in I took the hyd-humnabad-omerga-solapur-pune road.

I have driven through hyd-pargi-sedam-gulbarga-akalkot-solapur stretch as well way back in feb and March which was good but seems to have taken longer time.


What is the best route to take now ?

How bad is the omerga to Solapur stretch still?

Is it any better to take a diversion to aland and continue after humnabad ?

Oh and btw I would be driving on a Duster

[AutoB]

I just posted this on another thread for HYD to Mahabaleshwar - my vote is to stick to NH65 from HYD to Solapur. just prepare yourself for the 60 km bad stretch (which is bad only in places) - rest is superb.

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Just got back from our vacation in Mahabaleshwar. Here is the update on the road condition / route taken. Based on inputs I decided to avoid the bad stretch on NH65 from Hyderabad to Solapur and so took the route via Gulbarga/Aland/Akkalkot. The road condition is good but given the width and traffic (sugarcane laden tractors), one cannot go really fast. We started at 11 am from Hyderabad and planned night halt was at Pandharpur as I wanted to cover as much of the distance on day 1 as possible. Reached Pandharpur around 9 pm with several halts for lunch/dinner/snacks. Stayed at Prabhu Residency (stone’s throw from the temple). Decent place.

Next day we started at 7 am and took the Mhaswad/Dahiwadi/Satara route as suggested by Google. The road is a disaster – lot of construction/broken stretches. The only good part was a stopover at a roadside farm where the farmer (Arjun) was kind enough to show us all the crops he grows (sugarcane, jowar, pomegranate, etc.). Reached Mahabaleshwar at 2 pm, via the Satara/Medha ghat road. Road is narrow in places so one has to drive carefully but absolutely no traffic meant one of the best ghat road experiences.

Stayed at Club Mahindra Sherwood which is a lovely resort – definitely recommend staying here – try getting the 1 bedroom units – they are the best!

On the way back I decided to stick to the NH as much as possible given the horrible experience on state highways of Maharashtra. MH certainly needs to do a lot on its road infrastructure. Also we were stuck in the Mapro Garden/Panchgani area the day before leaving and so decided to take the Satara ghat road down. Night halt was planned at Solapur (Surya Executive – nice place).

Route on the way back was M’shwar/Medha/Satara/NH48 up to Kapurhol/then to Saswad and on to Uruli Kanchan to meet NH65. Great roads all along. The state highways are a little rough but good in most places. From Uruli Kanchan it was NH65 all along to Solapur. Started from M’shwar at 11 am and reached Solapur at 6 pm – so much better time on the way back.

Next day started at 7 am and decided to take NH 65 to Hyderabad. The 60-70 km stretch between Naldurg & Omerga is very bad in places. So be prepared to make sudden stops and take diversions. Prepare yourself mentally and the stretch goes by without much hassle. It is better than taking state highways through small towns with a lot of farm traffic. The rest of the highway of course is world class and we got home (Gachibowli) by 1 pm.

13 hours total on the way back compared to 17 hours on the way out. So my vote is to stay on NH 65 between HYD and Solapur. Do explore the Uruli Kanchan/Kapurhol state highway and avoid Panchgani/Wai ghat – instead take Satara ghat.

Mahabaleshwar was great! Enjoyed every bit of it and also the road trip. Waiting for NH65 to be completed soon.

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[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by AutoB

I just posted this on another thread for HYD to Mahabaleshwar - my vote is to stick to NH65 from HYD to Solapur. just prepare yourself for the 60 km bad stretch (which is bad only in places) - rest is superb.

Thanks for the update.So would this mean that the only 2 lane stretch between Hyd and Solapur is the section between Naldurg and Solapur?

[AutoB]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Thanks for the update.So would this mean that the only 2 lane stretch between Hyd and Solapur is the section between Naldurg and Solapur?

Yes. There are parts of the highway upto Omerga that have been completed and those are 4 lane divided. But there are several diversions that make the road 2 lanes.

