[vinit]

Planning to go to Aurangabad from Mumbai via Ghoti - Sinnar - Vaijapur route. How is the recent road condition ? Is it now 4 Lane ? OR the Nasik - Yeola route is better. Has anyone traveled recently ?

[ghodlur]

Experts,

I am planning to visit Aurangabad in last week of Dec16. Planning to drive from Thane via Nashik, Niphad, Yeola, Vaijapur to Aurangabad. Is this road good? Since I have heard the Thane-Ghoti-Sinnar-Vaijapur-Aurangabad route is a bad one esp the stretch between Sinnar and Vaijapur? Is this correct? The third alternative is Thane-Somatne-Chakan-Ahmednagar-Aurangabad? How about this one?

A quick help here please.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Since I have heard the Thane-Ghoti-Sinnar-Vaijapur-Aurangabad route is a bad one esp the stretch between Sinnar and Vaijapur? Is this correct?

I had taken the Vaijapur - Aurangabad road on return from Shirdi to Aurangabad 2 years back and it was a nightmare along with toll as well.

I am really not sure how that road is as of today.

The third alternative is Thane-Somatne-Chakan-Ahmednagar-Aurangabad? How about this one?

With this, the road is all well.

Expressway and you exit at Talegaon and from here all the way till Shikrapur where you merge with Pune - Nagar Road via Chakan is a tolled road, 2 lane undivided carriageway.

You will face lot of freight traffic on this stretch between Talegaon all the way to Shikrapur with less overtaking chances. This is one of the popular roads for truckers to get onto Nagar Road from Expressway side along with the fact that Chakan itself is an auto-cluster and witnesses truck traffic due to that.

However, the point you will hit Nagar road will be Shikrapur after which the road becomes 4 lane with a median. Traffic will be high till Ranjangaon after which it will be breeze, barring crossing Ahmednagar.

Caution: Under no circumstances get carried away by signage that says bypass Ahmednagar. It is a dangerous game and the roads are still worse and at places there are no roads on this "Bypass" at all. Sensible is to take the route through the city, passing 3-4 Traffic signals and get out of it.

Again, Ahmednagar to Aurangabad is 4 lane road with only a very small part (less than 2 kms) that passes through a cantonment Area after Waluj Industrial estate.

Overall, Shikrapur - Nagar - Aurangabad is 4 lane. Shikrapur - Nagar is better in terms of surface compared to Nagar - Aurangabad but then that is not a reason not to drive on this road.

Note: Updates regarding Talegaon - Chakan - Shikrapur or Pune - Nagar - Aurangabad are less than a year old since my last drive(s).

In terms of timings, I will look at this as below:

Thane - Panvel: 1 Hour
Panvel - Talegaon Toll Booth : 1.5 Hours
Talegaon Toll Booth - Shikrapur: 90 Minutes
Shikrapur - Nagar - Aurangabad : 3.5-4 Hours with Breaks

Overall, budget around 7.5 to 8 hours for Thane to Aurangabad with this route which is mostly good. Your unpredictable time consuming affair would be the 2 lane Talegaon - Chakan - Shikrapur stretch which at times is irritating when you have to crawl with trucks passing petty villages that also have local vehicles like Rickshaws and 2 wheelers parked to buy Vegetables on a tolled road in villages. Make sure you cross this during day light as evenings can be bad due to industries (and the closing time) all around here.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

I had taken the Vaijapur - Aurangabad road on return from Shirdi to Aurangabad 2 years back and it was a nightmare along with toll as well.

I am really not sure how that road is as of today.

With this, the road is all well.

Thanks a ton Parag for the info. The funny part is I was expecting some info on the first route which I had planned to take. I was aware of the last route since I had recently done Astavinayak and had taken the route to travel to Ozhar and Otur. But your inputs are very informative. Thanks again for the same.

The reason I am planning to take the first suggested route is to return back to Nashik, do Nashik-Vani trip and return home.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

The reason I am planning to take the first suggested route is to return back to Nashik, do Nashik-Vani trip and return home.

