[rnbohra]

Hi, everybody

Planning to drive from Pune to Jaipur in first week May'08. Wheels will be Pajero 2.8. Need input on best route and any precautions I need to take as will be driving alone.

All help good or not so good will be highly apreciated

Regards

Rajesh

[hvkumar]

Rajesh,

Ideal route is on expressway to Bombay and NH8 from there, via Vapi, Surat, Bharuch, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, Kishangarh.

Roads are great except for some widening/ construction work between Surat and Baroda. If you leave Pune early in the morning, you should bypass Bombay easily without any hassles.

You can easily make it to Udaipur on Day 1 (with some food breaks), and Jaipur next day. For reference sake, my best speed from Bombay to Jaipur is 14.5 hours (stops only for refuelling), so in case you are a fast driver, you can even plan the drive in 1 day.

Distance from Pune to Jaipur is around 1400 kms.

Facilities are excellent throughout, and no safety issues.

[diezel]

The route is great, but if you can drive in the night then try to do the Gujrat stretch during the night. If you leave Pune around 6 in the evening and get on the Bombay Expressway and go straight on the Thane-Belapur Road, you will hit Surat, late evening around 10:30 and subsequently past Baroda around 1:30.

Because the NH-8 around Surat and Baroda is undergoing work, the traffic get really crazy with stoppage time of almost 2 hours. The moment you hit, Baroda-Ahmedabad expressway, things are smooth all the way till Udaipur. Rather than trying the Chittorgarh route, I would recommend going through Nathdwara - Ajmer - Jaipur. Especially the expressway between Ajmer and Jaipur is amazing as it ends at the Tonk Road junction. Chittorgarh route is full of truck drivers, so the Ajmer section is the best although its just 2 lanes, but very desert-scenic.

If you a stamina driver and can go on non-stop except the regular fuel/meal stop, you can easily do it in 14 hours. Plus you got a great car, average speeds of 80 kmph is more than enough. once past Baroda, your average speeds can shoot up amazingly. I was doing an average of 135 on my Civic along with my friend who was in his Ikon. We completed our run from Pune to Delhi in 26 hours (2 1/2 hours we slept at a truck stop in Udaipur). So as HVK said, its a very safe route.

Enjoy your Run!!!

Leaving Pune early morning is a very bad idea, as you will hit Surat only around 10. And then its a nightmare. Traffic Jams, bad (not so bad) roads, slow moving traffic (Very heavy trucks). We were stuck in Surat for 2 hours and then got stuck in Baroda just before the Expressway entry for another 2 hours. If you do get stuck, then make friends with truck drivers, they can be very helpful in giving you local intel. Just stick to that and take no food/water.

So doing the Surat-Baroda stretch during night is highly recommended, because when we did that the second, we really were gunning down the highway.

[hvkumar]

Secodn what diezel says, I found the best time to cross Surat is early morning. Have left Bombay at 3 am and crossed Surat by 645 am without any jams. Late evenings are also terrible, both in Surat and worst in Ankleshwar town.

Maybe one idea would be leave Pune in the evening, stay over some place like Bombay or Vapi and take on Surat early morning. Baroda at 9 am is also peaceful.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Late evenings are also terrible, both in Surat and worst in Ankleshwar town.

Yup, we got stuck for a couple of hours while crossing that stretch in the evening. It's quite frustrating after all the good stretches that one has been going through before that. We only managed to get out of there by driving on the wrong side of the road.

Originally Posted by diezel

We completed our run from Pune to Delhi in 26 hours (2 1/2 hours we slept at a truck stop in Udaipur). So as HVK said, its a very safe route.

Can be quicker, both us & HV have done that route in 17-odd hours driving time.

[rnbohra]

Thanks to Kumar, Diezel and iraghava getting the courage to do it. Hope to upload my experience too upon completion.

[Zappo]

rnbohra has also continued on with his filing of an associated travelogue with lot of pictures. The travelogue is available here.

[SajiNSalin]

Planning a drive from Jaipur to Pune shortly. Which is the better route in terms of road conditions?
Via Gujarat or via Ratlam?

[nitinralli]

Originally Posted by SajiNSalin

Planning a drive from Jaipur to Pune shortly. Which is the better route in terms of road conditions?
Via Gujarat or via Ratlam?

Stick to Ajmer-Udaipur-Samalaji-Godhra-Vadodara-Bharuch-Mumbai-Pune route. Excellent roads all around except that after Udaipur, road construction is going on so there are many diversions. You will fly between Samalaji till Vadodara,super roads zero traffic if done early morning.

[SajiNSalin]

Thank you for the reply. Do you have any idea about the road conditions in the Kishangarh-Bilwara-Chittorgarh-Ratlam-Indore-Malegaon-Shirdi-Pune route?
Google shows this as the preferred route from Jaipur to Pune.

Thanks in advance.

Saji

[manish_symc]

Originally Posted by SajiNSalin

Thank you for the reply. Do you have any idea about the road conditions in the Kishangarh-Bilwara-Chittorgarh-Ratlam-Indore-Malegaon-Shirdi-Pune route?
Google shows this as the preferred route from Jaipur to Pune.

Thanks in advance.

Saji

Preferred route by google could be because of lesser distance but I am not very hopeful about this route between Malegaon and Pune.

I have done Delhi Pune via Jaipur-Ajmer-Beawar-Udaipur-Vadodara-Thane-Pune and this was an excellent route.

[erlebrito]

Hi everyone,

Am planning to drive from Navi Mumbai to Jaipur in the following week and was wondering which route to take. Would appreciate any updates on the road conditions from anyone who has travelled the route in the last couple of months.

Thanks and regards,

Erle