[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by moeinuk

I am planning to leave on 26th morning and reach kolkata by 27th night.
The target is to start early morning and stay overnight at varanasi and again start early morning next day.

Please advice. Will it be safe to travel through UP and Bihar by road just a day before Holi? Please note I haven't been to this belt even on a vacation before.

It would be a lot safer if you can complete the journey through UP & Bihar before 25th Feb, or do it from 3rd March onwards.

Apart from being a constant target for people throwing colour, cowdung, old engine oil, stones and a variety of other messy things at your car (which can severely set back your budget when cleaning up), you will also be stopped on the highway by groups of people, from teenagers to young men, asking for chanda. This is most common in Bihar, and you cannot run away without having a brick hurled through your rear window, unless you met their demand (usually Rs.50-100) - and this can keep on happening every few km.

Even truckers take a break on this stretch for a few days, or the brave among them only drive late at night. Wouldn't suggest you do that as a first-timer.

Originally Posted by moeinuk

That gives me a total of Rs 7.5K. The amount of cash I think I should be carrying with me as a base mark.
Is this estimate correct? Or over the top? Or below the mark?
Please advice.

Carrying 15-20k would be a safe amount.

Edit: More info on a recent DEL-CCU trip here. You can PM souravdebiswas for more info on hotel rates etc. (he's undertaking the return journey this weekend).

[phamilyman]

enough interesting stuff there - its doable but holi can be crazy in those parts.

I would instead advise you to travel ENTIRELY through the night till UP, and ride your luck in Bihar.

Atleast - DEL-KNP is ultra safe, ultra fast. And 1000 bucks should get you a decent enough hotel. stay as per HVK garu's recommendations and you'd be done

[AlokSriva]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

It would be a lot safer if .... or do it from 3rd March onwards.

Holi is celebrated in most parts of UP/Bihar till after 7 days of holika dahan. The colors are put to rest only after Ganga mela

With the festival slated for 28th Feb, I doubt anytime before 7th March would be color (of all form and hue)-free travel.

[moeinuk]

Wow! SSTraveller! HVKumar!! AlokSriva!!!
For me you guys are the Phantoms and the Mandrakes and the Flash Gordons of the Indian roads!!!
I have been devouring your trip logs for last couple of weeks!
Never imagined you will reply to my novice queries.

@phamilyman: I am not so confidant on a night drive. May be on the next trip.

I have already mentioned this is gonna be my first long distance drive.
Infact, it's the first and the last chance I have to drive Delhi-Kolkata. If I miss this, I will not get a chance in next few years to come.
Cause, I am moving base to Kolkata. My wife and kiddo is already there. I am presently living out of my car and suitcase, serving my notice period and hopping from one friends house to the next.
Obviously my wife or in-laws or parents will never approve my plan to drive. But I am dead sure I want to do this. The sheer adventure of it is irresistable. And the more I read the travelogues here, more I get confident that I too can do it.

@sstraveller.
thanks for the link to sourav's solo drive. it acted as a huge inspiration for me.

Now here is my final plan.
Without overestimating my capabilities, I found HVkumar's trip log quite doable. so that's what I followed while making my trip plan. [I will never make sourav's time. varansi at 3.45 pm!!!! my god! what was he driving??? an aeroplane???? ]

Day 1: 3rd March.
Travelling and Driving Solo.


Leave from C R park at 5 am.
Carry snacks and drinks. Target Mcdonalds at mathura refinery by 8 am.
Break for brunch.
Leave by 8.30-45. Keep driving for next 2-3 hours. Only loo, stretch breaks (10 mins). Cross Firozabad and refuel at BPCC PP. [@ 251 kms]
Drive for another 2 hrs. Cross Etawah. Reach at Fauji Dhaba by 1pm and break for tea.
Leave by 1.30 pm. Target Kanpur by 230. Drive another 2-3 hrs [ with necessary breaks if any]. Refuel on one of the BPCL, IOCL PP on way. [@ 300kms]. Take a tea break.
Target Allahabad by 530 and target Varanasi by 730.
Objective in Varanasi. Get through in a decent hotel that will wash my car and serve me a nice breakfast at 5 am in the morning. Preferably near Patarp Dhaba [courtsey:SSTraveller's pic. look at the kosha mangso. it's yummmmm]

Question: Please provide any road directions from the highway.

Day 2: 4th March
Leave Varanasi at 6 am.

Depending of what breakfast the hotel provides, I either take the same breakfast point as HVKumar's GQ Trip [5-6 Kms after crossing Chandevli].
Or else drive through Mohania, Sasaram and Reach Aurangabad BP by 9 am. Stop for breakfast at Reliance A1 Plaza.
Half an hour, an I am on way again. 9.30 am
Target: Reach IOC PP after Chauparan, before the Toll Gate. Stretch. Refuel. Get back on the road by 10.45 am
Keep driving. Target: Dhanbad by 1.30 pm. Dig in at any line hotel for lunch.
Next stop Durgapur Railway Station. Tea Break. 3.30-4 pm
Target Panagarh by 5 pm.
Burdhwan bypass before 6pm and Calcutta BP by 7 pm.

