[nilpat]

Originally Posted by nilpat

I will be travelling to Dhule using below route on 29th Oct. I will update on road condition the day after

Pune > A'nagar > Shirdi > Manmad > Malegaon > Dhule.

Guys here is an update of the journey. Overall it was good with the exception of A'nagar bypassway it is horrible. Somebody told me its not in good shape and asked me to take city route but I still went ahead... It took me around 45 minutes to cover bypass stretch at average speed of 10 km/h

Road from Pune to Malegaon is okeyish...rest of the road from Malegaon is buttery smooth

Came back to Pune via Nasik route. Road is 4 lane and in good shape but be ready to pay road tax
From Nasik to Pune you will need lot of patience due to ongoing road work and traffic. It took me 6 hours to cover that stretch including 1 hour lunch break.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by amitwlele

No Biju was not able to do this trip.

Amit, sorry to hear that you could not do the trip. Even I had to cancel my trip at the last moment since my son fell ill the previous night. I was exploring the possibility of taking Rahuri-Shrirampur-Kopargaon to bypass the bad sections before Shirdi and Shirdi itself. May be will try that during my next Indore trip.

[anupneelay]

Originally Posted by nilpat

Guys here is an update of the journey. Overall it was good with the exception of A'nagar bypassway it is horrible. Somebody told me its not in good shape and asked me to take city route but I still went ahead... It took me around 45 minutes to cover bypass stretch at average speed of 10 km/h

Road from Pune to Malegaon is okeyish...rest of the road from Malegaon is buttery smooth

Came back to Pune via Nasik route. Road is 4 lane and in good shape but be ready to pay road tax
From Nasik to Pune you will need lot of patience due to ongoing road work and traffic. It took me 6 hours to cover that stretch including 1 hour lunch break.

hi Nilpat, how long did it take you for the complete journey from Pune to Indore? I plan to do it in the first week of December, hence, contemplating on if I should take a bus or go by my car. As per your post it seems the route is quite drivable and there's not much of an issue on that front.

[anandpadhye]

I have to drive from Pune to Indore this week. Will Pune Aurangabad Burhanpur route be better? Any other suggestion?

[Musaafir]

Originally Posted by anupneelay

hi Nilpat, how long did it take you for the complete journey from Pune to Indore? I plan to do it in the first week of December, hence, contemplating on if I should take a bus or go by my car. As per your post it seems the route is quite drivable and there's not much of an issue on that front.

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

I have to drive from Pune to Indore this week. Will Pune Aurangabad Burhanpur route be better? Any other suggestion?

anupneelay, anandpadhye,

Did you travel to Indore? Which route did you take, and how long did it take? How is the road condition currently?

Thank you in advance.

[anandpadhye]

Yes I did.
Onward, I took Pune - Nashik - Dhule - Indore. Started at 6:15AM, crossed Nashik @10:15AM (including 30 min breakfast break before Sangamner), reached Indore @5PM (including another 45 min lunch break after Dhule).

Return leg, Indore - Dhule - Nashik - Pune. Started at 7:30AM, reached home @6:30PM.

Nashik - Indore is good road (4 lanes with a divider) except for speed breakers at intersections! Nashik - Sinnar is slow due to Nashik city traffic + single lane undivided road + trucks + road expansion work in progress. Sinnar - Sangamner was better, in fact much of the road widening is done and progress is brisk. Further on to Pune is mixed - some sections are wide and newly tarred, some are still old single lane, Ale Phata has no bypass so you have to crawl through the urban traffic there. Once you approach Pune, Chakan and Bhosri are 2 bottlenecks as the main intersections there have no flyover, not even in planning as I saw, so long queues at the chowks from all 4 directions, managed by traffic Police. Also, once we crossed Nashik phata (JRD Tata) flyover and approached Wakad, faced quite a thick traffic before Wakad.

Overall, it's not a bad route (at least not as bad as it was in March this year when I drove last time), but the "time of day" matters as fas as the bottle necks are concerned. if you leave or approach Pune in evenings, you may get stuck in Bhosari, Chakan. Early mornings, you will have a high chance of slipping through.

Surface quality is not an issue throughout the route. No major potholes anywhere. There are 2 small ghats just before Indore (not really ghats if you have been to kokan or anywhere in the Sahyadris, just 2 hills that the road goes over), but the slope is a little too much for the heavy vehicles so they have added speed breakers which i think cause more accidents than they avoid and if a truck gets stuck, like it was when I drove, you get stuck in a huge queue and have to clutch frequently on the inclines to keep moving at snail pace avoiding roll back (if you are driving MT).

