[Karvel]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Here is an update on another thread, but till Nagpur.
...
The Narsingpur Chindwara had developed few patchy sections as per one travelogue to Ladakh last year by arjithin.

Thanks Paragsachania for the details. Will wait for your update once you complete your trip. I am actually planning for a Gurgaon-Bangalore-Gurgaon trip. Was to fly down. But after reading all these travelogues, want to drive. Have two weeks off, hence want to try this out.

[mangespat]

Any current update on this route with the rains in full swing? Will be travelling all the way upto Agra from Hyderabad starting 31st August.

[paragsachania]

Drove from Bangalore to Jabalpur and back over the last weekend and specific updates are as below:

Bangalore – Hyderabad:

• Usual good to very good roads
  
• Quite a few speedbreakers at regular spots between Bangalore and Kurnool
  
• An Early start at 3:10 ensured we entered Hyderabad ORR at 09:30 with a tea break after Ananthapur and one for breakfast at Food Pyramid, Kothakota

Hyderabad – Adilabad:

• Maximum stretch from Hyderabad to Adilabad remains in super good and super fast conditions devoid of much traffic as usual
  
• Few sections between Nizambad – Nirmal – Adilabad have deleoped potholes or rough surfaces owing to recent rains – Focus advised

Adilabad – Hinghanghat:

• Last Drive was in April 2018 and I had reported improved conditions
  
• Recent rains and slow pace of work has ensured deterioration of the work in progress stretches between Piperwada and Daroda Toll plazas
  
• Out of 90 Kms of this stretch, one can easily find 20+ kms driving on diversions or old corridor or beside under construction bridges
  
• Rest of the sections (~70 Kms) remain good
  
• Caution advised to remain under controllable speeds to as to spot the diversions in time, few of them remain unmarked
  
• It took us around 90 Minutes to cover this bad section between the 2 toll booths of Piperwada and Daroda and that means the stretches that remain good is where one can easily make up for the lost average

Hinghanghat – Nagpur Bypass:

• No Complaints, dense traffic beyond Hinghanghat all the way till you drive quite a distance on the Bypass
  
• Roads remain good and fast as before
  
• FASTag is enabled across all booths on this bypass

Nagpur Bypass – Mansar – Pench Tiger Reserve - Mohagaon:

• Nagpur Bypass to Mansar is good 4 lane road
  
• Mansar town has a Work in Progress bridge and allows traffic beside this bridge, thus slowing you down due to local traffic for nearly 1 kilometer
  
• Crossing this diversion consumed less than 10 minutes for us
  
• Mansar to the next 35 Kms till you enter Pench National Park Territory is fully 4 laned and concretized now, with just two small diversions
  
• Pench National Park Entry to Mohagaon, A distance of around 32 Kms is a Beautiful 2 lane passing through the National Park
  
• The only caution : With the 2 lane section, precisely in the ghat sections, roads have developer super bad potholes around the median markers – Caution advised

Mohagaon – Seoni – Lakhnadon:

• Excellent 4 lane roads all the way
  
• Seoni – Lakhnadon section has rough surfaces here and there on both the corridors
  
• One need not slow down on these rough sections as these are not potholes but top layers have come off

Lakhnadon – Dhuma – Jabalpur New Bypass:

• This whole section is work in Progress
  
• Took is little over 3 Hours for a distance of 141 Kms and that also includes a crawl as soon as we entered Jabalpur due to concretization work
  
• The expansion work carried out by L&T can be called only or less than 50% complete and will take at least another 2 years unless they work on rapid pace
  
• Caution : Not all deviations are well marked and at many places you will median open to enter the other side that looks tempting – Don’t get carried away and follow local traffic
  
• Strong advise : Totally avoid driving Lakhnadon – Jabalpur at night only due to the bad roads and badly marked diversions
  
• Alternate option : Subsequent section will talk about the alternate for this bad section that one can take and roads here are 100% superb and takes nearly same or less time than the standard route

Jabalpur City Center – Shahapura – Chota Chindwara – Belkhedi – Kathotiya – Mungwani – Lakhnadon:

• Excellent well marked single carriageway from Jabalpur till Chotachindwara via Ghughari – District Road, 55 Kms
  
• Very Good single carriageway road from ChotaChindwara till Bellkedi – District Road, 23 Kms
  