I am sure you didn't miss updates from this thread?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post4034238

I guess you would have buy If you plan to take the Pune/Chakan option then my input should help.

[bikefreak]

Hi team bhpians
I'm planning to drive down to aurangabad and lonar crater from Navi Mumbai next weekend.
Would really appreciate inputs about the best route to take
And any spots worth visiting along the way
Cheers

[Shanmd]

Originally Posted by bikefreak

Hi team bhpians
I'm planning to drive down to aurangabad and lonar crater from Navi Mumbai next weekend.
Would really appreciate inputs about the best route to take
And any spots worth visiting along the way
Cheers

Hi Bikefreak,

I just returned from a Ajanta - Ellora - Lonar lone wolf trip. I went through the Nasik-Malegaon route to Ajanta, but the return was straight from Lonar via Pune halt at a friend's.

You can do the reverse of this..
Lonar-Jalna-Aruangabad-Ahmendnagar-Pune-Bombay.

Lonar to Jalna road was half iffy and half semi-decent. Jalna onwards its almost always a 4 laner, crowded though.
Towards Lonar, don't take the right turn from Dusrabid (acc to Gmaps) Keep going towards Sultanpur and then turn back. Roads will be better comparatively, and slightly more wider.
I left from Lonar at 2.30pm, and parked in pune by 9pm. Could maintain a constant of 60-80kmph.
And most important, disregard all, I mean ALL signboards at Ahmednagar about a detour/Bypass. It's the fakest bypass ever. I remembered reading about this here, but did so only halfway through that "bypass".. and spent the rest of that detour laughing as there were many others who were following me through the small lanes.

Staying at MTDC I presume.

[bikefreak]

Thanks for your valuable inputs.
Stay not decided
Have a friend in Aurangabad
First let me finalize the dates
Cheers

[khoj]

It's such a shame to read that this bypass is still un finished. the first time I saw the signage declaring the inception of the project was just after Y2K and the land behind the sign post was a forest. In 2010 or thereabouts I actually saw a road there and decided to try it out. The first few kilometres were decent enough followed by exactly what you have posted. This bypass even if it comes up will not serve it's intended purpose because the entire stretch of land on either side was already plotted and am sure that it will be inhabited & thereby crowded by the time this road is competed.

Originally Posted by Shanmd

.......And most important, disregard all, I mean ALL signboards at Ahmednagar about a detour/Bypass. It's the fakest bypass ever. I remembered reading about this here, but did so only halfway through that "bypass".. and spent the rest of that detour laughing as there were many others who were following me through the small lanes.......

[Shanmd]

Originally Posted by khoj

It's such a shame to read that this bypass is still un finished. the first time I saw the signage declaring the inception of the project was just after Y2K and the land behind the sign post was a forest. In 2010 or thereabouts I actually saw a road there and decided to try it out. The first few kilometres were decent enough followed by exactly what you have posted. This bypass even if it comes up will not serve it's intended purpose because the entire stretch of land on either side was already plotted and am sure that it will be inhabited & thereby crowded by the time this road is competed.

Yeah..
The first 10 odd kms were good. So even though it was in a different direction to where pune was, I was happy. Then we got off the road onto a highway, and then exited that too soon enough.
Then the road passed through some Industrial zone kind of place, crossed a single railway track and exited from that onto small village roads with fields on both sides of the road.. also houses that are pretty much there at the width of the road.
There are prominent signs, big visible ones at that, that urge you to take the detour. Even though Gmaps was telling me to go straight, I argued that the govt signs couldn't be wrong. Well.. !
With vehicles coming in from the other side of the road, I wonder if the 'detour' is heavily advertised on the pune-aurangabad side of the road too.

