[abhi_tjet]

Originally Posted by Akshay6988

Guys which sections of Pune Mumbai expressway has speed ? I don't know anything about Mumbai roads, any inputs appreciated

There are speed-cams at regular intervals throughout the expressway. Best way is to keep your speed below 100. Or do a speed run pillar to pillar 😀. Speed cams are on the median at almost every pillar and while approaching tunnels .

Approaching Mulund should be fairly easy. Continue straight on Sion-Panvel expressway after the expressway ends.
After crossing Nerul/Juinagar, be on the right side of the road and continue towards Thane.
Take a left on Airoli bridge after crossing Rabale on Thane Belapur road to approach Mulund.

[praveen789]

Travelled from Andheri to Margao on 11th Dec 2021 and this drive would probably count among the worst ones I have ever been on. The truck drivers are absolute retards on the main highway with them frequently blocking both lanes and trying to overtake each other. I have literally seen many instances where they take turns to pull ahead a little and then let the other one do the same. Its almost like they are getting some sadistic pleasure in this! The road conditions in many places on the Maharashtra side are poor so you need to pay more attention. Karnataka roads were amazing though.

Then came the biggest disaster of it all - the approach to Chorla. There are so many parts where the road is almost washed away. Maybe i felt the impact much more because ground clearance is not the strong point of the Octavia. Thankfully I had installed RogerAb before the trip so it didnt bottom out too much.

I have been travelling to Goa every year since 2014 but I have never seen roads in such a state of disrepair - its disgusting. We left at 5.15 am and reached Margao at 8 pm (though there was no delays due to absence of any covid test stops / nakabandis)

Planning to take the Bhimgad sanctuary route on my way back. Probably will not be doing a road trip to Goa anytime soon after this experience.

[cedricgonsalves]

Dear Praveen,
Thanks for posting this as it is helpful for me.
I am planning to drive on 27th Dec from Mumbai via Pune - Belgaum - Bhimgad - Anmod Ghat towards Margao.
Were you stopped for any RTPCR negative report or test or anything through the borders?

[praveen789]

Originally Posted by cedricgonsalves

Dear Praveen,
Thanks for posting this as it is helpful for me.
I am planning to drive on 27th Dec from Mumbai via Pune - Belgaum - Bhimgad - Anmod Ghat towards Margao.
Were you stopped for any RTPCR negative report or test or anything through the borders?

Hi Cedric,

I will be returning from Anmod on 18th Dec so I will update you whether it is better or worse than Chorla.

While coming to Goa, there was a checkpoint at Karnataka border but I think it was their lunchtime so there was no one manning the posts to check for entry. At the Goa border, we were asked whether we were vaccinated and when we were pulling out our mobiles to show the certificate, he just waved us through. So effectively, there was no delay/issues with entry for me. All 3 of us were genuinely double vaccinated though.

[mpksuhas]

Did Hubli- Chorla last Tuesday and on return, took Ponda - Anmod - Ramanagar.

Of the two, will prefer Anmod route. The bad sections are limited to places where work seems to have stopped. Those are not more in count, guess around 10 places. As long as you are driving in time where visibility is good, you wont find any issue with that in any type of car.

Chorla had lots or random bad patches in comparison.

[comfortablynumb]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Of the two, will prefer Anmod route.

Agree wholeheartedly.

Am just back from Goa, started from Betalbatim at 9.15 am and reached Pune at 7 pm, with a 30 min lunch break and 15 min tea break. A summary of Chorla vs Anmod routes:
1. Took Chorla on the onward journey and Anmod on the return trip.
2. Majority of the Chorla route is OK, but sprinkled liberally with broken patches having deep potholes. They can come up all of a sudden, so drive sedately. Since Anmod is closed for heavy vehicles, all of them use Chorla instead. Sometimes this can make the going quite slow, if you get stuck behind a slow moving truck without a chance to overtake. The road also seemed narrower than Anmod ghat, or maybe it's just my imagination.
3. The road condition on the Anmod route is excellent till Anmod check post, then 50-50 till Khanapur via Bhimgad WLS, then good till Belgaum. The only bad patches are in the Bhimgad WLS (maybe a max distance of 15 km or so in total), but they can be navigated with slow and careful driving. Encountered hardly any bus or truck traffic on this route.
4. RT PCR was checked at KA border and vaccination certificates were checked at GA border on the onward journey. No checks on the return journey, except the one for contraband alcohol at Anmod check post.

