[Krishnan V G]

Hi, Bangalore to Sagar, as per Google maps, via Hyderabad(by pass) and Nagpur route is about 1476 kms. My view, this is not doable in a day. Yes, GC of 145 mm could be a problem in some stretches.

[nkghai]

Hi Guys,

I plan to drive from Baloda Bazaar in Chattisgarh to Hyderabad during the first week of March.
Route will be Baloda-Raipur-Durg-Rajanandgaon-Nagpur-Hinganghat-Adilabad-Hyderabad, a distance of approx 850 kms.
Last time, i did this was in Dec 2014 in a hired Scorpio and found the Hinganhat-Adilabad stretch in very bad condition. This time the trip will be on my Nanook.
I had read last year that some patch work has been done on this section. Can anyone confirm the condition of this stretch, because i will be travelling during night time.

Thanks in advance.

[Zappo]

I think it is in a much better state than what it was a couple of years back. I travelled only a portion of this stretch this December. This part had lot of potholes earlier but this time around I felt those sudden "thud" moments were far lesser.

Its still not a patch on any half decent highway but most probably it is not an axle breaker as it used to be.

Originally Posted by nkghai

Hi Guys,

I plan to drive from Baloda Bazaar in Chattisgarh to Hyderabad during the first week of March.
Route will be Baloda-Raipur-Durg-Rajanandgaon-Nagpur-Hinganghat-Adilabad-Hyderabad, a distance of approx 850 kms.
Last time, i did this was in Dec 2014 in a hired Scorpio and found the Hinganhat-Adilabad stretch in very bad condition. This time the trip will be on my Nanook.
I had read last year that some patch work has been done on this section. Can anyone confirm the condition of this stretch, because i will be travelling during night time.

Thanks in advance.

[nkghai]

Originally Posted by Zappo

I think it is in a much better state than what it was a couple of years back. I travelled only a portion of this stretch this December. This part had lot of potholes earlier but this time around I felt those sudden "thud" moments were far lesser.

Its still not a patch on any half decent highway but most probably it is not an axle breaker as it used to be.

Thanks.
So that means one can safely take a time of approx 7-8 hrs drive from Nagpur bypass to Secunderabad and since i stay on Dairy Farm Road in Trimulgherry, one can hit it from outskirts only while coming from Medhcal highway.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by nkghai

Thanks.
So that means one can safely take a time of approx 7-8 hrs drive from Nagpur bypass to Secunderabad and since i stay on Dairy Farm Road in Trimulgherry, one can hit it from outskirts only while coming from Medhcal highway.

Absolutely. In reality it takes far lesser than that time. However, if you can budget that kind of time you will be pretty sure that you will travel comfortably on this stretch.

[sudipta]

All,

Update on the road from Hyd to GGN. The road is silk smooth till Jhansi with the exception of after Adilabad to Hinganghat. From Jhansi onwards to Gowalior is not in good shape. Post Gowalor road is again smooth to Agra and than to YEW. The internal road thru Sohna is not worth at all. Will start back on 17 from GGN to Hyd and will take the YEW end to end to Agra and then onwards. As I drive in the night, no city traffic to worry.

Off topic:- from GGN to Srinagar, road is great till Udhampur past Jammu. Rest all is hilly and beautiful to look at but not great roads.

[Drivethru]

Originally Posted by sudipta

All,

Update on the road from Hyd to GGN. The road is silk smooth till Jhansi with the exception of after Adilabad to Hinganghat. From Jhansi onwards to Gowalior is not in good shape. Post Gwalior road is again smooth to Agra and than to YEW. The internal road thru Sohna is not worth at all.

Thanks for the crisp update. Can you mark the exact route on google maps or just mention the route you took. How bad is the adilabad - hinganghat stretch. Can you go in a sedan or is it purely meant for SUVs!!

Have a safe trip.

Originally Posted by Drivethru

How bad is the adilabad - hinganghat stretch.

Adilabad-Hinganghat was easily drivable as on October 2015. See here for more details and photographs.

Can you go in a sedan or is it purely meant for SUVs!

Any sedan or hatchback can easily go on that stretch. It is no more a dreaded section.

[sudipta]

Completely agree with Ravi, it is mutch better compared to Nov 2015 but you will still feel the difference as the road earlier and later will spoil you. Any car can do it, no worries.

[Ani0404]

Hello fellow Bhpians. I am planning for a J&K trip in the month of July in a Tata Safari Dicor 2.2. Just collecting information about the road conditions from Hyderabad to Panipat. I laid out a draft itinerary in which I am planning to start early from Hyderabad.

Day 01: Hyd to Sagar via Nagpur (883 KM)

Day 02: Sagar to Panipat via Gwalior, Agra and Delhi (743 KM)

Well I will be having company but I will be the lone driver for the entire trip.
So is this doable or am I being too ambitious? Any further suggestions regarding few diversions which should be taken for better roads would be really helpful.

Thankyou.