Hope this helps.
Cheers!

[Musaafir]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Yes I did.
Onward, I took Pune - Nashik - Dhule - Indore. Started at 6:15AM, crossed Nashik @10:15AM (including 30 min breakfast break before Sangamner), reached Indore @5PM (including another 45 min lunch break after Dhule).

Return leg, Indore - Dhule - Nashik - Pune. Started at 7:30AM, reached home @6:30PM.

Hope this helps.
Cheers!

Thank you anandpadhye for detailed route information. I am planning an Indore trip next week. I have done Pune-Nashik recently so I know the road condition. I was therefore contemplating if Pune-Nagar-Malegaon was a better option. However seems the route via Nashik is still better. Thank you once again.

[mm403]

Originally Posted by Musaafir

Thank you anandpadhye for detailed route information. I am planning an Indore trip next week. I have done Pune-Nashik recently so I know the road condition. I was therefore contemplating if Pune-Nagar-Malegaon was a better option. However seems the route via Nashik is still better. Thank you once again.

I am also planning a trip to Indore next week. Have travelled earlier via Nagar Manmad

[quote=anandpadhye;4106504] If asked to compare between two is road via Nashik better now

[anupneelay]

Just returned from the Pune - Indore - Pune trip.

I took the Nagar - Shirdi - Manmad - Malegaon - Dhule route. Overall, one side distance is around 600 kms (I started from Kharadi).

Starting from Pune, the road till Shirdi is good, all 4 lane, so maintaining a speed of 80-90 kmph shouldn't be difficult at all. The road from Shirdi to Malegaon by-pass is of 2 lanes, so overtaking the slow and heavy trucks becomes difficult, specially if the traffic on the other side of the road is above average. Also, the road condition is not that great. The average speed that I achieved on this part was around 40-60 kmph. From Malegaon to right till Indore you will find butter smooth, 4 lane road or the National Highway (which results in quite a few toll booths as well), so an average speed of 90-110 kmph should be easy.

It took us a total of 12 hrs to complete the journey, one-way (including 20 mins break for breakfast, 15 mins each for tea/ snacks and refueling, 45 mins for lunch).

Just a note of caution - under any circumstance, do avoid the Nagar by-pass road and instead go through the city. It will definitely save some of your precious time and most importantly the energy and effort that will be needed to maneuver the car around the big craters/ pot-holes and at times no road at all.

[Musaafir]

I did Pune - Maheshwar - Indore - Pune trip between 11th and 14th December.

Pune - Nagar - Shirdi - Manmad - Malegaon - Dhule - Maheshwar took about 9 hours. I did not take Nagar by-pass, and went thru the town. Roads are generally good in this route.

Indore - Dhule - Nashik - Pune took about 11 hours, including the extra time due to thick traffic from Bhosari to home. Nashik to Sinnar, and then Bhosari onwards is a pain to drive due to heavy traffic.

[scwagh]

Hello All,

I am planning to go to Ujjain from Pune on the upcoming long weekend and would request your feedback on the route. Me and my wife would be travelling in our Ford Figo TDCI and only I would be driving throughout the journey.

For the onward leg, we are planning to do a break journey. Drive till Dhule, stay overnight and proceed to Ujjain early morning. We are planning to leave from Kothrud by 330 PM on Friday and take the Nashik highway up to Nandur Shingote, from there we will take the road towards Lasalgaon, Chandwad, Malegaon and reach Dhule for a night stay. Google maps is showing that it would take around 7 hours to reach Dhule, given this we should reach our hotel by 1030-11 PM. Next morning, we plan to start by 530 AM and take the Agra Bombay highway till Indore and then proceed to Ujjain, as per google maps this journey should take between 5 to 530 hours.

On our way back, we plan to take the regular route via Shirdi and Ahmednagar. We will leave from Ujjain on Monday at 2PM and hope to reach Ahmednagar by 11 PM. Stay overnight at Ahmednagar and start early morning to reach Pune before 9 AM as my wife's office starts at 9 AM.

My queries are:

Is the above mentioned planned doable as only I would be driving?

Can we return to Pune directly after leaving at 2PM from Ujjain or should we stay in Ahmednagar as planned?

