The road is good. Taj expressway is preferred as it bypass Agra completely. Go all the way till Kanpur and then to Lucknow via unnao.

Thanks for the quick response, looking for some more inputs so I can start planning.

Is the route safe enough for night driving?

With the ongoing Kumbh not sure what to expect in terms of traffic, how long does the drive take usually if I leave around 4 AM with average driving speed of ~100 Kmph?

I hope the road will be good enough to drive @ 100Kmph if not more?

The only problem you may face with a 4 am start is fog. Other than that it's a pretty smooth drive. From Delhi to Kanpur will be 8-9 hours depending the speed you drive. From Kanpur to Lucknow is 2-3 hours with some traffic near Kanpur firozabad. For dhabas you should have breakfast between firozabad and etawah. And there are few good dhaba after unnao towards Lucknow. Anything specific you want to to know?

I could not find any thread on the route from Lucknow to Jammu and tried to start one but it was closed by the mods . So posting the query on this page. If such a thread exists then please give me the link.

Now coming to the main subject. I am planning to drive from Lucknow to Jammu in the next few days. Checked in the forum and found that all the queries are more than a year old and that too only till Delhi. Since Taj expressway has come up and condition of the other roads has also changed I think its a good idea to get the expert advise.
Possible routes:-
Route 1
Day1 - Lucknow-Bareilly-Moradabad-Ghajiabad.
Day2 - Delhi- Panipat-Ambala-Ludhiana-jalanddhar-Pathankot-Jammu.

Route2
Day1 - Lucknow -Kannauj(via Bangarmau and Bilhaur)-Aligarh, Ghaziabad
Day2-Same route as followed in the route 1.

Route3
Day1- Lucknow-Kanpur - Agra - Delhi
Day2 - Same as the previous routes.
Now the issues-
1.Is there any way to avoid Delhi /Ghaziabad altogether? The alternative should be a decent road.
2.I would be driving in my automatic Civic loaded to the gills with luggage and four passangers. So roads with speed breakers,rough patches is a complete no. The routes mentioned above have presumably none of these.
3.Planning to drive not more than 550-600 kms in a day.

Thanks in advance.

I have a trip to undertake from tomorrow -- New Delhi - Lucknow - Varanasi - Kolkata - Diamond Harbour. Since I stay in Lucknow, I will be first starting towards New Delhi tomorrow. I have come to know that due to Obama's visit, the Yamuna Express Highway will be closed for a couple of days. I have already driven via Kanpur and Agra to New Delhi twice in the last year.

So, this time, I thought I should try the Shajahanpur - Moradabad NH 24. I have heard that the patch from Sitapur to Bareilly is bad and incomplete earlier. What is the situation now? Can anybody give any idea? Will I be taking a long time to cover this stretch? And what about the remaining sections?

Vipin.

I don't think they are closing YE so soon , as its secondary option to flying directly in case of Fog


If you must use this route - I can share my recent experience till Bareilly - try to leave as early as possible to miss Ghaziabad rush , beyond which you can travel all the way on 4 lane highway except for a small patch just around Rampur . Bareilly bypass is operational

I would like to know the state of highway NH 24 from Sitapur to Bareilly also which remained incomplete for a long time.

Vipin.

I drove from Lucknow to New Delhi on 21 Jan and back on 24 Jan. I chose NH 24 both ways. Some kind of experiment. While going to New Delhi, I took a good 14 hours 30 minutes, from door to door, including all the breaks in between! There was dense fog in the morning which considerably reduced my speed. From Moradabad to Delhi, there was dense traffic in the evening, which too reduced my pace. The road from Sitapur to Bareilly is just the old type highway, broken at many places, but motor-able. Lot of truck traffic and tractors carrying sugar-cane make your ride slow. So do the many small towns en-route. Bareilly bypass is open, but two bridges still require diversion. Rampur has no bypass, had to take the bus-stand, railways station road. So is the case with Faridpur. But the whole route is much better in scenic terms compared to the one by Kanpur and Agra. You have plenty of dhabas and eating points in most places, including resorts, country clubs, udupiwala and kamat restaurants and small tea-stalls.

Vipin.

