[heman_369]

I travelled from Pune to Betalbatim and back last week.
onwards journey was via Kolhapur-Nipani-gargoti-Amboli-Banda-Panjim-Betalbatim.
As suggested in the forum the Nipani Garogti Amboli road though narrow was in decent shape. But this takes an 30-45 mins longer than the normal ajra road. Total driving time of 9.5 hours excluding breaks.

While retuning wanted to explore the NH17 so travelled Betalbatim-Panaji-Pernem-Kudal-kankavli-Rajapur . Excellent 4 lane Nh17 with no tolls for now.
From Rajapur took Oni-Anuskura Ghat-Mlakapur-Kokrud-karad-Pune.
Oni to ANuskura ghat top is decent with few bad patches takes 1.5 hours. Post anuskura ghat it is a fantastic SH 2 lane road till Karad.
Similar driving time of 9.5 hours excluding breaks but excellent roads except for the oni-Anuskura stretch

[ranjitnair77]

Update on Tilari Ghat

I happened to travel from Vagator to Pune yesterday and decided to take the Tilari Ghat route instead of the usual suspects. The route taken was:

Vagator - Dodamarg - Tilari Ghat - Gandhinglaj - Nipani

https://goo.gl/maps/F3R4L6hSV4L7GSDj6

Vagator to Dodamarg: Very smooth.
Dodamarg to Tilari: The road surface alternates between smooth and rumbly. There are a few broken patches here and there.
Tilari Ghat: Smooth and extremely scenic. However it is narrow and very steep with sharp switchbacks. This is why trucks and other heavier vehicles don’t use this route.
Tilari to Gadhinglaj: The first half of the route probably has the most mixed surface on this route, alternating between rumbly sections and the occasional smooth patches. It passes through several villages so progress can be slow. The road widens towards the end and gets smoother so you can pick up pace
Gadhinglaj to Nipani: via Mattiwade. This is quite smooth and reasonably wide and hits NH48 just before Goa Ves if you are traveling from Goa to Pune.

So this route is not really a solution to our Goa route woes. The overall road conditions are better than the horror show at Amboli, Chorla and Anmod. There are no bombed out sections here, so your vehicles will not scrape. There is very little traffic and all of it is local traffic on two wheelers. There are virtually no trucks. The route is also very scenic, especially in the first half from Dodamarg to Tilari and the Ghat itself is stunning. However the roads are narrow and they pass through lots of little villages which will slow you down. The road surface is reasonably smooth for 50% of the distance but the rest of it is that typical Maharashtra patchy road that keeps you mildly frustrated throughout. Unless you are on Adventure bikes like us, where you can put the hammer down and have fun.

[bhavik.1991]

I travelled Pune to South Goa on 14th Oct in a Jetta.

Pune - Nipani - Belgavi - Khanapur - Asoga(had to go via it due to a diversion after Khanapur) - Bhimgad - Anmod - South Goa.
As luck would have it, it rained cat and dogs while crossing Asoga and Bhimgad.
Car was already running on a bust tyre with tube inside due to a metal object busting tyre before Satara. Navigated Bhimgad extremely carefully under the rain and fortunately crossed it without an incident.
Moreover did not have a spanner to replace tyre. Learnt about missing spanner after the puncture earlier. Can't even imagine what would have happened if i had a flat tyre again without a spanner in no network zone of Bhimgad.

Return journey was on 19th Oct and I had to take a different route due to the horrible experienced during onwards journey.
As per suggestions in the thread around that time, I decided to take Amboli ghat in return journey with some hopes. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Amboli ghat was manageable however Amboli - Ajara - Nipani was horrendous. I strongly suggest to avoid this route. Had my heart in my mouth due to a tyre running with a tube and no spanner.

If i have to choose between above two, I would stick to Bhimgad (off course with a proper puncture kit)

[Shanks_Jazz]

Hi,
I will be leaving for North Goa on 12th November in. a Jazz with Parents and an Infant. Any recommendation on route to he taken?
We will halt overnight at Kolhapur.

[maverickxx2006]

Originally Posted by Shanks_Jazz

Hi,
I will be leaving for North Goa on 12th November in. a Jazz with Parents and an Infant. Any recommendation on route to he taken?
We will halt overnight at Kolhapur.

Chorla ghat, even if you want to travel to North. Recently I travelled through Chorla and even though there are some craters, they are manageable if you drive slowly. You need to be very careful though.

Road condition till Amboli is horrible.

