[siddheshb]

Guys, I am planning a trip this weekend from Pune to Bhandardara... was hoping to go through Malshej, rather than Sangamner. Is that a good idea? I will be an Endy, so road condition isn't that much of a concern

[the VTEC guy]

I travelled to Bhandardara from Pune for a 3 days trip from 10th Sep to 12th Sep.
The route I took is as follows -
Pune - Chakan - Rajgurunagar => This route is 4 laned part of Pune Nashik road and only bit of high speed portion of the route.
Rajgurunagar - Narayangaon - Ale Phata => This route is 2 laned and lined with many villages on the route. So don't expect much speedy progress on this part. At Ale Phata turn left towards Otur.
Ale Phata - Otur - Brahmanwada => Initially I was skeptical about this route as there was no intel on quality of road. Instead the Otur Brahmanwada route turned out to be most picturesque and beautiful road. Road is well tarred for most part. its not wide enough so occasionally if a state transport bus comes from other direction just have to negotiate the road carefully. And this is the ghat section. Monsoon will be best time on this route.
Brahmanwada - Kotul - Rajur => again beautiful picturesque route. wide enough for uninterrupted two way traffic flow.
Turn left at Ratangad - Rajur road => You will find a large sign talking about "Anandvan Resort" on the left thats where you turn left and the road will take you to Bhandardara.
I stayed at Yash Resort. I could locate only 4 hotels (MTDC, Anandvan, Yash Resort and another one that said lodging and bar)

[wanderlustindia]

Originally Posted by the VTEC guy

I travelled to Bhandardara from Pune for a 3 days trip from 10th Sep to 12th Sep.
The route I took is as follows -
Pune - Chakan - Rajgurunagar => This route is 4 laned part of Pune Nashik road and only bit of high speed portion of the route.
Rajgurunagar - Narayangaon - Ale Phata => This route is 2 laned and lined with many villages on the route. So don't expect much speedy progress on this part. At Ale Phata turn left towards Otur.
Ale Phata - Otur - Brahmanwada => Initially I was skeptical about this route as there was no intel on quality of road. Instead the Otur Brahmanwada route turned out to be most picturesque and beautiful road. Road is well tarred for most part. its not wide enough so occasionally if a state transport bus comes from other direction just have to negotiate the road carefully. And this is the ghat section. Monsoon will be best time on this route.
Brahmanwada - Kotul - Rajur => again beautiful picturesque route. wide enough for uninterrupted two way traffic flow.
Turn left at Ratangad - Rajur road => You will find a large sign talking about "Anandvan Resort" on the left thats where you turn left and the road will take you to Bhandardara.
I stayed at Yash Resort. I could locate only 4 hotels (MTDC, Anandvan, Yash Resort and another one that said lodging and bar)

This will come in very handy for my ride this weekend from Pune to Bhandardara. Because this post just 2 odd months odd, I assume the road condition as you've described may not have changed much. The rains though might have played some spoilsport. Nonetheless, I'm taking this route. I'll post my ride experience and the route details when I am back on Monday.

Cheers.
-wanderlustindia

[Gautam Dhaliwal]

Originally Posted by the VTEC guy

I travelled to Bhandardara from Pune for a 3 days trip from 10th Sep to 12th Sep.
The route I took is as follows -
Pune - Chakan - Rajgurunagar => This route is 4 laned part of Pune Nashik road and only bit of high speed portion of the route.
Rajgurunagar - Narayangaon - Ale Phata => This route is 2 laned and lined with many villages on the route. So don't expect much speedy progress on this part. At Ale Phata turn left towards Otur.
Ale Phata - Otur - Brahmanwada => Initially I was skeptical about this route as there was no intel on quality of road. Instead the Otur Brahmanwada route turned out to be most picturesque and beautiful road. Road is well tarred for most part. its not wide enough so occasionally if a state transport bus comes from other direction just have to negotiate the road carefully. And this is the ghat section. Monsoon will be best time on this route.
Brahmanwada - Kotul - Rajur => again beautiful picturesque route. wide enough for uninterrupted two way traffic flow.
Turn left at Ratangad - Rajur road => You will find a large sign talking about "Anandvan Resort" on the left thats where you turn left and the road will take you to Bhandardara.
I stayed at Yash Resort. I could locate only 4 hotels (MTDC, Anandvan, Yash Resort and another one that said lodging and bar)

Took this route from Pune to Bhandardara this weekend, had to pick up my gf from pune. So mumbai to Pune on the expressway.
Getting out of Pune is a pain, NH 50 feels more like a city road, the entire 4 lane stretch to Rajgurunagar from Pune is full of locals with autos, people taking u-turns, progress is painful if not slow.
Road to ale phata is two laned and reasonable progress can be made on it.
But, turn left from ale phata and the whole journey is transformed! empty roads, beautiful vistas - the description in the above post holds true and road quality is quite decent...
However, near bhandardara approaching anandvan the road has really taken a beating. This is a few kms and can be tolerated, but with care.