All the members who have taken the Nashik highway have said that they went till Nashik and from there proceeded to Dhule, is taking a detour before Nashik advisable?

Is Lasalgaon, Chandwad, Malegaon and Dhule stretch safe to drive in night?

Any good hotel suggestion for stay in Dhule?

Thanks in advance

[scwagh]

Did Pune - Ujjain - Pune last weekend (10th to 13th March). Left from Pune at 330 pm and reached Dhule via Sangamner, Kopargaon, Malegaon. We reached Dhule very late at 1230 am as we were stuck in Malegaon bypass for 2 and half hours due to some rally. Otherwise we would have reached Dhule at 10 pm as planned. Maintained a speed of 90 on Nashik highway which was reduced to 40-50 kmph on Kopargaon Malegaon section due to bad roads and traffic. Pune Nashik highway is in excellent condition except in some bigger villages where the highway becomes a single lane road. Sangamner to Kopargaon is a decent road with some bad patches. Kopargaon to Malegaon was packed with evening traffic and the road is also in a bad shape. Stayed at Jhankar Palace hotel on Dhule bypass, decent hotel for an overnight stay but we felt that it was priced on a higher side. Cramped and dirty rooms, maybe next time we will try some different hotel for stay.

Dhule to Ujjain was a breeze and we completed this section in 5 hours 15 mins without stopping anywhere in between. Total travel time of 11 and a half hour if we don't consider the jam in Malegaon.

On our way back, we had planned to stay in Ahmednagar, but we left at 130 pm (a little early than planned) and reached Pune at 2 am via the same route. Encountered heavy truck traffic on Malegaon Kopargaon section which slowed us down. The Kopargaon Sangamner road was completely deserted and would suggest to avoid taking this road in night. Would have crossed maybe 15-20 vehicles on this stretch of 50 kms. Sangamner to Pune was easy, newly laid roads and zero traffic. Was surprised to see that Nashik Pune highway has such little traffic in night. Return journey took 12 and a half hours with a slightly long dinner break of 45 mins and 2 tea/ bio breaks.

Be on the lookout for speed breakers on the small ghat section on MP side (while descending the ghat) as they are not marked, in some places they have made speed breakers at the end of a turning which again are difficult to notice.

The Nashik Pune highway is well marked but there are no markings on the road which goes from the villages and one needs to be cautious of the speed breakers here.

[nilpat]

Originally Posted by scwagh

Sangamner to Kopargaon is a decent road with some bad patches. Kopargaon to Malegaon was packed with evening traffic and the road is also in a bad shape. .

Thanks scwagh for detailed feedback. I'm travelling to dhule next month via sangamner-kopergaon road with my family(wify+2 kids) one kid 7 months old. I hope sangamner-kopergaon patches are not that bad. Should I go through Nasik directly since it is good road?

[scwagh]

Originally Posted by nilpat

Thanks scwagh for detailed feedback. I'm travelling to dhule next month via sangamner-kopergaon road with my family(wify+2 kids) one kid 7 months old. I hope sangamner-kopergaon patches are not that bad. Should I go through Nasik directly since it is good road?

Hi Nilpat, no, Sangamner Kopargaon patches are not very bad, infact there was some road repair work ongoing on that section when I traveled. I wont be able to compare it with going via Nashik as I have not traveled on Nashik section. Would suggest not to travel on Sangamner Kopargaon stretch after 8 PM as the road has very sparse traffic after that. On our way back we crossed this section at 10 PM and it was completely deserted while on our way to Ujjain we crossed it at 630 PM and it had a light traffic. Do let us know how your travel goes.

Travel safe

[mm403]

Drove down to Indore last weekend. As the plan was a sudden one decided to take Pune-Sangamner- Kopargaon -Dhule - Indore route. While going was at 11:00 AM at Nashik Phata. Road till Narayan Gaon is still 2 lane. Held up for few minutes in Khed/RajguruNagar/ Ale Phata due to jam , but after Narayangaon till Sangamner its a breeze with 4 lane . From Sangamner took the road to Kopargaon, 2 lane road did not encounter much traffic. Reached Indore at 8 PM . No breaks except 2 bio breakes

On the way back, stuck to Indore - Dhule -Manmad- Shirdi - Nagar - Pune stretch. Didnt take the Nagar bypass. Started at 6 am from Indore , Reached home at 5 PM. ( 45 minute - Lunch break. Major road block heavy traffic encountered between Wagholi to Kalyani Nagar