[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Rahul da do you mean to this route http://goo.gl/maps/LX3pC? It seems to avoid Jharkhand totally by going towards Gopiballabhpur and then bypassing Baharagora completely entering Odisha joining NH6 going towards Jhapokhria. Do you mean to say that this entire stretch of detour is good enough to continue using NH6 for the rest of the journey towards Sambalpur?

Yes. You have to turn left at NH-6 at a place called Feko, after crossing Lodhashuli forest, to rejoin NH-6 at a place near Hatibari.

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

What about the 10 kms odd roads till Jharpokhria after using this detour?

The road condition is not at all good. But the length of bad road (please read horrible road) is reduced much. And in my opinion the length of the bad stretch is possibly about 8 KMs.

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Also would it be a good idea to continue till Baripada from Gopiballabhpur and then reaching Jharpokhria?

Sorry, no idea. I have never got any information about the roads going further south.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

The road condition is not at all good. But the length of bad road (please read horrible road) is reduced much. And in my opinion the length of the bad stretch is possibly about 8 KMs.

Hmmm. So this 8 kms stretch can still be the fly in the ointment and by that I mean the car breaker section. One might chance it and then go up to Baripada and then take NH5 to join up with NH6. I wonder though because this section mostly lies in Odisha so why would it not be in a slightly better condition than the rest of the sections in Jharkhand.

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Hmmm. So this 8 kms stretch can still be the fly in the ointment and by that I mean the car breaker section. One might chance it and then go up to Baripada and then take NH5 to join up with NH6. I wonder though because this section mostly lies in Odisha so why would it not be in a slightly better condition than the rest of the sections in Jharkhand.

Originally Posted by debuda

2) As I have stated already, the stretch between Jamshedpur and Bahragora continues to be bad. But the 8 KM stretch between Bahragora and Jamshola border has been recently repaired.

Why do you still have apprehensions about the streach between Baharagora and Jamashola on NH6.
Debuda is confirming that this portion of NH6 has recently been repaired.
Let us also wait for confirmation from Yogesh, if he has followed that route.

Do you have any idea about the 4 laning of the NH6 from Sambalpur towards Kharagpur.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by Sommos

Why do you still have apprehensions about the streach between Baharagora and Jamashola on NH6.
Debuda is confirming that this portion of NH6 has recently been repaired.
Let us also wait for confirmation from Yogesh, if he has followed that route.

Do you have any idea about the 4 laning of the NH6 from Sambalpur towards Kharagpur.

No actually I was asking about the condition of the Jamsola and Jharpokhria stretch because if I had to use NH6 I would completely skip using it inside Jharkhand even if parts have been repaired. The remaining unrepaired parts can still cause heavy damage. I am actually contemplating a road trip now on NH6 but don't have any clue of the 4 laning working between Sambalpur and Kharagpur. Maybe we can ask Debu da who did this stretch recently. I know for a fact that 6 laning work has started and is making good progress from Kharagpur till all the way where NH6 meets up with NH2.

[yogesh.janghel]

Thanks Guys for all the pointers and suggestions. Luckily, I bumped into a driver who is goes regularly to Orissa. He suggested the best and the shortest route is : Jamshedpur-haldipokhar-tirang-rairangpur-jashipur-join NH6-Koenjhar-Sambhalpur-Saraipalli->Aurang-Raipur-Bhilai.
He suggested do not go to Baharagora in any case.

Road Update -
Jamshedpur-Tirang : Roads are good. Some stupid bumps in between, other than that its 70Kmph+ kind.
Tirang-Jashipur : You cross Jharkhand Orissa border. Road widening is going on in Orissa side. So some bad road in patches, say total of around 1 Km. Other than that, its good.
Lot of traffic between jamshedpur and Jashipur as there is a big movement of Tata Steel Man/Machine between Jamshedpur and Tata's Orissa project. I guess thats the reason this road has been improved and is totally safe for night driving also.
You will find decent dhabas in Hatha, Bahalda and Jashipur.