• Beautiful, slightly narrow single carriageway road connecting Shahapura to Mugnwani where you merge back onto NS Corridor – District Road, 17 Kms
  
• Usual and very good dual carriageway from Mungwani all the way to Lakhnadon – NS Corridor, 40 Kms
  
• All of the above adds upto 135 Kms of blissful alternative to drive between Jabalpur and Lakhnadon

Here are a few images from the roads we drove and also some output from GPS Logs:

Hyderabad ORR:


Hyderabad - Nizambad:






FASTag exists even in booths like this:


We faced super heavy rains on Nagpur bypass till Mansar:


Mansar till Pench reserve, roads all done:










Single carriageway road inside Pench:




Seoni Town to Seoni Bypass:


FASTag never disappointed us:


The excellent Seoni - Lakhnadon section:




The bad Lakhnadon Duma Jabalpur section:

Advise based on the recent experience of driving on this route:

• As always, make it a super early morning start to get the best average speeds
  
• If you want to do Delhi, you need not take the Nagpur -Chindwara – Narsingpur route anymore and stick to Nagpur – Mansar – Seoni – Lakhnadon – Narsingpur option because only 30 kms is 2 lane here and that too in very good condition
  
• If you want to do Jabalpur, please stick to the alternate route – Saves energy and avoids fatigue with very clean roads
  
• There are less options to break between Hyderabad – Nagpur and Nagpur – Narsingpur. Keep an eye while you pass Pench territory where there are quite a few options to stop by including resorts
  
• Have Zero apprehensions regarding safety on this entire route, thanfully most trucks now stick to NS Corridor instead of Narsingpur Chindwara route
  
• Taking the Lakhnadon – Seoni - Mansar – Nagpur option also helps you avoid getting into Nagpur completely as you bypass the city end to end via Oriental Bypass

Few statistics to end the post:

• Due to apprehensions about the route conditions after Nagpur on the Seoni route and the heavy downpour we faced nearing Nagpur, we weren’t sure on the progress we would make and hence decided to halt for the night at Seoni town
  
• The Onward journey done in 2 days – 1215 Kms on Day 1 and 142 Kms on Day 2
  
• The Return journey was done non stop from Jabalpur because the alternate route taken was fantastic till Lakhnadon and beyond this we knew the route anyway due to our onward drive
  
• During return, we entered Nagpur City, dropped a friend near the Railway Station and then headed towards Bangalore. Metro work here had shut down a lot of main roads post midnight and work was in full swing with badly done service roads
  
• We were 2 drivers driving a Ciaz and we managed alternate driving depending on road conditions and rest taken
  
• Despite clocking some really good cruising speeds in both directions, taking on the bad roads to Jabalpur and crawling within the city for over 1.5 Hour in all, the car delivered a fantastic overall FE of 19.5 KMPL at the end of nearly 3000 Kms of round trip
  
• We started the journey with a full tank that had done 40 kms the previous day and managed to refuel 3 more thanks (Medchal, Jabalpur, Jadcherla) to complete the journey and at least 40% of fuel still unconsumed

Summary of the drive:

Bangalore – Seoni : 1215 Kms
Start Time : 03:15
End Time : 19:10
Time Taken : 15 Hours, 5 Minutes



Seoni – Jabalpur (via Lakhnadon Duma): 142 Kms
Start Time : 09:16
End Time : 12:27
Time Taken : 03 Hours, 11 Minutes



Notice the concentration of speeds on this pathetic stretch (usually 40-60 KMPH)

Jabalpur – Bangalore : 1420 Kms
Start Time : 18:50
End Time: 14:50
Time Taken : 20 Hours

How both the routes to Jabalpur from Lakhnadon fare:



Refueling locations enroute:

• BPCL COCO near Medchal, 10 minutes after exitin Hyderabad ORR
  
• BPCL Outlet inside Jabalpur City
  
• HPCL Outlet near Jadcherla

Location of breaks taken:

• Breakfast - Food Pyramid
  
• Lunch - Salasar Dhaba, Mupkul (Before Nirmal)
  
• Night halt -The Grand Rajwada, Off Seoni Bypass
  
• Dinner - Mowgli Street food, before Seoni Bypass
  
• Breakfast – Sandarshini Udupi, Jadcherla

Note: Couldn't take logs during the return trip as we realised that the Navigation device inside the glovebox had switched itself off due to lack of charge and we had forgotten to plug the charger and realised it much later.

