| Adilabad to VSKP by APSRTC
Dear Members,
I am interested in the Indian Railways. I am doing my PhD in the UK and have been a passive follower of all the fascinating posts here particularly by Mr.HV Kumar.
But do love wandering away off the beaten track. I "did" the Mancheiral Adilabad route by an APSRTC express bus and the road was very good contrary to my expectation. The route is indeed very scenic and abounds with fairly dense jungle. I was actually in the Nandigram to NGP [intending to see the odd NGP route from Nanded] and had a return ticket to SC and my home SBC the next day. I was fooled by some passenger into thinking Mancherial was only a night away from Rajahmundhry and one could get a bus at Adilabad which would go via the dense jungle route noted for its spectacular scenery and reach RJY early next morning. The information was wrong. It proved to be very tedious and I hopped on to a bus to Karimnagar in the evening[ hoping to see Bhadrachalam and thinking that RJY was not far away.]. Once we reached Karimnagar, I got into the Bhadrachalam bus. A co-passenger told me that all the information given to me by the Nandigram co-passenger was wrong. Bhadrachalam was 7 hours away from RJY. I was in a terrible mess. The bus passed Warrangal and I thought I might as well take a chance in the train. The bus was hopelessly packed from Karimnagar and a crowd of humanity descended at Hanamakonda, making it difficult to travel in that bus. I dropped my grand plan of doing an IR-APSRTC crossing from Panvel to RJY and if possible VSKP with disappointment. I had return reservation in the Sabari to Chittoor and I planned to take a bus to Krishnarajapuram. I had earlier cancelled my ticket from NGP to SC and changed to boarding point to Tenali for the Sabari.
I purchased a general ticket to Samalkota[I was really stranded and wanted to sleep away the night in the train] from Warangal. The holiday special to VSKP was jampacked and even general compartments were not free. I must admit I am not used to traveling in general compartments. I pushed till Khammam and went to the bus stand and found packed busses to Bhadrachalam. I gave up on going to Bhadrachalam and resigned to spending the night in Khammam. Goutami express is usually a packed train and the chances of getting berth are remote. The porter seeing my plight asked me what was wrong. He took me to the coach where the TTE was located and there were only 3 berths left[due to people not showing up] I paid Rs.115[I was happy I did not have to use unfair means] and went till SLO and got up only at Nidavolu after being very tired. I bought a general ticket by the Janmabhoomi to Pidugaralla and caught the Sabari there. On the 15th the Janmbahoomi was packed and it was waitlisted! I came standing.
Sorry for making you read the whole boring Ramayana. Please tell me how I could avoid this mistake and if I were to go to VSKP or RJY by APSRTC bus after alighting from the Nandigram express which reaches Adilabad at 9.30AM and possibly see Bhadrachalam, and go via that famed dense jungle route[i read it here] by ordinary APSRTC bus and reach RJY or VSKP next morning by 1000AM what is the route I must take and also cover the road less travelled in Telengana by APSRTC bus. It is easy if one had a powerful car. But the challenge is to rely solely on public transport.
Best Regards
Hathras-Jhansi | 
22nd October 2008, 16:20
