[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Raj'sGlory

I quite agree. The driving time is around 8 hrs if you average around 80 KMPH with three breaks of 20 min each.

Did Hubli-Bangalore Peenya in 5 hours last month without any halts.

Despite the problems at Ranebennur, drive was fast.

[viveklk]

Dear All,

How is the conditiona of NH4 recently? I drove in december last year when Chitradurga to almost Ranibennur road was in bad shape. Is it still like that? Can anybody give details please? I'm planning to drive SX4 with my old parents in so any information will be really helpful.

Cheers,
Vivek

[Jedi.Knight]

Details of my Bangalore-Pune run on 12 July are mentioned here: Bangalore to Mumbai Roadtrip

Drive safe.

[girish.r]

Two weeks back I covered Basaveshwaranagar, Bangalore to Vishweshwarnagar, Hubli in 6.5 hrs with 2 breaks of 15 mins. This was my first drive in my new Verna VGT CRDi. Speed maintained was 100-110kmph with 100% AC, 32psi pressure on all 4 tyres, stock tyres/rims and normal diesel. The actual plan was to leave BLR by 6AM & reach Hubli by 12 noon but somehow it got delayed and we left at 7AM and thought we would reach by 2:30/3PM but with Verna we made it to Hubli by 1:30PM.

7:00AM - Got off from Basaveshwaranagar to Magadi road and then connected to NICE road. This was to avoid Yeshwantpur-Peenya-Jalahalli cross traffic. And yes with NICE road we crossed Nelamangala junction in 20 mins.

9:00AM - Crossed Sira and stopped at KAMAT restaurant for breakfast. Good food but major benefit being less crowded. The KAMAT at Tumkur will be heavily crowded leading to unnecessry waste of time.

9:15AM - Started off towards Chitradurga. The road and the drive right from NICE road till Chitradurga is good.

10:15AM - Somewhere around this time we reached Chitradurga bypass. Unfortunately there were lengthy trucks carrying wind turbine blades, yes they were carrying the blades and one can image what would be the length of the carriage of the truck to transport these blades. With these obstacles and with the bypass still under construction with diversion from left to right and vice versa the drive was little pain and I think I overtook 4 to 6 of these trucks till Harihar.

The road after Chitradurga till Haveri is criss cross diversions. Though the road quality is good, one needs to be careful to make out large no of small sized humps placed very closely in the diversions which are very effective. I missed out in couple of diversions and my Verna had to take them.

Somewhere before Harihar we stopped for a 15 minutes break to have tender coconut.

The Davangere/Harihar bypass roads are ok but at the junction where the highway gets segregated into bypass and the city road is very bad. The same holds good even for Haveri bypass and city road junction.

The Ranebennur bypass still in construction makes everybody take the city road & due to heavy vehicular movement, in some parts of the road the top layer has been ripped off.

12:45PM - Got on to Haveri bypass. Most of them say the road from Bangalore to Chitradurga is good but if anybody ask my opinion I will for sure vote Hubli - Haveri stretch as an excellent, its a breeze to drive through the 70km and I covered this in just 35 minutes.
I remember this way back in my childhood days when I used to travel in the then KSRTC red bus, normally it would take 1 to 1:15 hrs from Hubli to reach Shiggaon & from Shiggaon to Haveri was another 30 mins. So a total time of 1 hr 45 mins now can be covered in 35 minutes, its great indeed.

1:20PM - Reached the Hubli - Dharwad bypass junction and got onto Hubli city road.

The return journey took almost 7 hrs 45 mins which included 45 mins lunch break and 30 mins tea break. We started from Hubli city at 1:15PM and somewhere after Ranebennur we stopped for lunch break. Nopes there are no hotels here but we had packed our lunch. At 6PM we stopped at KAMAT restaurant, Sira for a tea break. Left this place at 6:30PM & reached Bangalore at 9PM. Tumkur bypass is still under construction & thanks to Tumkur evening traffic which was all over the highway making it look like city road. The other time consuming stretch was Nelamangala juntion till NICE junction.