Jashipur-Koenjhar-Kanjighat-Doegarh-Sambhalpur : Excellent roads. No problem here. Gurudwara just before Koenjhar town. Had langar in Gurudwara. As always, it was excellent. In Sambhalpur, stayed in hotel KC Palace in NH6 ( Rs 950 AC room, great food ).

Sambhalpur-Bargarh: Road widening going on. Bad and busy roads. You can go at around 40-50Kmph.

Bargarh to Aurang : Patchy road. No major bumps as such. I think 60-65 Kmph type.

Aurang-Bhilai: 4 Lane. Great roads.

Thanks
Yogesh

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by yogesh.janghel

Thanks Guys for all the pointers and suggestions. Luckily, I bumped into a driver who is goes regularly to Orissa. He suggested the best and the shortest route is : Jamshedpur-haldipokhar-tirang-rairangpur-jashipur-join NH6-Koenjhar-Sambhalpur-Saraipalli->Aurang-Raipur-Bhilai.
He suggested do not go to Baharagora in any case.

Road Update -
Jamshedpur-Tirang : Roads are good. Some stupid bumps in between, other than that its 70Kmph+ kind.
Tirang-Jashipur : You cross Jharkhand Orissa border. Road widening is going on in Orissa side. So some bad road in patches, say total of around 1 Km. Other than that, its good.
Lot of traffic between jamshedpur and Jashipur as there is a big movement of Tata Steel Man/Machine between Jamshedpur and Tata's Orissa project. I guess thats the reason this road has been improved and is totally safe for night driving also.
You will find decent dhabas in Hatha, Bahalda and Jashipur.

Jashipur-Koenjhar-Kanjighat-Doegarh-Sambhalpur : Excellent roads. No problem here. Gurudwara just before Koenjhar town. Had langar in Gurudwara. As always, it was excellent. In Sambhalpur, stayed in hotel KC Palace in NH6 ( Rs 950 AC room, great food ).

Sambhalpur-Bargarh: Road widening going on. Bad and busy roads. You can go at around 40-50Kmph.

Bargarh to Aurang : Patchy road. No major bumps as such. I think 60-65 Kmph type.

Aurang-Bhilai: 4 Lane. Great roads.

Thanks
Yogesh

Thanks a bunch for such a detailed update. Looks like this is turning out to be a very viable and usable route for doing road trips to Jamshedpur. Also this will help a lot to folks who are planning any East-West road trip. Just wanted to know how much time did it take for you to reach Rairangpur from Jamshedpur? I am assuming you directly went to Jashipur from Rairangpur instead of going till Bisoi on NH6.

In all its good that more members are venturing out on these routes which help in gathering overall knowledge and up to date information about these routes which exist but are rarely used or are ignored. This thread has become a good compendium of information now. Of late because of the pathetic nature of NH33 through Baharagora and NH6 in Jharkhand a lot of us had stopped thinking about road trips to Jamshedpur or towards Chattisgarh.

[yogesh.janghel]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Thanks a bunch for such a detailed update. Looks like this is turning out to be a very viable and usable route for doing road trips to Jamshedpur. Also this will help a lot to folks who are planning any East-West road trip. Just wanted to know how much time did it take for you to reach Rairangpur from Jamshedpur? I am assuming you directly went to Jashipur from Rairangpur instead of going till Bisoi on NH6.

In all its good that more members are venturing out on these routes which help in gathering overall knowledge and up to date information about these routes which exist but are rarely used or are ignored. This thread has become a good compendium of information now. Of late because of the pathetic nature of NH33 through Baharagora and NH6 in Jharkhand a lot of us had stopped thinking about road trips to Jamshedpur or towards Chattisgarh.

From my home to Rairangpur is around 79 Kms and it took me around 2 hrs. But there was 2 stops in rail crossing, 10 Kms inside Jamshedpur( with city traffic), 1 stop for buying fruits. So, i think 1 hr 35 min was the actual time. I am bit of slow driver ( i never cross 80 kmph, even when its mumbai pune expressway ). You are right , i didnt go to Bishoi. I just followed the straight road.