[Krishnan V G]

Hi, this is definitely doable. We have driven Gurgaon to Hyderabad and back at least thrice in the last one year. Need to start early. We have always started by about 4.30/5 am. Couple of points: there may be a route to reach Panipat without getting into Delhi. Please check this. Or may be someone from our group can let you know. If no other option, once you enter Delhi, from Ashram junction, you can take outer ring road, pass through ISBT, Kashmere Gate, Mukarba Chowk, Kundli, Sonepat to reach Panipat. We may not know about the status of odd even scheme in July. Prepare your plans accordingly.
Stay in Hotel Deepali Residency in Sagar. Very close to the highway, also neat and clean.
Hope this helps.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by Ani0404

Hello fellow Bhpians. I am planning for a J&K trip in the month of July in a Tata Safari Dicor 2.2. Just collecting information about the road conditions from Hyderabad to Panipat. I laid out a draft itinerary in which I am planning to start early from Hyderabad.

Day 01: Hyd to Sagar via Nagpur (883 KM)

Day 02: Sagar to Panipat via Gwalior, Agra and Delhi (743 KM)

Well I will be having company but I will be the lone driver for the entire trip.
So is this doable or am I being too ambitious? Any further suggestions regarding few diversions which should be taken for better roads would be really helpful.

Thankyou.

As Krishnan has advised already,HYD-Sagar is doable provided you leave Hyderabad really early and bear in mind,in July you might have to encounter rains,so have a plan B to either stay at Chhindwara (Hotel Dev International) or at Pench or Seoni if you are going to be taking the Lakhnadon route via NH7.Between Nagpur and Sagar there are hardly any other places to stay.Deepali Residency is your best bet at Sagar http://www.hoteldeepali.com/.

The best way to reach Panipat coming from Agra would be to drive via Delhi.My suggestion would be to stay in Delhi on day2 and drive onwards next day.You wouldnt really be gaining anything by driving all the way to Panipat on day 1-you would be so tired negotiating Delhi and nH1 evening peak traffic.A morning drive would leave you fresher and it would be a quick exit from Delhi.

[Ani0404]

Originally Posted by Krishnan V G

Hi, this is definitely doable. We have driven Gurgaon to Hyderabad and back at least thrice in the last one year. Need to start early. We have always started by about 4.30/5 am. Couple of points: there may be a route to reach Panipat without getting into Delhi. Please check this. Or may be someone from our group can let you know. If no other option, once you enter Delhi, from Ashram junction, you can take outer ring road, pass through ISBT, Kashmere Gate, Mukarba Chowk, Kundli, Sonepat to reach Panipat. We may not know about the status of odd even scheme in July. Prepare your plans accordingly.
Stay in Hotel Deepali Residency in Sagar. Very close to the highway, also neat and clean.
Hope this helps.

That is great to know. Yes I am planning to start early from Hyderabad and my place is very close to the Nagpur highway and I can reach highway in 05 minutes. So I wouldn't be wasting time there. Yes as u said, there is a road without getting into Delhi. I checked the map and the Yamuna Expressway from Agra passes through Noida and Greater Noida - Bahalgarh - Murthal which then meets the Grand Trunk Road leading to Panipat. I am not sure if you are referring to this road.

I have a doubt. Does the odd-even scheme is applicable to vehicles of other states too? Even vehicles which are passing by Delhi for further destinations? I didn't know this.

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

As Krishnan has advised already,HYD-Sagar is doable provided you leave Hyderabad really early and bear in mind,in July you might have to encounter rains,so have a plan B to either stay at Chhindwara (Hotel Dev International) or at Pench or Seoni if you are going to be taking the Lakhnadon route via NH7.Between Nagpur and Sagar there are hardly any other places to stay. Deepali Residency is your best bet at Sagar http://www.hoteldeepali.com/.

The best way to reach Panipat coming from Agra would be to drive via Delhi.My suggestion would be to stay in Delhi on day2 and drive onwards next day.You wouldnt really be gaining anything by driving all the way to Panipat on day 1-you would be so tired negotiating Delhi and nH1 evening peak traffic.A morning drive would leave you fresher and it would be a quick exit from Delhi.

Yes as you have mentioned, July is a rainy season and the plan will be very dicey. Keeping the plan open and flexible has one hiccup. The hotel bookings in Srinagar, Kargil and further places. So I am thinking how to go about that issue. Leaving that aside, I will keep a list of good hotels all along the way so that I wouldn't be wasting time searching around for hotels. I would surely consider Hotel Deepali as advised by Krishnan V G and you.

But i am aspiring to reach Patnitop by the end of third day from Panipat. Its coming to 571 Km and Google Maps is showing a time of 10.5 hours. So i am expecting if the distance can be done in atleast 14-15 hours. Due to this I was considering Panipat. But as you mentioned the NH1 peak traffic, I will consider staying. Or else I will consider staying in Delhi and the third day I will reach Jammu bypass.
Well, the itinerary is still in the making and I am just considering various options.

[bordeaux]

We did Hyderabad - Yamuna Nagar - Jalandhar and reverse in Feb, 2016. We took the regular North-South corridor with some exceptions at places. Roads have come a long way since October 2014 when we did this last time.

