[Rajesh K R]

Originally Posted by ampere

Today's TOI reports that Dakshin Kanara/Udupi districts fully under water.
Netravathi is over flowing in big way. Not sure about the NH17 status.

Saw a photo report in Vijaya Karnataka ( Kannada daily) last week that the Kumaradhara river is flowing above the low level bridge. Seems that the Gundya-Kukke road is blocked because of the overflowing river on the bridge.

Do not know about the situation as of yest'day / today. But since rains have been lashing this region, driving would have to be done only after confirmation of the road conditons real time.

[thebluez]

Originally Posted by vrprabhu

Here is the road condition between Mangalore to Pune -

Mangalore - Udupi - Kallianpur - Bydanur : Usual condition near Surathkal. Between Surathkal and Bydanur a few broken patches. Bad for cars. Volvo treated these with contempt.

Bydanur - Bhatkal : Volvo met it match!! Bottom scraped twice and couldn't climb out of one. Driver had to reverse the bus and try a way around the ditch. There is no road - it is all potholes.

. Sorry guys. My bad!

Guess this was bound to happen anyway! There goes my road-trip plans. Anyhow have pushed it forward to Jan-Feb. Hopefully by then the potholes would have been filled up by the NHAI!

Atleast nowadays they fill up (or atleast make an attempt to fill up!) the potholes on NH-17. A few years ago (say 2006) the NH-17 was in a state of total DENIAL. Especially the Mangalore-Surathkal stretch. ISRO could have tested their moon-buggys there if they wanted to!

Which now raises the ultimate question. WHY is the NH-17 so bad only in stretches along Karnataka and Kerala? Why can't it be as good as the stretch along the Konkan coast (especially Goa - the NH-17's pretty decent there!)? If the NHAI is a central agency, they ought to repair the stretches without any bias whatsoever!

[hvkumar]

NH17 lives up to its predictable form.

NH17 is bad between Ankola and Mangalore primarily because of the heavy iron-ore truck traffic. The road was not realigned to take such heavy commercial traffic.

The KA-KL border is bad like the rest of KA borders, be it with MH, KL, TN or AP. Normal highway maintenance work (non-toll roads) is by State Govt's PWD with half the funds coming from Central Govt, so the quality of National Highways vary from state to state.

[issigonis]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Amboli Ghat between Kolhapur/Belgaum and Savantwadi is closed due to landslides

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Amboli still shut.Goa travellers go via NH4A.

Amboli still shut | All About Belgaum

>>>
Hmmm, this implies that the only Bombay -South Goa route which is motorable (and in reasonably good condition) is this :

Bombay- Pune Expressway - Satara - Kolhapur - Belgaum-Ramnagar-Anmod-Mollem NP-Margao

Any comments?

Regards

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by issigonis

>>>
Hmmm, this implies that the only Bombay -South Goa route which is motorable (and in reasonably good condition) is this :

Bombay- Pune Expressway - Satara - Kolhapur - Belgaum-Ramnagar-Anmod-Mollem NP-Margao

Any comments?

Regards

Yes, the Belgaum-Molem route is the only good one at the moment. Will get feedback on road conditions later today (a friend is driving on it right now). You can easily reach South Goa from Ponda (only 20 kms to Margao) and Panaji.

[nix1976in]

Just back from Jog...did run from

Mumbai - Thosegar Falls (Satara) - Panhala - Jyotiba - Sankeshwar - Gokak - Sankeshwar - Amboli - Jog Falls - Maravanthe - Murudeshwar - Goa - Mumbai...2250kms in 5 days

NH4 is lovely all through, all Karnataka and MH interior roads too were in fine shape except for NH 17 at Bhatkal, rough to the core for almost 40kms...NH4 thru GOA and Mumbai was riddled with potholes at some places but generally good. Avoid the Mumbra bypass at any cost...worst stretch ever!!

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by nix1976in

Mumbai - Thosegar Falls (Satara) - Panhala - Jyotiba - Sankeshwar - Gokak - Sankeshwar - Amboli - Jog Falls - Maravanthe - Murudeshwar - Goa - Mumbai...2250kms in 5 days

NH4 is lovely all through, all Karnataka and MH interior roads too were in fine shape except for NH 17 at Bhatkal, rough to the core for almost 40kms...NH4 thru GOA and Mumbai was riddled with potholes at some places but generally good. Avoid the Mumbra bypass at any cost...worst stretch ever!!

NH4 thru Goa, you mean NH17?

Mumbra bypass is good only 2 months in a year!!!!!

I suppose Sankeshwar-Ajra road was bad?

[nix1976in]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

NH4 thru Goa, you mean NH17?

Mumbra bypass is good only 2 months in a year!!!!!

I suppose Sankeshwar-Ajra road was bad?

