[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Did a HYD-MUMBAI trip yesterday and finally some good news about this route.4 laning complete all the way from Indapur till Hadapsar.

Road Conditions:

Mohol-Temburni:Again road quality excellent,but speed of 80-100 can be maintained.Since the new road is wide,overtaking trucks is not a problem anymore

Crossing Temburni is still a problem.

We had a very painful experience on the Mohol Temburni stretch on Nov 10th. Details are on the Hyderabad - Shirdi thread.

It took us 1 hour 45 minutes to cover that 55 km stretch. There were thousands of trucks lined on on both sides of the narrow road, and only one side was moving for every 15 minutes. The widened roads were not yet open for nearly 50% of the stretch, and wherever we could, we took them even if they were made of rough cobblestones. Sometimes we took the extreme right of the road to wriggle through opposite traffic.

Such was our frustration, we decided NOT to use it on our return. We returned via Beed, and had a very pleasant experience on that road.

It might take at least a month for the NH9 to be widened between Mohol and Tembhurni, and even after that, bottlenecks will be there at the railway crossing near Tembhurni.

[midlifecrisis]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Hullo Folks,
If I need to go to KA border (a town/village called Badami), the most feasible route seems to be the Bangalore highway, and a detour at Belgaum. The second feasible route seems to be via NH9 (uptil Solapur).

But I am interested in trying out the state highways, so how is the below route Pune - saswad - nira - phaltan - pandharpur - Bijapur - Badami

Now the portion for which I need your advice is the Pune - Pandharpur section. Is this road drivable? Or do I take the NH9 till Solapur and then reach Pandharpur?

Do share inputs. This is for a late evening (7pm onwards) drive today.

Did this last week. While driving to Pune from Hyd, I made the mistake of doing Phaltan->Lonand-> Shirwal->NH7->Pune. The Lonand Shirwal stretch is screwed bigtime.
While returning, I did the Pune->Saswad->Lonand->Phaltan->Natepute->Malshiras->Phandarpur route. This route is good and I was in Pandharpur in 3.5 to 4 hours.
I had started from Pune at 3:30 p.m. and was in Pandharpur at 7:30 p.m. I took the Dive Ghat to Saswad and not the Babdeo Ghat as someone told me Babdeo Ghat is full of potholes

You'll have two issues on this route to Pandharpur.

Night driving is painful as the glare from the oncoming traffic slows you down considerably.
Sugarcane traffic has started.

The road is called Sant Gyaneshwar Mahamarg. It is broad and tarmac quality is mostly good.

[ninjatalli]

^^Thanks @midlifecrisis.

But I already have completed the trip 2 weeks back. Well, next time if I need to go that side, will be taking up this route.

[gopsri]

Dear Friends

I am planning to drive down to Pune from Hyderabad in my Scorpio on 14th December 2012 and would like to know the road conditions. I wish to start at 6AM from Hyderabad.

I am told that the road conditions from Sholapur to Pune continues to be horrible!!!

Any advise is most appreciated.

Thanks
Sridhar

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by gopsri

Dear Friends

I am planning to drive down to Pune from Hyderabad in my Scorpio on 14th December 2012 and would like to know the road conditions. I wish to start at 6AM from Hyderabad.

I am told that the road conditions from Sholapur to Pune continues to be horrible!!!

Any advise is most appreciated.

Thanks
Sridhar

Read updates above for latest.Roads are not horrible,they are ok as compared to earlier times..You should be able to do the distance in 9-10hours.

[bijuiser]

I did a Pune –Hyderabad- Pune trip in the week of Diwali. Most of the highway from Pune- Solapur is now four-lane. There are many patches where still the four- lane work is in progress and one will be stuck in jam if passing in peak hours. Was able to complete this stretch in 4 hours with heavy truck traffic. The Sholapur- Hyderabad is old 2 lane wide highway, road condition good and the patch running through Karnataka is much better. Was able to cover this stretch in 6 Hours (30 minutes jam on the railway crossing on the highway and more than one hour bumper to bumper traffic from Zaherabad to Begumpet). Total time taken was approximately 10 hours excluding breaks. Return journey took 9 hours found marginal traffic as had started from Hyderabad afternoon. Stay as GreenPark Hotel Begumpet- excellent location and wonderful service.