We drove to Lucknow along Yamuna Expressway, then along NH2 to Kanpur, and onwards to Lucknow on the night of 24-25 January. Even with moderate fog on the way, we took 10 hours door-to-door (departure Delhi Vasant Kunj at 11 pm, arrival Lucknow Gomti Nagar at 9 am), including 4 short breaks, not exceeding 15 minutes each. The number of diversions due to flyover construction on the Etawah-Kanpur stretch have reduced to 13 from my previous count of 17 in June last year, and fingers crossed, we hope to have a diversion-free stretch by the end of this year!

With the impression/feedback from various sources that Bareilly - Delhi and Lucknow - Sitapur stretches are now toll-paying and should be good, and that Sitapur - Bareilly is single carriageway but in good condition, we decided to try our luck on the return journey via NH24. Bad choice, since the total time taken jumped up to 13 hours, including a meal break of 1 hour near Bareilly, a coffee break near Gajraula of 30 minutes, and another short 15-minute stop.

The Sitapur-Bareilly stretch is in quite a mess. The road surface is pockmarked and uneven, such that a low-GC small car (the i20 Elite in our case) scrapes the underbody at times. There are a couple of level crossings where traffic is held up and choked badly when a train passes by, and local traffic including slow-moving tractors and bullock carts is plentiful. It had also rained he previous night and early in the morning. Add to that the fact that this is sugar cane season and carts, tractor trolleys and trucks are overflowing with sugar cane jutting out on the sides, and overtaking is a nightmarish proposition. There has been some work done towards making this stretch a dual carriageway, but for unknown reasons work has stopped since quite a while, and I don't anticipate a toll-paying dual carriageway on this section in the next 5 years. This stretch of ~170 km took us almost 5 hours to cross.

Contrary to our information, Bareilly-Moradabad has 3 sections (Milik, Rampur and another) of about 5-6 km each, which are through town, single carriageway and with heavy traffic. Traffic between Moradabad and Delhi was also heavy on the night of 26 January due to holiday-goers returning from the Kumaon hills, with their usual standards of miserable driving.

Distance via YEW-NH2 was 570 km, while via NH24 it was 520 km.

I would much prefer to drive an extra 50 km to save a few hours' time.

Hi SS-Traveller, I am also planning to do same stretch via YEW in feb.
Does traveling in night with family on this stretch if OK? Did you saw any CNG pumps on way?

Thanks

Have travelled the Delhi-Kanpur stretch innumerable times on overnight drives with the family, and never faced any safety issues.

CNG pumps - I have no idea enroute, but CNG is available in Lucknow.

Hi

CNG Pump is available in Agra.
So you can refill at Agra.
Not sure if it would take you till Lucknow.
Next you may please find out CNG availability at Kanpur.

Hi. I might be travelling from Delhi to Lucknow on Friday. Planning to leave at 4:30-5 am. I understand it will take about 10 hours to reach Lucknow and roads are mostly good all throughout.

I read in someone's thread that there is some shortcut while passing through Kanpur to avoid all the traffic jam. He had also posted a route map of the directions to take within Kanpur for this shortcut. I cant seem to find it anymore. Anyone has any idea about this?

It will be great if someone could guide me out here on entering and exiting Kanpur to avoid the massive traffic during the day time.

Any recommendations for a decent hotel accomodation in Lucknow? Budget about 2000-2500 per night.

TIA.

Yes, I had posted it earlier. Essentially you take the Ganga Barrage. I will see if I can find the link. It had been elaborated upon my a member with coordinates etc.

This is what I found from a PM from Phamilyman who picked it up from me,

These days due to extensive work on the 'finishing' of the Unnao end of NH2 the route via Ramadevi is closed. So use the alternative. Come towards Kanpur City, and then join NH25 using the barrage.

For this come to Vijay Nagar crossing, turn left, and then (I will prefer this) (remember there is a right turn involved about 3 km down) ) follow markings to GT Road and Gurdev Palace, cross the railway track. Then straight through at Gurdev (Zoo Road) and you will see the markings for the barrage. Using the barrage you join the NH25 (left turn) at Achalganj crossing (7km from the Unnao-Raibareli road crossing). This is the fastest route.

Hi, I am doing this route tomorrow morning at 6 AM. Kindly advise if there is any new information which can help.
My plan- YEW - > Kanpur - > Use the shortcut-> NH25.