[Krishroy]

Just back from 3 days vacation trip from Pune with our pet dog. Here are few road updates, if it is useful for you.
We started 24 Dec mid-night (we prefer night drive to avoid local transport). Initially our plan is to start at 8 PM from Hyderabad; but unfortunately the hotel in Pune couldn't confirm the early check-in, as it was 25th Dec long weekend. Anyway, we took the following route while going
Hyderabad -> Zaheerabad -> Humnabad -> Gulbarga -> Aland -> Akkalkot -> Solapur -> Pune
From Humnabad to Solapur it was State highway and 2 lane road; otherwise 4-lane road. As I drove at midnight, there was not much traffic. We reached Pune at 11 am with three major break (total around 2.5 to 3 hours)

While coming back today, we took a different route, as follows

Pune -> Solapur -> Akkalkot -> Aland -> Omerga -> Hyderabad

SH between Aland and Omerga is 32 KM long, with few bad patches (max 5 KM). Road from Omerga to Karnataka State border (20 KM) is 2 lane under-construction road with lot of diversions. Remaining 180 KM till Hyderabad is 4 lane toll road.

Total time taken while returning back is 9:30 hours, including 1:30 hr of rest time

If I compare these two roads, I will give more points to 2nd route for the following reasons

1. It allows me to make maximum use of the 4-lane road between hyd and pune
2. It helps me to avoid Gulbarga, which is quite populated town and can potentially slow down your speed
3. It takes the Aland-Umerga SH, which is a less populated road, as it goes through a less populated area.

Cheers

[nawabnabeel]

Hi everyone. I travelled on this route on the 27th of December 2017 in my vento. My route was Khopoli-Pune-Solapur-Umarga-Zaheerabad-Hyderabad.

Trip Distance: 630 kms
Time taken: 12hrs
Start time: 9am
End time: 9pm
Toll: Rs.588
Vehicle: VW Vento Tdi 2011 120000+kms

Stretch between Solapur and MH-KA border remains bad. Rest all super smooth roads with one diversion somewhere on the Karnataka stretch.

You can checkout this video for detailed information.

http://youtu.be/Fn_YII7s5lU

[AutoB]

Originally Posted by nawabnabeel

Hi everyone. I travelled on this route on the 27th of December 2017 in my vento. My route was Khopoli-Pune-Solapur-Umarga-Zaheerabad-Hyderabad.

Trip Distance: 630 kms
Time taken: 12hrs
Start time: 9am
End time: 9pm
Toll: Rs.588
Vehicle: VW Vento Tdi 2011 120000+kms

Stretch between Solapur and MH-KA border remains bad. Rest all super smooth roads with one diversion somewhere on the Karnataka stretch.

You can checkout this video for detailed information.

What a lovely travelogue nawabnabeel. It's like I was driving on that road once again. Thank you.

Please share how you shot and edited the video - it makes for an interesting format.

[nawabnabeel]

Originally Posted by AutoB

What a lovely travelogue nawabnabeel. It's like I was driving on that road once again. Thank you.



Please share how you shot and edited the video - it makes for an interesting format.

Thank you for the appreciation. The video was shot and edited on my iPhone SE. I used capdase mount and my hand for holding the phone.

[Majumdarda]

Originally Posted by nawabnabeel

...

Excellent videologue nawabnabeel. Exactly the thing I was looking for. If all goes well then I will be covering this stretch soon and glad that you have touched base all the relevant points, specially the Omerga-Naldurg road surface.

[nawabnabeel]

Originally Posted by Majumdarda

Excellent videologue nawabnabeel. Exactly the thing I was looking for. If all goes well then I will be covering this stretch soon and glad that you have touched base all the relevant points, specially the Omerga-Naldurg road surface.

Thank you. Try to cross the bad stretch during day time and everything should be fine.

[vamsi2390]

hi Everyone,

To update on my trip, while going to pune from hyderabad, i used the hyd-zaheerabad-gulbarga ring road-aland-akalkot-solapur-pune on which though the roads were better but, took about 1.5 hour more due to the traffic mess at akalkot village and when reaching solapur.
(Also remember that the road at akalkot is in literal shambles(1km stretch). deepest potholes you could encounter!)

Started at 12:30 pm in hyderabad and reached at 12:00 in wakad with 2 almost one hour breaks. Aland-akalkot route has way too much traffic and also have to go through solapur completely which is a pain.