[kaushik60]

I recently went to Pandharpur from Pune and travelled till just after Temburni on this road. And I have something very scary to report.
The roads esp till Indapur are just brilliant with only the occasional diversion etc. But the local village guys havent got used to the highway I guess. They are pretty oblivious to the danger they are in when they randomly cross, travel in the wrong direction etc.
What happened to me was this. I was in the fast lane overtaking a truck. In from of me there was another truck which I was approaching. He dint seem intent to move to the slow lane, so I though of shifting to the left to overtake him. Just then another car drew up to me from the left, trying to overtake me and the truck up ahead. Due to on oncoming bike guy on the left side of the road, the car which was parallel to me by then started crowding me for space, and I moved closer to the divider to accommodate him. So, I was pretty close to the divider, and following just behind the truck. This was when I suddenly came upon another (helmet-less) village guy on a splendor who zoomed in the narrow gap between me and the divider! He missed me by a mere whisker! It must've been very close, and I'm glad I hadn't got overtly close to the divider. And since I was directly behind the truck, I had absolutely no time to react. It left me pretty shaken. I'm sure if there was an accident I would've been blamed for it.
So guys travelling on this route, beware and expect very senseless and unruly behaviour from the many bikes on the road. I hope the situation improves with time.

[ranjitp1]

Just a note sugarcane cart traffic has picked up considerably between solapur and pune and would continue till Feb.So dont expct fast drives as the slow moving carts are going to take up all the space be it 4 lanes or 6 lanes!

[ninjatalli]

^^Took the NH9 two weekends back during the night - started from Pune at 9 odd, passed Solapur around 1 in the night. Hardly saw any sugarcane (cart) traffic on NH9.

Overall, NH9 was a breeze at night!

[gauravdgr8]

My Boss travelled on the 2nd from Hyderabad to Mumbai. Road update:

Hyderabad - Solapur : Rough patches. Takes 6 hours
Solapur - Pune : Uptil Indapur is pathetic and there are deviations everywhere. Once you cross Indapur, it's a smooth drive.

[sandeep joshi]

Did pune solapur yestarday (23 Dec 2012) , pune-indapur , no issues at all, fantastic drive , but indapur - solapur is worst with diversions after every 10 mins , heavy traffic jams at railway crossing , and also at mohol junction. Left pune at 6 am and reach solapur at 12:30 pm with 30 mins break . Indapur bypass is still not ready but there were no signboard or barricades put on that indapur bypass and after going 5-6 kms on that road, we came to know that road is closed ahead and everybody taking reverse and passing through indapur, some work is going there with no barricads , so all vehicles moved and then again came back. Then horribal jam at 9:30 am at railway crossing when maharashtra express cross the road , minimum 5-6 kms line on both sides of trucks , i see first time railway crossing at national highway. Then while returning , at mohol also huge jams in the evening so we decided to take pandharpur-satara road while coming back. It is 75 kms more and will take 1 or 1.5 hrs more then this route but you have peace of mind, road is good , single lane till satara but with no traffice and peaceful. Left solapur at 4 pm , reach pandharpur around 5:30 pm due to jam at mohol, reach satara at 9 pm and pune at 11:30 pm.

Via Pandharpur-satara is 75 to 80 kms more and takes 1.5 to 2 hrs more, but at night you cannot do this as mohol to satara is entire single lane 180 kms stretch is lonely with hardley any big town in between, after pandharpur no major town on road till satara but advantage is no traffic jams, peaceful journy.

[frequentflyer]

I am travelling Pune -Bijapur early Feb. I have a choice of going via Shirwal-Phaltan-Pandharpur or Pune - Indapur (with the scary two wheelers) -Akluj - Pandharpur routes. Which might be better specially considering the sugar cane season. I think there are sugar factories near Akluj too. Would Phaltan route be better then?

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by frequentflyer

1] I have a choice of going via Shirwal-Phaltan-Pandharpur or
2]Pune - Indapur (with the scary two wheelers) -Akluj - Pandharpur routes.

1] shirwal lonand phaltan is under 4 laning, avoid this road.
2] Indapur-akluj-pandharpur-mangalwedha may be good enough to avoid indapur-mohol-solapur truck traffic but.... road of mangalwedha-chadchan-zalki is really bad, avoid it.

I suggest Pune-nh9-Indapur-NH9-mohol-right turn -take byepass-join to NH13 at Mandrup-NH13-Bijapur.

[frequentflyer]

If both these roads are bad, there is a third option to go from Karad. Till Karad one gets NH4. But no idea how the road is from Karad to Bijapur!

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Latest news!

Toll collection started at patas and saradewadi toll naka on NH9 between pune and indapur.
Toll rates : rs 30 for cars, suv etc for single journey and Rs 50 for return journey.

You have to pay toll of rs 30 either at patas or saradewadi toll naka.
You have to show the toll receipt of patas or saradewadi on next toll booth, no need to pay another rs30.

Toll rates for Pune solapur travel :
1) kawadipat toll : rs 20
2) patas toll : rs 30
3) lamboti toll :rs 15

Toll rates for Solapur pune travel

1) lamboti :rs 15
2) saradewadi : rs 30
3) kasurdi : rs 20