Couple of observations/suggestions:
1. Start asap say around 6AM from Bangalore and make sure you get onto NICE road, a complete no-no to Yeshwantpur-Peenya-Jalahalli cross.
2. Stop at KAMAT, after Sira rather than at Tumkur. The one at Sira will be less crowded & therefore quick service.
3. No good Hotels or I would say no Hotels at all on the highway till you reach Hubli. Offcourse one can get into Davangere-Harihar-Haveri cities for quick snack but mind you this will increase the travel time a lot since you need to get into the city with the peak traffic.
4. If you happen to see any slightest movement in any parked truck ahead of you, just STOP the car before you get closer to the truck. The half mad truck driver might end up taking a U-turn & get onto the opposite track without any hand signal/indicator. The same incident happened to me & before I realized his intentions it was too late for me to stop the car. I could make out that there was some space on the extreme right & therefore floored the gas pedal & managed to overtake but it was very close, a very close one. We thought of getting back to the right track, stop him and give him one tight slap but whats the use, they are least bothered. Instead we just thanked GOD and continued our journey.
5. The only scenic drive was through the mountains near Chitradurga. While the top of the mountains were covered by the clouds, one can see the wind turbines in full rotation and the vehicle passing through the mountains. I wish I could capture some snaps of this scenic beauty but was in real hurry to get to the boot for the camera.
6. The evening traffic in Tumkur will be chaotic. Either leave Hubli early morning say before 7AM or after 3PM so that by the time you reach Tumkur, the city traffic would be very less.
7. There is a speed limit of 40kmph between Hubli-Dharwad old NH4. It was very difficult to control my Verna in 4th gear at 40kmph. A indica of Kittur (KA 24 regd) overtook me in full zoom & even before he could complete the overtaking, he was greeted by a traffic cop in the middle of the highway. A fine of Rs. 300/- upfront. BAKRA of the day. Yes there are sign boards but nobody would take it seriously because these boards seem to be leaning towards the pedestrians.

Not sure when the entire Hubli-Bangalore GQ stretch would be completed. The NHAI website link .:NHAI:.Completed Stretches on Golden Quadrilateral shows that the status as Contract Terminated for the Haveri Chitradurga stretch. I have been watching this link and this has been there from past 1 year.

Hope my experiences/observations/suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks & Regards,
Girish

[girish.r]

Hi Vivek you can check my experience from Bangalore to Hubli in the below link:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ndition-2.html
post #17

[viveklk]

Hey Girish,

Good report buddy. Lot of info. Thanks a lot. I'm driving in the first week of Sept to Belgaum from C V Raman Nagar...

Cheers,
Vivek

Originally Posted by girish.r

Hi Vivek you can check my experience from Bangalore to Hubli in the below link:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ndition-2.html
post #17

[vij4all]

im leaving chennai this afternoon and reaching bangalore at night...plan to leave by 4 am from bangalore - jp nagar....based on google map, the only route that i can think of is cutting through yeshwantpur and crossing neelamangala....ive been reading of the other route posted by AK roy and now this one by you - would someone be kind enough as to give me a step by step from Bangalore city till i reach NH4 ? Thanks in advance.

My phone number is 0 9323449747 - anyone willing to share their numbers can text me as well just incase you read this after ive started on my trip.

[hrag]

At 4 am, you can go right through the city. Or get on to Chord Road and hit Yeshwantpur junction. You should have my number in your PM Inbox - please feel free to call if you need help.

[girish.r]

Hi Team,

I am planning to drive down to Hubli on either 24th morning 6AM or afternoon 4PM (in case if I dont get leave on Friday). Mine is a Verna CRDi (without ABS and stock tyres) and with me will be my Wife, my Son (1.5 years) and my Mom and I will be the only driver.
If I leave by 4PM, I think it will be dark by the time I reach Chitradurga and get into the bad stretch of Chitradurga till Haveri.
Let me know if the bad stretch would be doable after dark with speed of 80 KMPH. Please note that I havent done this stretch during night except Haveri-Hubli which is not a problem.
On the other hand are the hotels on the NH4 open till late night say around 11:30PM - 12:00AM? This would help me if I reach Haveri by 11-11:30PM so that I can have dinner at Vittal Kamat, Shiggaon. I can as well get into Davangere for dinner but I dont want to loose time getting into the city traffic.

Thanks in advance,
Girish

[lancer_rit]

Originally Posted by girish.r

Hi Team,

I am planning to drive down to Hubli on either 24th morning 6AM or afternoon 4PM (in case if I dont get leave on Friday). Mine is a Verna CRDi (without ABS and stock tyres) and with me will be my Wife, my Son (1.5 years) and my Mom and I will be the only driver.
If I leave by 4PM, I think it will be dark by the time I reach Chitradurga and get into the bad stretch of Chitradurga till Haveri.
Let me know if the bad stretch would be doable after dark with speed of 80 KMPH. Please note that I havent done this stretch during night except Haveri-Hubli which is not a problem.
On the other hand are the hotels on the NH4 open till late night say around 11:30PM - 12:00AM? This would help me if I reach Haveri by 11-11:30PM so that I can have dinner at Vittal Kamat, Shiggaon. I can as well get into Davangere for dinner but I dont want to loose time getting into the city traffic.