Here is my question.
I need to go towards Dunlop. Which way do I go?

@ HVKumar. Your trip log lists two diversions on left. first is Calcutta/Howrah NH6 Kona Expressway, after 9kms is the second one, Calcutta/Alipore NH6 Kona Expressway.

@everyone. please comment on my plan. really looking forward to your inputs.
@sbraj. Is this plan detailed enough?

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by moeinuk

Wow! SSTraveller! HVKumar!! AlokSriva!!!
For me you guys are the Phantoms and the Mandrakes and the Flash Gordons of the Indian roads!!!
I have been devouring your trip logs for last couple of weeks!
Never imagined you will reply to my novice queries.

So shall I assume that the correlation is one is to one? Meaning "Mandrake" corresponds to HVK Sir?

I have come across many praises for HVK Sir, but this one beats me. I think HVK Sir himself will be wishing that he is able to do some Mandrake acts while facing the cop menace.

Originally Posted by moeinuk

@sbraj. Is this plan detailed enough?

Almost. Once the routes, time and dates are finalized, you could go ahead and reserve a hotel room also in Varanasi.

[moeinuk]

Originally Posted by sbraj

So shall I assume that the correlation is one is to one? Meaning "Mandrake" corresponds to HVK Sir?

I have come across many praises for HVK Sir, but this one beats me. I think HVK Sir himself will be wishing that he is able to do some Mandrake acts while facing the cop menace.

Ha ha ha.... no correlations intended. but that would be a really nice superhero. solving highway problems.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by moeinuk

Question: Please provide any road directions from the highway.

Approaching from Delhi: When the mile-markers show distance to Benaras as approximately 18-20 km, you need to take a diversion to the left off the highway, and under a flyover, then turn left to carry on on the old NH2 (just stop and ask to go to the Benaras Railway Station). Once you're on that road, there are no turns - it leads you straight to the station.

Originally Posted by moeinuk

Keep driving. Target: Dhanbad by 1.30 pm. Dig in at any line hotel for lunch.

You don't actually go into Dhanbad. The highway takes you to Ratanpur (Gobindpur), from where turning right would take you to Dhanbad. This is 267 km short of Kolkata. Stopping at the New Khalsa Hotel there is highly recommended - as sourav discovered too.

Originally Posted by moeinuk

Next stop Durgapur Railway Station. Tea Break. 3.30-4 pm. Target Panagarh by 5 pm.

Go past Panagarh as early as possible - the 5PM traffic there is utterly crazy, and this is not a dual carriageway expressway. Better to stop at Shaktigarh, on the highway itself, where there are a series of lengcha shops - you can't miss them. Tea, shingara, makha shondesh, lengcha, mihidana, sitabhog - take your pick. Carry some back home too, to cool the folks down when they go ballistic after hearing that you drove solo from DEL to CCU.

Originally Posted by moeinuk

I need to go towards Dunlop. Which way do I go?

At the first diversion, keep left - the straight road takes a big U-turn and comes back on to NH6 (Bombay Road). At the second diversion, go straight on to the new Vidyasagar Setu (toll gate) - even if you took left here, you'll be taking the old bridge to the Dakshineshwar Mandir crossing, but this one is usually jammed because everyone tries not to pay toll! Cross the bridge and take the right diversion towards Dunlop/Dakshineshwar. The left diversion carries on to the Airport, without any exits.

[pkumar]

There is this Reliance A1 plaza between Mohania and Sasarm. Dont know if there is one on Aurangabad BP too !!!

When you are nearing Kolkata, the first sigboard says take Left for Kolkata and straight for Kharagpur, Mumbai. You have to take the Kharagpur one. Dont exit on the first one. Am i right SS da?

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by pkumar

...take Left for Kolkata and straight for Kharagpur, Mumbai. You have to take the Kharagpur one. Dont exit on the first one. Am i right SS da?

If you take the road towards Kharagpur, you end up on the NH6 and will need to go into CCU via the New Hooghly Bridge (IIRC that is called Vidyasagar Setu). Taking the left lets you take the Old or New Bali Bridge (don't remember its new name - not Vidyasagar Setu as I had mentioned in my previous post). That way it'll be easier to access Dunlop Bridge on BT Road, which is where moeinuk wants to go I think.

[hvkumar]

moeinuk, that was great praise, thanks.

SS and pkumar have answered most of your questions, have just a few more things to say.

In my GQ log book, you will note the coordinates of "Varanasi BP" - that is the point where the flyover is located, as mentioned by SS.

I would suggest you clear Agra as fast as possible instead of stopping over at Mathura. Crossing Agra can be messy and the earlier you do it, the better.