[nikhil_d1106]

Travelled to and fro from Pune to South Goa (Agonda) couple of days back. Used Anmod ghat both ways and went through Bhimgad sanctuary. Roads in Belgaum are much better now, flyover at third gate is completed. Belgaum Khanapur road is great for driving. Have to cross Khanapur town which is 3-4kms but not much of an issue. Bhimgad road is 34 kms, took exactly an hour to cross in both directions. Out of the 34kms about 8 kms is in bad condition where you have to go very slow negotiating the large potholes. The rest of the road is in fine condition. Anmod onwards road is in pristine condition.
So except for the 8 kms bad patch in the sanctuary which is divided in two sections, you get great roads end to end. Sedans will find it more difficult to negotiate these 8 kms but manageable.

[Shanks_Jazz]

Originally Posted by maverickxx2006

Chorla ghat, even if you want to travel to North. Recently I travelled through Chorla and even though there are some craters, they are manageable if you drive slowly. You need to be very careful though.

Road condition till Amboli is horrible.

Is Ajra Amboli route that bad

[mayurpalav]

Drove from Mumbai to Margao and back. Blindly followed google maps for the first time and had to use Anmod ghat both ways and went through Bhimgad sanctuary.
The Bhimgad sanctuary wasn't a suggested road by google, however took human intelligence for the said road through the sanctuary. It is a lovely drive like Nikhil mentioned in his post. The road from the cut off to Ramgadh is a drivers paradise. Belgaum Khanapur road is great for driving. First time using Anmod ghat for me, have used Amboli and Chorla before. Must say it will be preferred after the current experience.

[NerdyMillennial]

We drove to Goa on 5th Nov and took the Pune - Kolhapur - Nipani - Ajra - Amboli - Goa route. Majority of the road is in a good condition, however, the Ajra - Amboli patch is pathetic. It is a patch of about 20kms that is just broken road nonstop (However, we did see workers putting loose sand / gravel to fix that in a few places). We were in a low slung BMW G30 and as mentioned earlier on the forum, were at crawling speeds at max. It took us 2 hours to cover those 20kms. Note that other cars were literally flying by us constantly.

Frustrated by that patch, we decided kuch toofani karte hai (I wasn't travelling with family) and took the Chorla - Belgavi - Kolhapur route travelling back to Pune on the 8th Nov based on a local's advice that the roads on this route are in much better condition. And in some ways, he was right. The road where not broken is in a very good condition, however once you start climbing the chorla ghat and clear the half way climb, the craters start. And by craters, I mean 3ft wide, 1-2 feet deep craters smack in the middle of the road (often only where the shadows are). Somehow, by gods grace and miracle, I was able to drive the G30 without scraping or bottoming out even once on either of these routes. What helped me were the W-I-D-E tyres, which if you are able to place properly on the the protrusions within the craters, will help the car clear it. Where the car did scrape twice was on the monstrous speed bumps inside Belgavi.

Conclusion, the roads other than their respective bad patches, are pretty much the same. Now for the bad patches, the Ajra-Amboli patch is a bad bumpy long ride but nothing that can break your car and leave you stranded (plus this route had more cars so I feel is a lot safer.). The Chorla-Belgavi patch, is a very smooth road but with sudden massive craters on the road which if you are not in a decently slug car, can cause some serious damage to the car because of bottoming out or scraping the car badly. I was lucky I got away without any issues. The Chorla - Belgavi route is the one where I spotted at least 3 cars on the side changing their flat tyres to the spare one. Having the correct tyre pressure for the load that you are carrying is crucial, do not set the tyre pressure to your normal setting when you are travelling with family + luggage, there are separate values for that mentioned in the manual. That Plus driving sensibly and without hurry shall get you, your family and the car to your destination safely.

Note that it took us pretty much the same amount of driving time of around 9 - 9.5 hours on both routes to travel between Pune and Goa.

[Shanks_Jazz]

Originally Posted by maverickxx2006

Chorla ghat, even if you want to travel to North. Recently I travelled through Chorla and even though there are some craters, they are manageable if you drive slowly. You need to be very careful though.

Road condition till Amboli is horrible.

We travelled through Chorla Ghat for onward as well as return journey .As rightly pointed, Surface in majority is pretty smooth but one needs to be over cautious as craters might appear suddenly out of now where.
We stayed at the Park Tree, Kolhapur on the highway itself while going to Goa and The Fern , Satara while coming back.

[gEtios13]

Hi All Bhpians.