Hyderabad - Adilabad is typical NH-7/NH-44 perfection. The real bad section between MH/TS border and Hinganghat has also come a long way.

For reference, this was the state in October 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YP7mDiyWYM

As of Feb, 2016, the two lanes have been repaired throughout. The entire stretch is divided in three sections of 25 KMs, 30 KMs, 25 KMs. The middle 30 KMs is four laned and is of acceptable quality. The other two stretches are now two lanes with tarmac. They are no longer dirt roads and there are no potholes but there are a lot of diversions with hardly any signage. You can still maintain 60-80 KMPH but try to be in control as diversions at many places are sudden and there are chances that you may fly off into a ditch if you are not careful.

Earlier this stretch used to take up to 3 hours but can be done in 1 - 1.5 hours easily. Also, there are no signs of any progress towards four laning. So, we may not have all the lanes in this section for a foreseeable future.

The work for ROB in Hinganghat was on war footage. If it's not operational already, it may become operational in a few months.

Hinganghat - Nagpur is again regular NH-7/NH-44 with superior quality tarmac all the way.

On our way North, we took NH-547/NH-26B Nagpur-Savner-Chhindwara-Narsinghpur. It's a perfectly laid 2 lane road with paved shoulders. Traffic is sparse and there are some ghat sections. I can't even start to imagine the beauty of this road in rainy season. It took us 4 hours to complete this stretch. Chhindwara ring road is something from which other mega cities should probably learn a lesson or two.


Somewhere on NH-547/NH-26B. They have built these view points all along the Chhindwara-Narsinghpur section so that you can enjoy beautiful forest views.

On our way South, we took Narsinghpur-Lakhnadon-Seoni-Mansar-Nagpur. Narsinghpur-Seoni is again perfect four lane road with a few exception of 2-3 KMs in ghat sections. Seoni-Mansar is still two lanes with potholes at places. MH/MP border - Mansar section of NH-7 is almost a war-zone now. Four laning work is in full swing. Forest has been cleared on the entire stretch and you can see heavy machinery all along. IMO, it's no longer a good idea to take this road if you are doing Nagpur-Narsinghpur. The two lanes no longer have the earthen shoulders as it has been dug up for four lane work. But good news is that one more hurdle is getting removed from the otherwise perfect NH-7/NH-44. Once complete, this will considerably reduce travel time.

Narsinghpur-Jhansi is perfect four lane all the way with sparse traffic. But beware of cows everywhere. Parts of this stretch were under development when we used this road back in 2014.

Jhansi-Gwalior section (NH-75) is in the same pathetic condition. Only two lanes available and those two are also plagued with crater size potholes and speed breakers which will scrape your heart as your beautiful sedan moves over them. There is significant traffic all the way. Good thing is that it's not as bad as MH/TS border - Hinganghat section in 2014. There is no sign of any work in progress all along the way, so don't expect this to improve in near future. To cover this 80 KMs stretch, it took us 2+ hours and a tyre puncture.

On our way down, we did this between 8:30AM-10:00AM. Traffic is less in early morning hours.

Gwalior-Agra is again four lane where tarmac quality improves as your move north. Chambal bridge is still a work in progress and older one is only two lanes with sky high speed breakers on both side to make you cry.

On our way North, we took NH-3 - NH-11 bypass - Agra ORR - Gokul Barrage - Yamuna Expressway. My suggestion will be to not use this after 8:00AM. Agra ORR is two lane all the way with too many speed breakers. NH-2 has work in progress with diversions. And it's again a two lane road all the way to Yamuna Expressway. Traffic is really dense here in day time and roads are more like 1.75 lanes wide.



On our way South, we traveled through Agra around 4PM and it was still better than taking the Agra ORR.



Agra-Karnal is usual story. No way to bypass Delhi. You'll get stuck in traffic on Hedgewar Marg no matter what you do. All flyovers till Karnal has been completed but now there are huge traffic jams on the toll plazas. So, from travel time point of view, it's the same story. Only one flyover in Karnal was incomplete.

Patiala - Jalandhar section of NH-1 is much better now but Ludhiana bypass is still a dream.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by bordeaux

Jhansi-Gwalior section (NH-75) is in the same pathetic condition. Only two lanes available and those two are also plagued with crater size potholes and speed breakers which will scrape your heart as your beautiful sedan moves over them. There is significant traffic all the way. Good thing is that it's not as bad as MH/TS border - Hinganghat section in 2014. There is no sign of any work in progress all along the way, so don't expect this to improve in near future. To cover this 80 KMs stretch, it took us 2+ hours and a tyre puncture.

- Great update on this sector. Especially Narsighpur-Jhansi.
- Really sad to know that nothing is being done on the Jhansi-Agra sector.
- Agra bypass has remained a question mark. Now with the arrival of the expressway its even a bigger problem.
- The express way ends near the Agra-Aligharh road / Rambagh area of Agra.
- And from that side of the entry there is absolutely bypass to the south of the city; beyond Sadar area.
- The other problem being traffic has increased many fold on the GT road through the city as well.
- It would good if the authorities can work on Agra bypass options