[riteshritesh]

An update for people traveling to Aurangabad from Mumbai, I just did Mumbai-Aurangabad-Ajanta-Ellora etc over the long weekend ( extended by 2 days), while going we took the Igatpuri-Ghoti-Sinnar road as suggested by Google maps and the drive till where abouts of Shirdi are great. The last leg beyond Shirdi road is 2 lane and somewhat rough in patches. As mentioned by someone, there are just small restaurants for meals, so if you are okay with that, it is a preferred and shorter route than ex Chakan, Ahmednagar.
While returning, we took the Pune route halting at Shani Shinganpur, inspite of googlemaps showing us that this was a +1 hr journey. After Shani Shingnapur, we followed one diversion marker to Kalyan mentioning that it would bypass ahmedanagar city and that was a mistake as the road went through nagar MIDC and some smaller villages, finally joining the highway. Till Ranjangaon, the roads are great with 4 lane highway, but to reach the Talegaon expressway entry from Ranjangaon passing through Chakan, the road was painful.
At the end, we felt that the Ghoti-Sinnar road was much preferred than Pune Road.

Drive from Aurangabad to Ajanta, the road is nice and well paved. No issues on that front. We also took a diversion for Ajanta View Point on our way back and enjoyed the view. That road has very less marking and passes through a village with no network for google maps.

[abhi7992]

Originally Posted by riteshritesh

An update for people traveling to Aurangabad from Mumbai, I just did Mumbai-Aurangabad-Ajanta-Ellora etc over the long weekend ( extended by 2 days), while going we took the Igatpuri-Ghoti-Sinnar road as suggested by Google maps and the drive till where abouts of Shirdi are great. The last leg beyond Shirdi road is 2 lane and somewhat rough in patches. As mentioned by someone, there are just small restaurants for meals, so if you are okay with that, it is a preferred and shorter route than ex Chakan, Ahmednagar.

Hi, can you tell me how much does it take to reach Aurangabad by this route? Is it safe to drive after sunset?

[riteshritesh]

Originally Posted by abhi7992

Hi, can you tell me how much does it take to reach Aurangabad by this route? Is it safe to drive after sunset?

Please consider 8 hours as your driving time ( if driving sedately). As far as I remember, we started by 7 am from Dadar and reached our hotel by 4.30 ~ 5 pm. There was 1 Lunch break and kids su-su stops( lots of them). Breakfast was a quick 30 min stop at Shreedutta ( ?) before Igatpuri.

P.S. About the night drivingpart, I am not the right person to answer, as I have not experienced it.

[rish27]

Hi Parag/Aurangabad Travellers

Could not find a dedicated thread for Pune-Auranagabad; hence posting my query over here.

I would be travelling from Pune to Aurangabad on a 2 day trip at the start of August. Request your inputs for my travel needs.

1. Is the route fairly straight via Nagar road or are there detours.
2. I reckon we pass Ahmednagar. Whilst going to Shirdi in early May I made a mistake of taking the Ahmednagar bypass. Do we need to take the bypass or do we go via the Ahmednagar town.
3. How are the roads from Aurangabad to Ellora and importantly Aurangabad to Ajanta.

I would be travelling with wifey and my 7 year old kid.

Any inputs will be deeply appreciated.

Thanks
Rish

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by rish27

1. Is the route fairly straight via Nagar road or are there detours.

Absolutely no detours. One very serious advise - Don't even dare to take "Nagar Bypass". It is in terrible shape. Passing via Nagar town (3 to 4 Signals) is the most straightforward route to Aurangabad.

2. I reckon we pass Ahmednagar. Whilst going to Shirdi in early May I made a mistake of taking the Ahmednagar bypass. Do we need to take the bypass or do we go via the Ahmednagar town.

Even before I read this, I warned about the bypass above . So don't take the Nagar bypass. Just not worth it.

3. How are the roads from Aurangabad to Ellora and importantly Aurangabad to Ajanta.

I have been to Ellora caves only and the roads were good end to end in 2015. 3 months back I drove to Aurangabad and roads remain good enough except only rough surface (not potholes) after Nagar.