Wanted to share my experience regarding the recent trip I did from Pune to Goa. Started on 26th October morning 7 AM from Balewadi. Took the first break in Hotel Sadguru at Satara for a quick Breakfast. Washrooms were clean as confirmed by Wife and Mom and food was quite good as confirmed by Kid. Took the right turn after Nippani for Nippani-Ajra-Amboli route.
Till Nippani road is good but the Ajra- Gandhilganj road is horrible with bad patches throughout and it took us 4.5 hours to cross Amboli and reach the Mumbai Goa highway. One thing to note, we didn't realise and instead of going to Sawantwadi post Amboli took a left turn to another short but horrible road based on Google Maps which directly took us somewhere to the NH. Avoid this if possible as roads are better if you go via Sawantwadi maybe 15 kms extra. Reached Candolim around 5.
Return trip on 30th October started at 11:30 AM, we came via the Sawantwadi-Amboli-Belgavi-Pune route. It was approximately 68kms extra but took lesser time and traffic was also less. Road after Amboli ghat towards Belgavi is quite good.
Everything was fine and we touched Belgavi by 6PM had stops for lunch some Sunday sabji market shopping by mom somewhere between Amboli to Belgavi. But if you drive continuously it should take around 4 hours. Planned to have dinner in Sai International near Kolhapur however we skipped it as reached there by 8:30 and we're not hungry. Stopped at Hotel Silver Palace at Yelur for dinner, decent hotel and again clean washrooms. Then started from there and hit the worst traffic jam in my life on a highway. After driving for 2.5 hours in crawling speed realised the main reason of the jam was the narrow tunnel post Satara where only two vehicles can cross together. Also it was Sunday night and end of Diwali holidays so loads of people returning. Cursed my luck and finally reached home at 2:30 AM. So if not for the jam would have completed the trip in 10.5 hours with Lunch, Snacks, Dinner and Shopping breaks.

Hope this helps others in planning their trips.

[Irwin]

Hi,

I am planning to take a trip from Mumbai/Borivali West to South GOA/Benaulim sometime around the end of Nov or early Dec.

Have read quite a lot on this forum about the bad roads through all the 3 connectors from NH48 towards NH66.

Hopefully, the roads have been repaired/are under temporary repairs. What is the current status of the roads and which would be the relatively better amongst the 3 worst roads/routes to take to cross over to GOA from NH48

[Shanks_Jazz]

Originally Posted by Irwin

Hi,

I am planning to take a trip from Mumbai/Borivali West to South GOA/Benaulim sometime around the end of Nov or early Dec.

Have read quite a lot on this forum about the bad roads through all the 3 connectors from NH48 towards NH66.

Hopefully, the roads have been repaired/are under temporary repairs. What is the current status of the roads and which would be the relatively better amongst the 3 worst roads/routes to take to cross over to GOA from NH48

We went to North Goa and still took Chorla Ghat adhering to the general view of the forum. Except for a few but unexpected craters on the ghat there is nothing to be worried about. Do carry a tyre inflator just in case.

[vbalaji65]

Road to Goa from Pune - Anmod or Tilari ghat

On 27 Oct 2022, We had gone from Pune to Varca, Goa via Bhimgad - Anmod ghat. The road was very bad, even missing completely for nearly 1 km. And the road was horrible and part of the road was very narrow for nearly 3 - 4 km. If any vehicle breaks down in this section, it could lead to traffic jams. Barring this, the route was ok with small sudden bad patches.

Today, on our return journey to Pune, we used the Dodamarg - Tilari ghat -Gadhinglaj route from Varca Goa. We followed the Google map. It took us through nearly empty roads. We skipped big cities of Goa - Madgao, Panaji, Mapusa. The road was also decent with odd patches. Tilari ghat road condition was excellent. But it is quite a steep climb with many hairpin bends. After the ghat, we were told by locals not to take Gadhinglaj raod as many parts of the road was dug up for repair work ( this needs to be confirmed ). So we took the Belagavi route ( It looks one cannot skip Belagavi enroute to Goa. 😃 ) This route had a bad but motorable patch for 6 km. After that stretch, we looked at Google maps and it took us through many villages and again we landed on the Gadhinglaj Nipani route ( we skipped Belagavi too ) This route was also pretty good.

Comparing the two routes is quite difficult.

Belagavi - Anmod is excellent except the bad part of about 6 km. But that short stretch is extremely horrible. One could get stuck or even face a breakdown.

On the other hand, Dodamarg - Tilari ghat -Gadhinglaj route needs extra attention while driving as most of the route of around 230 km is two lane. Besides, some part is even one lane. So this route is tiring. But one's chance of facing a breakdown or getting stuck in a jam is much less. And definitely, this route takes more time.

So, one has to take a call what one prefers.

Hope this is helpful.

After this Goa trip, I personally would wait for Chorla ghat or Anmod ghat route to get repaired before embarking on the next Goa road trip.

Finally I can say 'No Gain without Pain' is absolutely true for a Goa trip 😊

[milemuncher5001]

Hello Fellow BHPians, after careful reading of recent posts on this thread. I am planning to take Belgavi - Chorla ghat route to Panjim. I am scheduled to travel from Mumbai to Goa in mid of December 2022. Please post if you have any latest experience. TIA.