[driver52001]

Went from Mumbai to Goa via Kolhapur and Amboli ghat last 3 days back. If double vaccinated, no need for RTPCR while entering Goa. Same was the case while entering Maharashtra and Gujarat (since I drove down from Delhi via Udaipur and Mumbai). Went to North Goa, Ashvem to be exact. The last 100 km from Nipani to North Goa was terrible. Narrow ghat road amid the jungle and potholes everywhere. OT: drove down to Mangalore from Goa and back too. Will be returning to Delhi via Mumbai and Udaipur starting Dec 17. Hopefully my first long drive post here happening soon.

[suzuki san]

Hi Guys,

So, my son just drove down from Bombay to Goa yesterday. As we had reports of the roads being in good condition, we decided to use the Kolhapur - Gaganbawda - Talere - Kankavli - Kudal - Goa route.

What a big, big mistake this was!!!

First of all he encountered very heavy local traffic from the moment he came off the highway practically till he had passed the Shalini Palace Hotel. Literally hundreds of 2 wheelers and one can only imagine the ensuing chaos.

Then he found that the roads were in a terrible condition especially on the Karul (?) and Gaganbawda ghat. The road was basically non existent and I have attached a picture so one can get an idea. He was driving a Honda Jazz and was getting really worried about the beating the car was taking. Will probably have to put it on a ramp tomorrow and check it out thoroughly. He said that even the loaded trucks were struggling to manoeuvre on this road.

What a disgusting situation....One wants to travel from the premier city of India to the holiday capital of India and these are the rubbish roads we pay tax for and have to drive on. Pathetic state of affairs.

To summarise...DO NOT USE THIS ROAD UNLESS IN AN EMERGENCY!!!

Once he joined the old Bombay to Goa highway (NH17) - now NH 66 at Talere, the road was pretty good all the way to Banda and the Goa border. A distance of approximately 110 Kms - 4 lane relatively good road where he was able to make up a bit of the time he lost on the ghats. However, even here there were some lumpy bits and unmarked speed breakers so beware.

Regards,
SS

[WheelWake]

Hi guys,
We will be doing our Annual Goa pilgrimage. Starting on 22nd Dec at 3pm. Hoping to do a stop over at Kolhapur. We should be there by 10pm based on gmap estimates.

We would have earlier loved to grab dinner at Opal or Dehati, but seems like that will be difficult. Any nice kolhapuri place 1 hr before kolhapur? Worst case we will just order in at our air bnb/hotel room service.

Also, what is the suggested route for the Kolhapur to Colva leg? If we are crossing Karnataka do we need to get RTPCR for all of us? We all (adults) are fully vaccinated. Does our 8 year old need to have RTPCR certificate?
TIA

[umohan98]

Just completed Mumbai - Goa - Mumbai trip in our SCross.
Took the Chorla Ghat Route on the way to Goa and Anmod Ghat on the way back.

The entire Chorla Ghat Route has only around 4 bad patches of not more that 20 meters length. These can be executed quite easily of one travels slowly.
Anmod Ghat Route is well tarred in the ghats. There's absolutely no pothole in the entire hills. But the story is completely different from Anmod to Belgaum. We took the route suggested by Google Maps and turned left after the checkpoint, on the road to Khanapur via Ragnarook (Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary. To talk about the road, well, there is no road. It is only a long strech of potholes and craters where you'll end up loosing your sanity. Will never ever go down this route again.


To sum up, Chorla Ghat Route is the one to take to Goa as per my experience.

[kapilankar]

Completed the Goa-Mumbai leg of our family trip yesterday - me (sole driver) and my parents (senior citizens, both) - in our 5 year old Tata Zest XMS (Petrol). Started on the 11th for Malvan, then headed to Goa on the 15th and then back to Mumbai on 17th.