[unleash_thunder]

Dear All,

I am planning a Bengaluru-Ghaziabad drive on 2nd Nov; the return is not planned yet. The current plan is:

a) Day1 (Bengaluru-Mumbai): Planning to start from Bengaluru around ~ 8:30/9 PM on 2nd Nov. The current route under consideration is Bengaluru-Ranebennur-Hubli-Dharwad-Belgaum-Satara-Pune-Navi Mumbai; planning to reach by 1 PM and stay in Navi Mumbai.

b) Day2 (Navi Mumbai-Udaipur): The plan is to start from Navi Mumbai around 9:30/10 PM on 3rd Nov. The default route suggested by GMaps is Navi Mumbai-Thane-Vapi-Bharuch-Vadodara-Udaipur; planning to reach by 10 AM and stay in Udaipur.

c) Day3 (Udaipur-Ghaziabad): Again planning to start by 9/10 PM from Udaipur and reach home in Ghaziabad on 5th Nov. The default route suggested by GMaps is Udaipur-Kishangarh-Jaipur-Gurgaon-Ghaziabad.

Any suggestions on the planned route/alternatives? Since we will be travelling during night, is the route safe enough to be taken (I will be travelling with my wife)? Any suggested pit-stops for Day 2 and Day3.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by unleash_thunder

I am planning a Bengaluru-Ghaziabad drive

a) Day1 (Bengaluru-Mumbai): Planning to start from Bengaluru around ~ 8:30/9 PM on 2nd Nov. The current route under consideration is Bengaluru-Ranebennur-Hubli-Dharwad-Belgaum-Satara

b) Day2 (Navi Mumbai-Udaipur): The plan is to start from Navi Mumbai around 9:30/10 PM on 3rd
c) Day3 (Udaipur-Ghaziabad): Again planning to start by 9/10 PM from Udaipur and reach home in Ghaziabad on 5th Nov.

Any suggestions on the planned route/alternatives? Since we will be travelling during night, is the route safe enough to be taken (I will be travelling with my wife)? Any suggested pit-stops for Day 2 and Day3.

No experience for the Day1, for the next day, you can take Vadodara - Halol- Udaipur route instead of Ahmedabad. There are some threads here with details. Travelling in night in Rajasthan and Gujarat is ok, just that in case of any emergencies, things can get tricky especially with family. So a simple issue like a tyre puncture can be a problem. So if I were you and had enough time, would have planned to travel in the day.

Regarding Gurgaon - Ghaziabad, depending on the time you reach, options can be new Kundli- Manesar highway which will cut before Manesar and can be useful if you reach around office timings, else regular Gurgaon- Delhi highway should be ok. Google maps can be trusted here.

For return, you can consider going back via central India. Ghaziabad - Agra should be breeze via Expressway and onwards to Gwalior and Indore is also 4 lanes barring few patches. Beyond Indore, I don’t have personal experience but understand that it’s 4 lanes mostly. All the best for your trip!

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by unleash_thunder

a) Day1 (Bengaluru-Mumbai): Planning to start from Bengaluru around ~ 8:30/9 PM on 2nd Nov. The current route under consideration is Bengaluru-Ranebennur-Hubli-Dharwad-Belgaum-Satara-Pune-Navi Mumbai; planning to reach by 1 PM and stay in Navi Mumbai.

You should check Parag's posts in the Bangalore-Bombay thread (Bangalore - Pune - Mumbai : Route updates & Eateries), he's driven this with evening starts.

830-900 PM might not be a good time, you should be on MPEW by the time Kolhapur to Pune wakes up, where the 2-wheeler traffic is heavy. Besides I think North KA bound buses will add to the highway traffic. That should put you at a 6-7pm start, yes not an ideal time to start from Bangalore, but should be a peaceful drive once you exit town.

[baahubali]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Drove from Bangalore to Jabalpur and back over the last weekend and specific updates are as below:

Parag the route is still exactly the same as described by you. Looks like the rains haven't affected the roads much. I encountered 3 diversions in total after Adilabad. The newly built stretch can be identified by the new plantation in the dividers. Finally after so many years, almost a decade the road has been made. I started from Bangalore at 4:30am on a Saturday and was able to reach Nagpur ORR by about 7:30pm. That is 15hrs flat with 2 stops for breakfast and lunch + 1 stop for stretching the muscles + 1 stop for coffee. The bridge at Hinganghat is finally in place. No more standing in long queues for the railway fatak.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by baahubali

Parag the route is still exactly the same as described by you. Looks like the rains haven't affected the roads much. .