Sorry HV, my bad...i meant NH17 thru Goa...Sankeshwar - Ajra - Amboli was fine...not as bad as NH17 near Bhatkal...

[issigonis]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Yes, the Belgaum-Molem route is the only good one at the moment. Will get feedback on road conditions later today (a friend is driving on it right now). You can easily reach South Goa from Ponda (only 20 kms to Margao) and Panaji.

Originally Posted by nix1976in

Just back from Jog...did run from

Mumbai - Thosegar Falls (Satara) - Panhala - Jyotiba - Sankeshwar - Gokak - Sankeshwar - Amboli - Jog Falls - Maravanthe - Murudeshwar - Goa - Mumbai...2250kms in 5 days

NH4 is lovely all through, all Karnataka and MH interior roads too were in fine shape except for NH 17 at Bhatkal, rough to the core for almost 40kms...NH4 thru GOA and Mumbai was riddled with potholes at some places but generally good. Avoid the Mumbra bypass at any cost...worst stretch ever!!

Originally Posted by nix1976in

Sorry HV, my bad...i meant NH17 thru Goa...Sankeshwar - Ajra - Amboli was fine...not as bad as NH17 near Bhatkal...

>>> hvk,

Thank you. I'll wait for an update from you once you get it from your friend.

Seems from nix1976in's experience that the Satara-Sankeshwar-Amboli-Sawantwadi-Bardez -Margao route is ok.

However this doesn't square up with the earlier posts that the Sankeshwar-Amboli-Sawantwadi stretch is closed; some pics were also included in the posts.

I have time till 7th evening to finalise my route, so will wait for updates

I get the feeling that the Sankeshwar-Amboli-Sawantwadi option is a shorter option as compared to the Belgaum-Ramnagar-Anmod-Mollem NP-Margao option, by, maybe 50 odd kms.

Regards

P.S. : Google Maps is a pain. I am relying on the Eicher Map.

[hvkumar]

Amboli route closed down 2-3 days ago after a landslide. Further, near Savantwadi also rivers were overflowing onto the road.

NH4A from Belgaum to Goa is fast and good. My friend who left Hampi today morning at 6 am found NH63 to Hubli very good, as is NH4 till Kittur, but the Kittur-Khanapur link road is in bad condition as always, but being such a short stretch (<30 kms), nothing to lose sleep over. He has just reached Khanapur, so I will post an update on the NH4A from thereon after a few hours.

[nix1976in]

Elaborating on my expereince :

NH4 to Panhala - Amazing...

Panhala to Amboli via NH4 branching out to Gokak from Sankeshwar and then joining back to Sankeshwar - Gandhinglaj - Ajra - Amboli is a good road. Not as good as NH4 but good enough with minimal potholes...no problems for the XYLO

Amboli to Jog falls via NH4 on Belgaum- Hubli - branching off towards Yellapur towards Sirsi - Siddapur and Jog : Good roads all through even the interior roads after Sirsi were good enough.

Jog - Bhatkal - 100kms of narrow one lane torture. The jungle is dense with trees towering over the road but took me 3.5 hrs to cross the distance.

Bhatkal to Maravanthe ---Sheer torture with craters the size of the sea of tranqulity.

Bhatkal - Murudeshwar ---Better but not good...

Murudeshwar to Calangute - NH17 gradually gets better after crossing over into GOA after Karwar.

Calangute to Mumbai -- Few craters here and there but generally good enough to enable me to reach Mumbai in 10.5 hrs with breaks.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by nix1976in

Jog - Bhatkal - 100kms of narrow one lane torture. The jungle is dense with trees towering over the road but took me 3.5 hrs to cross the distance.

Which route did you take to go to Bhatkal - via Honavar or Kollur?

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Which route did you take to go to Bhatkal - via Honavar or Kollur?

There is a direct road from Jog to Bhatkal via Kargal. This does not touch either Honnavar or Kollur. Going by nix's description, this is the road he has probably taken to reach Bhatkal. But, the distance is around 80 kms.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

There is a direct road from Jog to Bhatkal via Kargal. This does not touch either Honnavar or Kollur. Going by nix's description, this is the road he has probably taken to reach Bhatkal. But, the distance is around 80 kms.

This is very interesting, did not know about this route! I find it is 25 kms shorter than the route via Honavar from Bhatkal.

But I guess the main route to Jog from NH17 - from Honavar on NH206 is in a good condition?

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

This is very interesting, did not know about this route! I find it is 25 kms shorter than the route via Honavar from Bhatkal.

But I guess the main route to Jog from NH17 - from Honavar on NH206 is in a good condition?

Even though the distance is shorter, the route is narrow and steep (compared to the NH206 to Honnavar) and will take more time. The last time I traveled on this route was more than 15 years back. So, really don't know about the present condition.

As far as the NH206 is concerned, its been more than a year since I traveled on this route, so I'm not sure how it is holding up against the rains.