My 2nd vaccination dose was done on the 1st of December, so decided not to cross any state borders before the 15th. We had to attend an annual family function in Goa on the 16th.

Leg 1: Mumbai to Malvan:

Route taken: WEH - SCLR - Navi Mumbai > Expressway till Pune > NH48 till Kolhapur > Gargoti > Kandgaon > Gavse > Amboli > Kudal > Malvan

Started around 7 AM from Mumbai, faced some traffic at Mankhurd (traffic mismanagement), Vashi, Kharghar (flyover repair work in progress), Khalapur (truck and car traffic), Lonavala and Khed Shivapur (mismanagement). Reached Malvan at 11 PM with halts every 2-3 hours.

There is some re-laying work on the highway through Navi-Mumbai that causes some traffic pile-ups. There are some diversions on the Expressway due to re-laying work, but not a major effect on the traffic flow.

The moment you hit the NH48, you will find the top-layer of the tarmac has been scraped off in patches. You will need to slow down considerably, else the suspension will not like it. The poor roads continue through Pune (especially bad at the construction sites of Pashan and the new Chandani Chowk interchange) and all the way to Satara. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the middle lane fares much better than the top lane.

The road on the Satara-Kagal stretch is a like a runway compared to the stretch up to Satara. We had lunch at Sangam in Karad (good washrooms, ok food). In order to avoid traveling through Karnataka before 14 days from the second dose, we chose the route via Gargoti. We had dropped Gaganbawda (based on posts here) and Phondaghat (did not want to drive through Radhanagari twisties after dark) and so Amboli was the way to go. This added about 40-50 kms to our overall travel and about an hour of driving too.

The road after Kolhapur up to Gargoti was a breeze with some intermittent sugarcane traffic. The road surface was good as well. Google maps was on the whole time, but asked the locals for directions nonetheless. Google maps was 100% accurate, though a lack of road signs make it a bit difficult to associate landmarks with the given directions.

The road after Gargoti was narrower and had a ghat climb, but the tarmac was intact. A small detour between Kandgaon and Gavse (to bypass Ajara) was not in great shape, but there were no craters as such. The road from Gavse to Amboli was quite bad with intermittent decent stretches. There were no craters though, so a bigger set of wheels would find it easier to drive on.

Amboli to Kudal via the Swanatwadi bypass and the new relaid stretch of Mumbai-Goa highway was quite good. But roads in and around Kudal were quite damaged. They are being relaid and we encountered semi-finished road stretches up to Dhamapur. The road thereafter was intact, though narrow.

Leg 2: Malvan to Mayem (Goa)

Route taken: Malvan > Kudal > Sawantwadi (family) > Banda > Mapusa > Nachinola > Mayem

We had to retrace the route from Malvan to Kudal with the same bad stretches as last time. Kudal to Mapusa was via the Mumbai-Goa highway. There are frequent diversions on the Goa side, but the going is smooth. We were stopped at the Goa entry check post for our vaccination certificates. There was a test centre nearby for people without valid certificates.

After Mapusa, we opted for the route via Bastora-Nachinola-Calvim to Mayem Lake (instead of the usual route via Thivim, Bicholim). This is a narrow, but excellent road passing through small villages and lush vegetation.

Leg 3: Mayem to Mumbai

Route taken: Mayem > Bicholim, Sanquelim > Chorla Ghat > Belgaum > NH 48 > Expressway > Navi Mumbai > Chunabhatti BKC > WEH

We started from Mayem at 8 AM and reached home by 11 PM with halts every 2 hours. The ascent of Chorla is good for about 95% of the Goa stretch. Watch-out for hairpins as these are the places with the most craters here. The Maharashtra stretch is surprisingly well laid.

The Karnataka stretch of Chorla ghat is pathetic for some 5 kms on either side of Kankumbi village. Most potholes are in the areas shadowed by large trees - so watch out for these.

We were asked to show out vaccination certificates at the Karnataka entry of Chorla ghat and then at the Maharashtra RTO check post prior to Kagal. It took about a minute at each stop. The road from Jamboti onwards is good. We faced some minor traffic in Belgaum.