One more thing, I drove Ford Fiesta, so Sedans can easily go through this road.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by debuda

......

• Baripada to Kalabadia : 21 KM
• Kalabadia to Bangriposi : 14 KM
• Bangriposi to Bisoi (by NH6; a scenic ghat section lies within this stretch) : 18 KM
• Bisoi to Rairangpur (narrow, but good surface; being widened) : 29 KM
• Rairangpur to Jamshedpur (Tatanagar Railway Station) : 69 KM

It took me about two and a half hours to cover the stretch between Bisoi and Jamshedpur.

Originally Posted by yogesh.janghel

From my home to Rairangpur is around 79 Kms and it took me around 2 hrs. But there was 2 stops in rail crossing, 10 Kms inside Jamshedpur( with city traffic), 1 stop for buying fruits. So, i think 1 hr 35 min was the actual time. I am bit of slow driver ( i never cross 80 kmph, even when its mumbai pune expressway ).

Dear Debuda, Yogesh

Would appreciate a lot if you can share some details about the facilities between Bishoi till Jamshedpur on this route. Are there some decent restaurants/hotels/dhabas where one can take food and bio breaks? How good are they in terms of facilities and cleanliness?

[yogesh.janghel]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Dear Debuda, Yogesh

Would appreciate a lot if you can share some details about the facilities between Bishoi till Jamshedpur on this route. Are there some decent restaurants/hotels/dhabas where one can take food and bio breaks? How good are they in terms of facilities and cleanliness?

Sorry, i dont have a answer for this. I didnt try any. But in Bahalda, i saw a good restaurant with some cars standing in the parking area. By the looks, it looked fine. Also, near Hatha ( Chaibasa Mod/Chowk ), there are big dhabas. They have decent facilities which you can use in case of emergency. I will suggest if you are using this road, get ready in Jamshedpur. In 3 hrs you will be in Orissa and NH, where you can find big petrol bunks and reasonable dhabas.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by yogesh.janghel

Sorry, i dont have a answer for this. I didnt try any. But in Bahalda, i saw a good restaurant with some cars standing in the parking area. By the looks, it looked fine. Also, near Hatha ( Chaibasa Mod/Chowk ), there are big dhabas. They have decent facilities which you can use in case of emergency. I will suggest if you are using this road, get ready in Jamshedpur. In 3 hrs you will be in Orissa and NH, where you can find big petrol bunks and reasonable dhabas.

Both Bahalda and Rairangpur have some decent joints where one can take a food and bio break. Hata has some dhabas but best avoided when going with female passengers. During the onward route to Jamshedpur I decided to go by NH6 till 20 kms before Bahargora from where I turned left on SH9 towards Gopiballabhpur. I then turned right using the Hati-Gopi road to reach Jamshola directly. Be aware that around 8-10 kms of the Hati-Gopi road is pretty rough but driveable at a slow speed. But is way better than avoiding all the craters on NH6 in Jharkhand. Actually the condition of NH6 in West Bengal is also deteriorating rapidly. Between Baharagora till Kharagpur certain sections has pretty big craters and one has to carefully maneuver to avoid them. It is during one of these maneuvers where I got rear ended by an overspeeding Scorpio however I escaped with only a scratch as that idiot braked in time. I have heard from Jamshola till Baharagora NH6 has been recently repaired. Here is the route I took for the onward journey to Jamshedpur http://goo.gl/maps/4nuLH.

