[urban_legend]

Well i gotta Swift VDI.been a year since i bought it.already clocked more than 28,000 kms.loved ever km of it. its a beast in its class.and I love to unleash it.

So I've been thinking about doing this road trip from Mumbai to Rajkot. Got many folks around disuading me from doing it. But then love driving. even so much that i travel around 90 kms a day (both ways) for my work. Again been told to get a driver. but then old habits die hard. So i thought why dont i do this road trip along with my wife. We do travel quiet a bit in and around Mumbai. but always its in a radius of 300 kms. Plan to do the trip to Rajkot on saturday (Nov 25, 2008). Based on ur travelogues, experience, to do's etc etc. I have briefly chartered out the plan.

5.00 am - Ex-mumbai (Thane)
8.30 am - Surat (breakfast halt)
9.00 am - hed for Baroda
12.30 pm - reach Baroda (Lunch halt)
1.30 pm - head for Ahmedabad
3.00 pm - reach Ahmedabad (tea break)
3.30 pm - from Ahmedabad to Rajkot
7.00 pm - reach Rajkot

Looks fairly simple. but then i dunno how bad the road is between surat and baroda. or elsewhere in the route. So guys can you help me out with this. Also heard there is an alternate route through tarapur to Rajkot. but then again the road aint that good. any updates on that.

Also the above itenerary leaves me no time to enjoy the surroundings. dunno bout the places to halt for sight seeing. if there are any good places to take a break and move on then wud not mind breaking the journey.or if it involves taking a detour. dont mind that either.

Note from the Team-BHP Support : Please take the time to use proper punctuation as per Team-BHP rules. Avoid...typing...like...this. Thanks.

[hvkumar]

You don't have to touch Ahmedabad to go to Rajkot.

The route runs as follows:

Bombay-NH8-Vapi-Surat-Ankleshwar-Bharuch-Baroda-do not take A'Bad expressway-Vasad-leave NH8-Borsad-Tarapur-Vataman-Bagodara-Limdi-Rajkot.

Lovely route, you will find it detailed in my log book below (this was a drive from Bombay to Rapar, Kutch, on this route). Please note that I have turned off NH8A before Rajkot, but the route is the same.

Google Docs - gujarat-jan2005



You can easily do the trip from morning to evening.

Road is great except for some dislocation between Surat and Baroda, but no other problems.

[urban_legend]

Thanks Kumar for your inputs. The only reason for routing our journey through Ahmd. was because the roads are comparatively better. I'm not that clear whether the tarapur route is good. Since i've got a hatchback was littel bit worried. Can any let me know on the current road status of Vadodara-Tarapur-Limbdi route.

[hvkumar]

No problem with the roads on that route. Needless to say, it is always a pleasure to drive on the Baroda-A'Bad expressway, worth the extra kms.

I drove from Bombay to Ahmedabad today morning, leaving Bombay at 145 am (night) and struggling through traffic jams on Thane-Ghodbunder road (truck breakdown), terrible traffic jams at the Vasai toll naka (after inching along for 20 minutes, did not have to pay toll, since the power went off, knocking off the ticketing machines!). Surat bypass was peaceful despite the incomplete flyovers, but further down, after crossing teh Tapi, ran into a 10-km long traffic jam - result of a headon 3-truck collision at one of the narrow necks in the under-widening road). Widening work is in full swing, but there are too many turn offs, slowing you down. Ankleshwar town was mercifully empty, although the North-South direction traffic was tightening. From Ankleshwar to Baroda was dreadfully slow, since teh road was reduced to a 2/3-laner with long trains of trucks.

Took 8 hours.

[urban_legend]

Thanks Kumar, that was a very useful update on the road and traffic condition. Hopefully i should not get the Ghodbunder traffic in the morning and ofcourse wud pray that there shud not be any hold up due to some accident.

[hvkumar]

Her eis an update on my return journey from Ahmedabad to Bombay. THis was probably my longest every road journey in this sector - even in the old 2-lane roads, I have not taken more than 9 hours.

I took 10 hours yesterday from Ahmedabad to Bombay/Thane - my best time in this route is 6.5 hours.

This was despite leaving A'Bad at 220 am. Drive till Baroda was amoothy on expressway. Got stuck in Baroda bypass for 15 minutes in a jam.
Drive from Baroda to Ankleshwar was slow but snmooth.
I got stuck in Ankleshwar town for over 30 minutes in jams.
From Ankleshwar to Surat, the road was fine - there were several sectiosn where 6-laning is complete.
Road surface was smooth.
Bypassing Surat was smooth, but for a small traffic jam (this was around 645 am)
I ran into serious trouble on the 4-lane Manor-Virar section just short of Bombay. Nothing to do with road construction - this was a traffic gridlock at an interchange immediately after the Manor toll gate and before Virar. Looks like some construction trucks cut across the road and caused the jam. Incredibly, traffic on both sides of the highway were stuck for 2 HOURS!