Thanks in advance,
Girish

I suggest stay over at Chitradurga for the night and start at 5AM from there for the bad stretches between Chitradurga - Davangere & around Ranebennur - Haveri. There are couple of decent hotels in Chitradurga including one on the NH4 itself. On our trip to Karwar, here is what I did. Started at 5PM from Airport Road, Blr and took Magadhi road -> Nice Road -> NH4 (bypassing Peenya), and managed to reach Chitradurga by 9PM.
The bad stretches come up suddenly including the deviations and potholes. On the way, I also found one diversion arrow on a pipe in the wrong direction (if one has the misfortune to follow it in the night, it goes into 15 feet deep ditch), and one or two where it was not clear that there was diversion.
Hope it helps

[girish.r]

Originally Posted by lancer_rit

I suggest stay over at Chitradurga for the night and start at 5AM from there for the bad stretches between Chitradurga - Davangere & around Ranebennur - Haveri. There are couple of decent hotels in Chitradurga including one on the NH4 itself. On our trip to Karwar, here is what I did. Started at 5PM from Airport Road, Blr and took Magadhi road -> Nice Road -> NH4 (bypassing Peenya), and managed to reach Chitradurga by 9PM.
The bad stretches come up suddenly including the deviations and potholes. On the way, I also found one diversion arrow on a pipe in the wrong direction (if one has the misfortune to follow it in the night, it goes into 15 feet deep ditch), and one or two where it was not clear that there was diversion.
Hope it helps

Thanks for the info lancer. To be safe till this stretch gets completed (whenever) I think its better to take day journey. I am planning to leave Blore on Saturday morning 5AM.
I agree with you on the diversions at night. It reminds me of an incident during my return journey to Blore in January. I was in good speed when all of a sudden I saw lights blinking, a little ahead I saw a red accent viva's indicators blinking, I slowed down and saw that there was right diversion just before the car. I thanked for the blinking indicators and I took the diversion and as I passed by, I just glanced at the car and to my surprise I saw that front wheels of the viva had come out of their way and it looked like the car had hit a boulder in such a way that the car chassis had moved forward and the front axle had moved inside its regular position.

[snaronikar]

Just did this route last week going to Goa. The road is doable. You can reach Hubli within 5 hours driving between 100~120 kmph. The bad stretch is between Chitradurga - Davangere & around Rannibennur - Haveri. It is drivable in night only thing is you have to go slow around 20~30 kmph in these bad stretches. But on Rannibennur stretch you can do comfortably 60 kmph.

[viveklk]

I drove again to Belgaum (NH4) for Diwali The road near Chitradurga is in good shape now than it was 4 months back. The work looked in progress, hopefully, we'll get to bypass Chitradurga too soon.

However, near Tumkur road is still pathetic... autos, bikes, traffic... I hope we'll be able to bypass Tumkur some time. If you see cities likt Tumkur & Chitradurga are not bypassed yet, it might be a lobby that is not allowing the bypass to save the business of the cities.

I somehow felt that the stretch bypassing Davangere & Harihar is improved.

While going to Belgaum on 25th Oct, I saw as many as 7 accidents, mostly trucks, cars involved in accidents.

One Ford Ikon guy overtook me before first toll gate (Nelmangala) at amazing speed through many vehicles, he was literally dodging everybody dangerously...and not to my surprise I saw him after some time, fighting with a private bus in Nelamangala, I think this chap hit the bus while dodging & had bad luck, his car front was screwed up to good extent...

On the way, between Davangere & Ranebennur, one silver color Swift DZire was toppled and lot of people were around to help. One more Palio had badly hit the truck from behind, it looked like truck was trying to take U turn & the car went & hit him, looking at the car I doubt if the driver survived. One Zen had hit a corsa from one side & both were parked as it is with couple of police around... After this couple of truck accidents from Tumkur till Dharwad by pass road.


I drove back on 29th Oct, started at 5am from Belgaum but the fog was so dense that I could hardly see anything beyond 10mts. I had to limit my speed & come slow, the fog lasted till 8am when I reached Ranebennur. Reached Bangalore at 1:30pm & the I was more than happy to see almost no traffic on Bangalore roads

Cheers,
Vivek

[pkumar]

I travelled few days back. From the last time i travelled in January, i too felt that overall the Chitradurga haveri stretch has improved.
One thing to mention here. At around 176kms from Mekhri circle in bangalore (neelmangala route), at some 20kms before chitradurga, please be aware of the 3 consequtive bumps (within 50 meters). These bumps are white strip marked but they are on the high speed roads. Thus it is very very easy to jump over them. I saw a couple of cars jumping them at 90-100 (sedans and smaller cars wont want that).
If you dont use engine braking very actively, please better be more alert during this stretch.

[pkumar]

I did bangalore-bombay, all night driving, last week. I think the diversions are not very dangerous given you are alert and your car has decent headlights.
Whenever there are 4 lane Unmarked roads between Chitradurga and haveri, 99% of the time there are no bumps on the straight patches, so you can speed up there. Yes agreed that diversions that take you to common lane road are nasty and needs speed not more than 20-30kmph, so need to be careful.
The only issue could be missing a diversion which takes you back to your own two lane when it is again 4 lane from 2 lane. In that case you have to be careful, may be you can put on the hazard lights, although i have seen Volvos intentionally not going back to their own 2 lane sometimes.