We came back to mumbai via ghoti and then NH-3. The road from anandvan to Ghoti is in quite bad shape for a few kms again. Post that, it really improves and it has been widened/is being widened. Overall, decent road till you get down to what is labelled as Nagpur-Aurangabad-Mumbai highway on google maps, there are a few big potholes on this road, so one has to be careful, esp. at night.

[santoshr]

Latest update :

Pune - Chakan - Rajgurunagar => As reported, is four lane all the way but has dense traffic. Almost like driving in the city.

Rajgurunagar - Narayangaon - Ale Phata => Having passed rajgurunagar continue on the same road towards Nashik. AlePhata has more than enough signage and cannot be missed. This stretch is around 30-40 kms, approx. Turn left at Ale Phata, Otur should be around 11 kms from here.

Ale Phata - Otur - Brahmanwada => At Otur, take the sharp right and pass by the Otur Bus stand. This is the road to Brahmanwada. Otur - Bhrahmanwada is around 15 kms.

Brahmanwada - Kotul - Rajur => At Kotul, you will need to go into the village to come out on the other side. At you enter Kotul, you will hit an Inverted Y-fork, keep on the right. Keep following the road to come out on the other side. On the other side, you will hit a fork again, take the right. As soon as you cross the fork there is signage for Rajur - Bhandhardhara. Bharadara is around 32 kms from here.

At Rajur, keep left to take the bypass. No need to go into Rajur village, there is signage for Bhandardhara.

Roads through out are pretty decent, almost the entire stretch has tarmac. The road from Otur - Bhandardhara is narrow, so you will need to very careful while overtaking or when giving room to oncoming vehicles. And yes, the oncoming vehicles are almost non-existent every once in a while I would see a fully loaded Trax or a bolero pass by.

From Pune it took me almost 4 hours, with only one stop for diesel after passing Chakan.
If you wish to refeul, then please do so before AlePhata. Once you are in Otur, there is pretty much nothing. And yes the phones work almost all the way.

-Santosh

[thewhiteknight]

We are planning a camping trip to Bhandardara around this weekend. Havent quite made up our minds if its should be Hampi in a hotel or a drive down to Bhandardara and live in a tent. I wanted to reach out for information about the route from Pune to Bhandardara.

Any advice on the current condition of the roads, best route to take in this season, etc. Thanks.

[parambyte]

The road from Pune to Alephata (NH50) at least, has dense traffic and is a very very annoying drive. Chakan is terrible terrible. The entire stretch has large slow moving trucks and the average speed drops to some 40 kmph.

Does anyone know of an alternative? A less industrial road?

[santoshr]

Originally Posted by parambyte

The road from Pune to Alephata (NH50) at least, has dense traffic and is a very very annoying drive. Chakan is terrible terrible. The entire stretch has large slow moving trucks and the average speed drops to some 40 kmph.

Does anyone know of an alternative? A less industrial road?

Checking up. Did u find an alternate route.

[parambyte]

No. Not yet. Looking for one though...

[vrprabhu]

There is no alternate route from Pune to Ale Phata - unless you want to drive about 40 to 50 Kms more.

In which case, you can go : Pune - Shirur - Ale Phata.

Pune - Shirur on Nagar Road will be equally busy. Shirur - Ale Phata is two laned, but traffic will be less (there will be ST buses, most bound for Kalyan/Mumbai).

Pune - Nasik Phata - Bhosari - Chakan can be avoided, if you go (a) through Alandi via Yerwada to Chakan or (b) to Talegaon Dabhade and take the by-pass to Chakan. Probably which end of Pune you stay will help you decide, should you decide to take this route.

[mayuresh]

Any recent takers to Pune - Bhandardara route?

Which of these is good. I'm driving in a Safari. Ok with a bit of rough patches, but would avoid if there long stretches of bad roads.

Which of these is good:

1. Pune - Sangamner - Akole - Rajur - Bhandardara (202 km, 144km highway)

2. Pune - Bota - Brahmanwada - Rajur - Bhandardara (172km, 101km highway)

3. Pune - Alephata - Otur - Bramhanwada - Rajur - Bhandardara (174km, 91km highway)

4. Pune - Narayangao - Ozar - Otur Bramhanwada - Rajur - Bhandardara (163km, 76km highway)