After Jamshola NH6 is a very smooth drive. However on the return leg my mom insisted that we take a better road to avoid even the broken stretch on Hati-Gopi road. So on the return leg, after Bisoi I turned off towards Baripada at a place called Bangriposi which goes straight and meets up with NH5 about 20 kms before Baripada. This road is butter smooth with very little traffic. There is a small section where they are building a bridge on this stretch but apart from that we made quick progress. After reaching Baripada instead of going all the way till Balasore, I turned left on SH61 at Baripada which took me straight to NH60 after 45 kms. This road meets up with NH60 at a place called Amarda Rd. SH61 is two laned and pretty well maintained. It has 3/4 small patches of bad road but it is being widened and seems to be pretty well maintained. Kudos to the Odisha government for working so hard ensuring roads are well built and maintained. Effectively I saved around 45-50 kms by using this road instead of going all the way till Balasore. I would suggest all those who want to travel between Eastern India from Western or Central India to use this route. I can send across the GPS tracks if someone is interested. Here is the route I used http://goo.gl/maps/JC1ix.

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by yogesh.janghel

Jashipur-Koenjhar-Kanjighat-Doegarh-Sambhalpur : Excellent roads. No problem here.

Yogesh, between Aarang, CG to Sambalpur,OD the road is being converted to four lane.

Beyond Sambalpur I hope the road is still single way with no median in between. Is it being converted to four lane ? Secondly are petrol pumps and good restaurants available in this strech.

[yogesh.janghel]

Originally Posted by Sommos

Yogesh, between Aarang, CG to Sambalpur,OD the road is being converted to four lane.

Beyond Sambalpur I hope the road is still single way with no median in between. Is it being converted to four lane ? Secondly are petrol pumps and good restaurants available in this strech.

Yes, beyond Sambalpur road is still single way, but its a good road. There are lot of petrol pumps available, but i didnt see any good restaurants. You will get decent restaurants in Koenjhar only.

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by yogesh.janghel

Yes, beyond Sambalpur road is still single way, but its a good road. There are lot of petrol pumps available, but i didnt see any good restaurants. You will get decent restaurants in Koenjhar only.

Thanks for the update.
Once I travelled in this route from Keonjhar to Bhilai on M800 in 2001.
When we crossed Keonjhar it was still very early in the morning and my car had more than half tank of petrol. On the way we crossed several pumps, but they had only diesel. At one point I was so scared that I had to buy 4ltr petrol from the roadside shop in a village.

I hope the things are much better now, but I wish this road to be four laned soon.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by Sommos

Yogesh, between Aarang, CG to Sambalpur,OD the road is being converted to four lane.

Beyond Sambalpur I hope the road is still single way with no median in between. Is it being converted to four lane ? Secondly are petrol pumps and good restaurants available in this strech.

Originally Posted by yogesh.janghel

Yes, beyond Sambalpur road is still single way, but its a good road. There are lot of petrol pumps available, but i didnt see any good restaurants. You will get decent restaurants in Koenjhar only.

How is the route between Sambalpur till Raipur/Durg/Bhillai? Would it be possible to cover this distance in a single day if I used the route I used in my return leg that is NH6->NH60->SH61->NH5->NH6? What are your thoughts about potential choke points? With the road widening between Arang and Sambalpur what are the average speeds one should consider for this section?

[Sommos]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

How is the route between Sambalpur till Raipur/Durg/Bhillai? Would it be possible to cover this distance in a single day if I used the route I used in my return leg that is NH6->NH60->SH61->NH5->NH6? What are your thoughts about potential choke points? With the road widening between Arang and Sambalpur what are the average speeds one should consider for this section?

Sambalpur to Bargarh - 50KM : Four lane work is in progress and there are diversions. Road condition average to good.
Bargarh to Arang - 185KM : Four lane work is in preliminary stage, there is no diversion in this portion. Road condition is good with some bad pathches.
Arang to Bhilai - 67Km : four laned road. You'll cross over Raipur by three flyovers, so you won't face city traffic at Raipur. But you'll face traffic between Raipur and Bhilai.

There is no choke points in this section until there is an accident or local agitation.

If you can drive for a long period, Kolkata Bhilai can be done in a single day say 15 hours or so. But you need to start early around 3AM to cover a long part of the road before the local traffic slows you down.