[jigar1791@gmail]

Originally Posted by Satkaj

Planning to leave 14th Morning 5am to Mahableshwar. It’s been ages since I drove on old NH 66 due to road works.

My question is, should I continue via Panvel/ Pen or I should get off expressway from Imagica and join NH 66 near Mangaon. My preference is to take old highway all along.

I haven’t tried the NH-66 route to Mahabaleshwar. Our usual route is Mumbai - Pune - Satara - Wai - Mahabaleshwar.

The roads are good all throughout, including the ghat section from Wai. The only possible congestion could be the Khambhatki Ghat (in between Pune -Satara).

Please bear in mind that the 14th - 16th is a long weekend, there could be huge traffic on the MPEW.

Otherwise, if I were you, I’d stick to the usual Satara route and avoid uncertain construction updates on NH-66 side.

Happy journey

[Satkaj]

@ Jigar, thanks for your reply. We visit Mahableshwar at least once a year past 30 years. I am tempted to use old highway since have been reading a lot about it’s improved conditions. Also expect heavy traffic on expressway , especially at Lonavala ghat section early in the morning. Thought of beating this by using NH66 as well to re live wonderful ghat section of Poladpur. It’s been almost 12+ years since I have used this route. Any negative about NH66 will certainly bring us back on Wai route. BTW, call us crazy but we are going to Mahableshwar just for few hours and will come back to Pune via Wai for a long weekend. Have done many 1 day trip to Mahableshwar just to eat Corn Patties and strawberry cream. Opps, getting Nostalgic!

[nick.cs]

Avoid the starting section of War Surur road for a couple of months. The entire stretch is under construction and new road is being laid. So there is at best only 1 lane and in lot of places 1/4th lane for 2 way traffic. The rest is just work ongoing with heavy construction trucks moving slowly, dusty everywhere and very uneven roads around and will lead to delays.

So instead of taking the right at Surur (when you're coming from Mumbai) and continue on the highway and then take the next right and take the Wai - Wathar road. adds 10 kms but that road is good to drive on. Same while coming back. Google maps will show Wai Surur both ways while travelling and it makes no sense at all to take that route. Have highlighted the road to avoid in red below and the one to take the alternate route in green.

The right at Surur is technically closed but the gates are not correctly blocked so people do end up taking the right and that makes the Wai Surur have 2 way traffic when at max it should be 1 way worst case. Plus the local people use this road as being the shortest route.



Notice the yellow and red traffic across the Wai Surur due to ongoing works.