While returning back i used to pune-solapur-omerga-humnabad-zaheerabad . Started at 01:30PM and reached by 11:00PM

I think its best to keep to the regular solapur-omerga-humnabad route provided you have a car with decent ground clearance.
I found a safari-dicor, jeep compass and an Ecosport to tag along and we maintained decent speeds all along. While the other low slung cars were taking it easy, we were cruising along at 70 easily wherever possible.


My 2 cents- if going on a hatchback,sedan take the longer yet safer akalkot diversion- But, be noted it will take atleast 1-2 hour more depending on the truck traffic at that time.

In case you have a crossover/SUV stick to the regular solapur-omerga-humnabad and tag along with a similar vehicle. You should be able to cover that bad stretch in 1.15 to 1.5 hours easily

[VKS]

1.5 hours for the 100 kms stretch from Sholapur to MH KA Border is superb timing, It took me nearly 2.5 hours to cross that stretch in my fiesta. I was wary about the new Michelin tyres I had.

L&T roads were really awesome, with some really good roads.

Surprisingly the first 20 Kms from Sholapur towards pune is broken and needs urgent repairs( even so when toll tax is being calculated)

[ashtrix]

I just completed a return trip to Hyderabad from Mumbai. Started from Mumbai at 7.20 am, crossed Pune around 9ish and took a coffee break at McDonalds Loni. I was disappointed with their loo which was more like any highway loo. Reached Solapur around 2 pm, had lunch and then drove on notorious solapur - naldurg - omerga route which was horrible and made all of us sick. We finished the 100 kms distance in 2 hrs and 15 minutes but it shook our bones... may be its not advisable to drive on this road soon after lunch.
We took a tea break at Hotel Gujarat and filled up diesel there taking the idea from "nawabnabeel". Thanks dude. But I found that the HP petrol pump did not have facility for air. when asked they gave the standard reply of "machine kharab ho gayi hai" but they have not repaired it in a month. Normally I dont fill up fuel where they dont have service for filling up tyres. Rest of the journey was smooth till Hyderabad.

On return, we decided to skip the horrible Omerga - Sholapur patch and google map suggested a left turn soon after Hotel Gujarat. It turned out to be a fantastic decision. Its difficult to explain the route as its not a major road. It goes through villages and meets a state highway that takes to Aland. From Aland to Akkalkot and then to Solapur is far better route than naldurg- omerga. The route took us through very remote villages with almost nil traffic. Except for some patches the entire stretch was good and smooth and i could drive at ease at 80-90 kmph in between. It took 2 hours from Hotel Gujarat to Akkalkot and from Akkalkot to Solapur about 40-45 minutes. So its only about 30 minutes and 40-50 kms more but this route was good and picturesque. Crossing Akkalkot is a bit of pain as its a small town and the road is under repair. Another ordeal was to cross the Pune city in the evening during the peak traffic. Mumbai - Pune Expressway is good as usual and I have driven this road at all hours from morning, afternoon, evening, night, late night, early morning and its always crowded but fast. A total of 807 kms covered in 13.45 hours with 1.45 hrs of break.

I drove a total of 1594 kms and my S Cross 1.6 gave a mileage of 21.3 km per liter. I was amazed and amused at the mileage as I drove through Pune City traffic twice and bad Solapur - Omerga patch plus some spirited drive in between. The performance of 1.6 on highways is always amazing. I wonder why Maruti stopped its production.

[Krishroy]

Originally Posted by ashtrix

we decided to skip the horrible Omerga - Sholapur patch and google map suggested a left turn soon after Hotel Gujarat.

This sounds very interesting. Are you talking about SH 32? I can't remember the location of Hotel Gujarat. Can you please let me know the approximate location?

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by Krishroy

This sounds very interesting. Are you talking about SH 32? I can't remember the location of Hotel Gujarat. Can you please let me know the approximate location?

Hotel Gujarat is at Basavakalyan, I think.
Seeing google maps, I think, a left immediately thereafter means KSH 125. Which later becomes KSH 51. A right turn means KSH 32 to Aland.