Road condition south of Manor is good but has the tar chipped off in several places, so ride quality is not smooth.
Between Virar and Vasai, road shoulders are in bad shape and you hardly have 1 good lane to drive on, slowing down traffic (happily, repair work is on).

[urban_legend]

You definitely got delayed for the journey. But the good nws was that you did not get much traffic between surat and baroda. Planning to take the Tarapur road to Rajkot. I Would let you know on my journey once i'm back. Thanks Kumar.

[urban_legend]

Am back from my road trip to Rajkot. (Managed a 4 day trip to Sasan Gir as well) Thought to update you on the road conditions. Before i do that the following are the vital stats:

Vehicle type - Swift VDI
Total distance covered - 1750 kms (approx)
Mumbai (ex-thane) - Rajkot - Mumbai -- 1400 kms (approx)
Rajkot to Sasan Gir - Rajkot -- 350 kms (approx)

Mileage - 20 km per litre (with AC)

We managed to reach Rajkot in 12 hours.

Mumbai - Manor
The road condition is not that great. Can peak to 110kmph at some places but most of the time the truckies or the road forced us to go slow. We gotta a jam at the Manor Toll naka. Was stuck for 15 mins.

Manor - Surat
Once we crossed Manor things were better. But then as we reached closer to Gujarat border the road condition just kept improving. By the time we reached Vapi, we were able to cruise. Road traffic was decent enough. Not that heavy.

Surat - Bharuch
The road condition again was not bad. But then odd patches especially while passing through towns used to slow us down and we started to see some diversion for the 6 laning project. At most of the places there were these bridges being made so as to circumvent the towns, so that was another reason for traffic slow down.

Bharuch - Vadodara - Vasad
This patch the 6 lane highway work was on and 80% of the time we used to be on 3 lane road (with no dividers)and the traffic was heavy due to truckies. Though luckily we did not get in a jam.

Vasad - Borsad - Bagodara
We did not take the expressway to ahmedabad. We took the diversion from Vasad to Borsad and then to Bagodara to join NH 8A. The road from Borsad to Dharmaj was bad. But then motorable at around 40kph. Rest of the section was surprisingly good for a 2 lane highway.

Bagodara - Limdi - Rajkot
Wat can i say about this patch. Let me put it this way, been on many motorable roads (including the expressways). This was pure heaven. Entirely tar road. As smooth as ever. Except for a bridge which was being worked on, in the entire 140 kms stretch from Bagodara to Chotila was really good. Managed to touch 140kph in my swift and maintained an average speed of 120 kph to 130 kph. From Chotila the roads are fine but then the odd bump would be on one's mind.

After Diwali we headed for the Lion Sanctuary at Sasan. We did a stopover at Junagadh to have a look at the town. The road upto Jetpur was on NH8A and was smooth as ever. From there the road was the normal 2 lane road and was kinda bumpy but for indian standards wud not categorise it as bad.

From Junagadh to Sasan the ride is beautiful and about 60 odd kms. We reached the Sanctuary and though i did not manage to see any lions, i had the opportunity to take my swift through the Jungle. It was remarkable since there was no motorable road and my avg speed was 15kph. Though it was a nightmare for the suspension. The hatch back reacted well (more than my expectation).

My return was pretty much the same except that the Rajkot - Mumbai stretch took my around 11 hours.

It was an amazing journey though. Thanks Kumar for your inputs on the route map had timed my journey mostly on the basis of your itenerary. Though kept some buffer. Managed to time it well.

[hvkumar]

Thanks for all the detail. Surprised that the road from Borsad is bad (is it the road to Tarapur/Vataman?).

[urban_legend]

The Borsad - Dharmaj stretch was a bit bumpy. What i mean by bumpy is that there were certain bad patches but then the road was motorable but at a restricted pace. Otherwise Dharmaj - Tarapur - Wataman - Bagodara was good.

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Travelled from Pune to Rajkot today. It took 19 hours; 15 hours 30 minutes travelling time plus 3 hours 30 minutes break in total.

The trip details are as follows:

Start from Pune: 5:30 am

Nasik in: 9:45 am including 30 min breakfast and 15 minutes at petrol pump.

Nasik out: 10:20 am at Peth phata.

Chikhli on NH48: 1:10 pm.

Lunch and phone calls till 2:45 pm at Chikhli.

Chikhli out: 2:45 pm.

Kheda in: 7:30 pm.

Dinner at Goodluck hotel after exiting NH48 at Kheda.

Kheda out: 8:30 pm.

Rajkot: 12:30 am including 15 minutes at Petrol pump.

Road from Kheda to Rajkot: Under construction throughout, from Kheda till Rajkot. It looks like it will take 2 years at least. Could maintain 40-60 kmph in Kheda - Bagodara section and 60-80 kmph in Bagodara to Rajkot section. These speeds will be reduced during the daytime because of traffic + construction.

Rajkot ring road, to go towards Gondal: Very bad. Cannot find words to describe.