The NH 48 is good all the way till Satara, after which it gets a bit bumpy till Pune. There were sudden craters while driving through Pune. Cops with speed cameras were seen at places between Kolhapur and Khed Shivapur. 80 is the limit. We took a lunch break at Shivraj Dhaba in Karad.

The Expressway had a minor traffic pileup due to one of the diversions. The rest of it was a breeze. A speed camera flashed on a car going 100+ in the adjoining lane. Faced another set of traffic jams in Kalamboli and Sanpada (road laying), Mankhurd (mismanagement) and WEH (metro).

Overall

Kms driven: 1532
Econ: 20.3 kmpl (MID)
Suspension status: Sad :(

[umohan98]

Originally Posted by WheelWake

If we are crossing Karnataka do we need to get RTPCR for all of us? We all (adults) are fully vaccinated. Does our 8 year old need to have RTPCR certificate?
TIA

For us, at Goa Karnataka Border (before Kognoli Toll), ye waived us off as soon as we said Goa. On our return journey, while entering Maharashtra, he asked only for ourVaccination Certificates.

Am not certain what would be the requirements for the 8 year old, but adults for sure don't need RTPCR.

[praveen789]

Originally Posted by umohan98

Just completed Mumbai - Goa - Mumbai trip in our SCross.
Took the Chorla Ghat Route on the way to Goa and Anmod Ghat on the way back.

To sum up, Chorla Ghat Route is the one to take to Goa as per my experience.

I agree with your view that Bhimgad route has longer stretches of rough roads compared to Chorla but my vote would still go for Bhimgad because of these reasons:

1) The road from Margao till Bhimgad turn after the checkpoint is absolutely brilliant in terms of road condition.
2) Though the roads are more like a dirt road, I dont think the suspension of any vehicle including sedans would really get badly affected by the constant rumbler type action. Chorla on the other hand will literally bottom out the suspension on some parts and plus the bad parts sort of spring up without notice and around a bend - much more dangerous and tough to anticipate. There are a few such on Bhimgad also but you can see it from a distance easily.
3) No truck traffic and light car traffic through Bhimgad ( I left Goa at 6 am and and it felt quite empty when we crossed it)
4) Better visibility as the roads are straighter and so can anticipate slowing down much better.
5) I dont know if you noticed it, but Chorla has some crazy big cuts at the road edges where the road has sort of created a cavity. If 1 wheel goes into this at speed, it is likely that the whole vehicle would slip off road. Thats why most vehicles avoid the road edges but then at turns, they end up coming too close for comfort.

[Rustom]

Pune to Vengurla via Radhanagari

Hi everyone,
Apologies for the late post. I wanted to give a quick update about a different route that we took last week on Dec. 11th.

As the Amboli route was quite broken during our last visit in October and the last report about the Gaganbawda route wasn't positive, we decided to travel via Radhanagari / Phondaghat.

We started from Wakad, Pune at 6 am. As others have mentioned the Katraj bypass in Pune is still bad. I hit three huge potholes in the dark. Thankfully there was no damage. The road improved after we crossed the Katraj tunnel.
The road was much better after Satara. As I wanted to avoid Kolhapur city traffic, I dove on to Kagal and left the national highway there. I trusted Google maps but it routed me through small villages till we hit the Khapur Radhanagari road which was nice. The road was quite nice till we reached Radhanagari. There is an approximately 4 km stretch which is quite bad. After that it it got better till Phondaghat where the road deteriorates again. The rest to the route from Phonda till NH66 was okay. The rest of the NH66 route has been covered in other posts so I won't dwell on that.

To be fair, we were carrying a crate of 30 eggs (don't ask why) with us and none of them broke. The route though was very picturesque and Phondaghat itself is quite easy as compared to Amboli.

We are planning on taking the same route back but will go through Kolhapur this time to avoid the small villages.

[ankur_g]

hi folks,
I am planning to drive down to North Goa (calangute) later this week with family. planning to do the drive spread across 2 days so as to take it easy.

I have been reading the recent trip reports and quite honestly I'm still quite confused about what may be the best route to north goa. I am happy sacrificing time and disctance for better, safer and more comfortable roads.
is the pune-kolhapur-nipani-amboli-goa the recommended route? could some of you please throw some light