I went In April and again in September. The latest updated you quote is from my drive from September and I don't recollect rain fury in the last one month in this area. In fact the day we drove itself we faced immense rains 50 kms before Nagpur till Mansar. So yes, the roads should have remained same.

Regarding the progress on Adilabad Hinghanghat section, it is indeed better now. I could notice this change in April itself and trust me the condition in April was better to what I experienced in September.

[anjan_73]

Going to do a road trip in UP between 23 Feb to 9 Mar 2019. Following is the route I am taking

Bangalore - Nagpur - Kanpur - Lucknow - Ayodhya - Prayagraj - Varanasi - Nagpur - Bangalore.

Need inputs on road condition, food options on the way and suggestions on the route if any.

Thanks for the help

[Shashwat B]

I am planning a Bangalore to Nagpur drive towards the end of next month ( Aug 2019). I need your guidance for

1. Would you recommend the trip be done in a single shot or would you recommend staying over at Hyderabad. I prefer to have majority of my driving being done during the day. That said, couple of hours of early morning driving such as leaving at 3am is perfect.

2. I have driven from Bangalore to Manipal continuously without a single break. I don't feel fatigued.

3. For the Trip to nagpur I plan on driving my 2005 Hyundai Elantra. Any particular areas with bad roads that I must worry about ?

Thanks in advance

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by Shashwat B

I am planning a Bangalore to Nagpur drive towards the end of next month ( Aug 2019). I need your guidance for

1. Would you recommend the trip be done in a single shot or would you recommend staying over at Hyderabad. I prefer to have majority of my driving being done during the day. That said, couple of hours of early morning driving such as leaving at 3am is perfect.

If you start at 3am, you can reach Hyderabad by 11am-1PM. So, you have another half a day left to reach Nagpur.

(OR) Start late and do a leisurely drive to Hyderabad. Enjoy the hyderabad food and stay there for the night and then proceed to Nagpur.

Its all about your comfort level.

[T-The Traveler]

I am planning a Bangalore to Delhi drive towards the end of next month (September 2019). Have spent time reading travelogues, blogs and watching videos on you tube.
I would take Bangalore – Belgaum - Kolhapur – Pune – Mumbai – Vadodara – Udaipur – Delhi route and cover this over 4 days.

Would take night halts at Kolhapur, Vapi, Udaipur and Jaipur, depending upon situation would take a call if I need to stop at Jaipur or drive straight from Udaipur to Delhi.

One thing, that I would need help and guidance is, as to which route to take from Vadodara to Udaipur.

There are two routes.
1. V Vadodara - Ahmedabad - Himmatnagar – Udaipur [ 359 Kms in total, highway NE1 and NH48]
2. VVadodara - Halol – Godhra – Lunawada – Samalaji – Udaipur [ 344 Kms in total, Highway GJ SH5 and NH 48 ]

The time difference is only of 20 minutes.


Which route should I choose, during my research I could not find any reason why few choose one over another. While some people drive through Godhra other only drive via Ahmedabad.


Is there any reason to prefer one over another or the only difference is Ahmedabad route being on NH and the one through Godhra uses SH.


Would appreciate if somebody can share any understanding.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by T-The Traveler

I could not find any reason why few choose one over another. While some people drive through Godhra other only drive via Ahmedabad.

Is there any reason to prefer one over another or the only difference is Ahmedabad route being on NH and the one through Godhra uses SH.

• Baroda - Ahmedabad is fast; crossing Ahmedabad takes time even via Sardar Patel Ring Road
  
• Ahmedabad - Himmatnagar is a busy section and slows you down due to thick trafic
  
• The Godhra route is NH but a fantastic 4 lane highway (with speed-breakers)that helps you save time because you don't have to cross Ahmedabad, nor you have to drive to Himmatnagar

The choice is strictly between driving a route that crosses more urban areas than the other.

[T-The Traveler]

Thanks...Parag.
Considering your experience on this route, any thing specific thing or information that you would like me to take care of or keep in mind while doing this trip.

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by T-The Traveler

I am planning a Bangalore to Delhi drive towards the end of next month

I presume you have a specific reason to go via western India given that the route via central India is better. Please correct me if I am wrong.