We are planning to leave Hyderabad on 1st October at 2 PM for Delhi. We plan to do the stretch non-stop which requires us to drive during night time as well.
While there are many route options provided in this thread, I wanted to know which is the safest for night drive as well (We do not want to drive through secluded areas during night drives)
We are Ok with traveling extra Kms provided the route has decent amount of traffic and is in decent shape and is safe to drive even during night times.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

I would suggest you to start at 1.00 a.m or 2.a.m. If you start at 2.00 p.m, it would be dark by the time you reach one of the most dangerous stretches, Nagpur > Lakhnadon > Sagar > Jhansi. May be others might give you a better suggestion than mine.

I drove from Chennai to Delhi via Hyderabad>Nagpur>Seoni>Lakhnadon>Sagar>Jhansi>Gwal ior>Agra>YE during 5-7 Sep 2014 with a night halt at Hotel Deepali, Sagar, MP on the night of 6 Sep 2014.



Here are my observations:

1. Since I crossed Hyderabad in small hours of the day, I took IRR via Secunderabad as there was no ORR connecting NH 2 and NH 7 in anti-clockwise direction.

2. Horrible sections after entering MH upto Hinganghat continued even after years. No works were in progress. One has to undergo this torture in N-S corridor.

3. Excellent bypasses for Nagpur, Seoni, Lakhnadon, Narsimhpur, Sagar, Lalitpur, Jhansi and Gwalior.

4. Sadly, no bypasses for Morena, Dholpur and Agra. Similarly, between Lakhnadon and Sagar, I drove through Kareli as a bridge on the bypass was not yet opened for traffic.

5.. From Jhansi to Gwalior, alternate carriageway of 2-lanes was opened for traffic with good diversions.

6. I drove through a congested narrow sabzi mandi and Agra Fort railway stations as guided by MMI navigator.

7. Yamuna Expressway remained excellent as ever before.

Here are the toll paid and timing details:



Yes, this route is safe. But for the bad roads immediately after entering MH upto Hinganghat, the remaining roads are all very good. Please note that road-side amenities are very few on this route. We had food at MP Tourism Bison Retreat - located on RHS while driving from Nagpur towards Seoni after Pench WLS - on the ghat after Nagpur and at dhabas, which were very good.

Bon voyage.

J.Ravi, the stretch from Telangana-MH border to Hinghanghat is about 100 km , is the entire stretch bad ?

Doable in a low-slung hatch like the Punto with careful driving ?

That horrible section has some no-road [~10 km], badly cratered road [~30 km] and the balance, average manageable road. The distance indicated are perceived ones and not actually measured. We were all too shocked and shaken to click photographs on this horrible stretch. We heaved a sigh of relief only after crossing a manual railway level-crossing at Hinganghat. The road overbridge was still under construction.

I did the same stretch, which was slightly better then, in my erstwhile Linea in Sep 2011. But, be prepared for some bottom-scraping.

The really bad section is for about 35 km. These sections are such that you have to drive real slow. For a car with low ground clearance you will have to be patient to find options such that you dont scrape the bottom (but I dont think you would be able to escape doing that). But once you are able to go through this pain the remaining route is pretty good.

I would recommend that you do this stretch during day.

Here are some stats from my trip to Pench last weekend.





The times and distances are approx, though we did make an effort to capture them as accurately as we could. You can compare the return journey data to get a good sense of how things are placed.

I would recommend that you take the Nagpur Ring Road instead of going through the city.

I heard the Gwalior to Jhansi stretch is doable now and that the detour from Shivpuri is not worth it. Can someone confirm that?

Hi Guys, I am planning to do a Delhi-Hyd on my Harley (SL) next week. I am planning to do it alone and within 4 days. Following is the route that I have in mind:

Day 1: Gurgaon - Noida - Agra - Gwalior
Day 2: Gwalior - Sagar
Day 3: Sagar - Nagpur
Day 4: Nagpur - Adilabad - Hyderabad

Its been a really tong time since i rode that much and that is the reason I am planning to do it in 4 days. Otherwise based on day 1 experience I might plan to skip Sagar altogether and go for the ultimate Gwalior - Nagpur stretch in a day.

Would like to hear any suggestions, route info or any other piece of advise for the trip.

Did you complete the planned trip ? Please let me know how it worked out.

Ya bro! The trip was awesome, just not getting the time to write the detailed writeup. I'm planning to write it soon in my black scorpion thread.

Thanks for the quick reply. Waiting to read your post - I am planning the same route and want to know the good roads to take and the bad ones to avoid

God Bless

Hi, we are driving from Agra to Bhopal tomorrow and then on Friday from Bhopal to Hyderabad. Any particular route suggestions on the routes on both these plans?

I do not know how it is now but 2 years back when I travelled to Himachal from Hyderabad the Bhopal route was specifically the one to avoid. So I took the Nagpur, Narsingpur, Seoni, Agra route. That was comparatively better than the Bhopal-Nagpur route.

Check this option out, unless of course you specifically wish to touch Bhopal.

Hi,

After reading the previous posts, I hope the NS Corridor is in good shape upto Seoni. I plan to travel from Delhi to Gondia (MH). I will be the solo person cum driver in my Safari.

I am planing to take the Delhi --> Mathura (via YE) --> Agra (Byepass) --> Gwalior --> Jhansi --> Sagar --> Narsinghpur --> Seoni --> Balaghat --> Gondia.

As mentioned by J. Ravi, there are byepasses ready for Gwalior, Jhansi, Sagar, Narsinghpur and Seoni.

Now please advise me with the following:


1. Road conditions from Gwalior till Seoni are good to drive except for diversions?
2. What are the current road conditions between Seoni - Balaghat - Gondia?
3. Decent places to stay at Sagar, Narsinghpur and Seoni as I plan to start by 7 AM from Delhi and will break my journey at either Narsinghpur or Seoni depending upon the timings.
4. Security issues on this whole route (Delhi to Gondia) for a single person inside a vehicle ofcourse not after 8 PM.


Cheers!
Irish

How do you propose to bypass Agra, while driving from Mathura on NH 2? I may consider that option for my next trip to the North.

Hotel Deepali, near the Sagar bypass. We stayed there during our last trip to HP.