Remember that in Kanpur, you are on a elevated road for 25 kms without any entry or exit, and there are no petrol pumps for the next 30 kms or so. So, ensure that you refuel appropriately.

My GQ drive was before the completion of the Allahabad bypass which is now a great road, saving you a lot of time.

The first turning on NH2 is the road leading to the old Howrah bridge. The second one is the road leading to Vidyasagar Setu, convenient of you are going to south Calcutta.

[souravdebiswas]

Hi @moeinuk,

Hearing about your trip plans does remind me of mine too. I had made lots of plans which never really fructified. Finally I made it this time without telling anyone. Neither did I tell my wife, family or friends that I was driving to Kolkata. Told them that I was going to Lucknow. I only told my wife later at night that I was in Varanasi and my mom on the next day morning.

Any by the way, I was not flying an aeroplane. Its just that the fiesta 1.6S goes upto 120kmph so smoothly that you hardly realise (picked up upto 160, but not for long stretches). Most of the stretch I was driving at around 120kmph, and hardly took any breaks (except for nature's call). Carried loads of eatables (learnt from HVK), so saved a lot of time on that front. You will realise the time spent while coming back from Kolkata since I took lots of breaks that time.

If you are in CR Park, just PM me and we can meet up. I live in C Block, so we can meet up any time.

The Kanpur and Allahabad bypass are just amazing with hardly any traffic. The Kanpur bypass is about 35kms. The aAllahabad bypass is about 85kms long. The toll at Allahabad bypass has not started as yet. There are clear signboards all along the highway about which direction to take. Near Kanpu, look for directions towards Allahabad, and you if you follow it you will automatically get on to the bypass. Same case with Allahabad. At about the 45kms mark to Allahabad, you will see the road curving towards your right for going to Allahabad and the straight road heading towards Varanasi. There are signboards here too. So dont worry. While entering Varanasi, you will again find signboards telling you to take the left just before the flyover for entering Varanasi. So dont worry about getting lost. Its easy all the way.


In Varanasi, you better look for a decent hotel with parking space. The plaza hotel where I stayed while going to Kolkata did not wash my car even after promising to do so. They told me later that I had to pay money for that, which they never told me at the time of checking in (I told them specifically at the time of checking in that i was willing to pay). I dont think too many hotels would provide you the service of washing cars. Holi time may turn out to be a bit expensive as far as hotels are concerned. Tough to get hotels too. So do keep in mind that you may have to pay about 1000 buks for the room. Even if you say you want to stay for hardly 10hours, still they would not reduce the price. I realised that while going to Kolkata since I was checking in on the night of Maha Shivratri. But while coming back I got rooms for Rs.600.

For the stretch between Varanasi and Kolkata, I did not find any operational Reliance pumps. All were closed, none operational. So have breakfast at any dhaba. I doubt if the smaller hotels would serve you breakfast so early at 5am.

Do remember that if you plan to refuel around Aurangabad, you would hardly find any pumps dishing out speed/premium fuel, unless you get into the main town. So keep that in mind. Refuel as much as possible. For me, whenever my tank was close to half, I used to look for next decent petrol pump which had the speed/premium fuel.

Do stop at Ratanpur (Khalsa Hotel) for some delicious food. There are two three dhaba's next to each other. Awesome food. Thanks to SS Traveller for the info about this.

And yes, the Burdwan, Durgapur areas are highly congested. So be careful on this stretch.

Please do be careful about trucks, cars, bikes and bicycles coming down from the opposite side in your lane. You will find them all throughout the highway. Look far ahead while keeping an eye on the highway. I had a close shave, you can read it on my travellouge. In case you are driving in the evening, be extra careful on this aspect.

As far as money is concerned, my fuel cost came to about approx 7000Rs, toll was Rs.520 and hotel cost was 600 (each way). But do carry double the amount. You never know when you need it. I did pick up some extra money at Varanasi from an ATM. You wont find ATMs anywhere on the highway.

And finally, I really would not finalise the trip times in so much detail (the time taken for reaching each small town on the route). Just aim for reaching Varanasi by nightfall. Spread out your breaks accordingly. You can take long and short breaks as per your convenience. Same for reaching Kolkata. And keep an average speed for reaching every destination. You would realise how much break you can take. If you start calculating the timeframe for reaching each small town n route, and god forbid you miss it, you will get tensed, you will start stretching your limits to make up for the lost time, and at the end of the day you would not enjoy the drive. Who cares what time you reach Varanasi or Kolkata, as long as you reach safe and comfortably. Afterall you are relocating to Kolkata and not planning to come back in a short time frame.

[moeinuk]

Thank you all for the great inputs. This forum really rocks.

@souravdebiswas
My plan is a rough construct. I obviously intend to improvise as i go. It is just to gimme a mark to for refuelling and lunch-snacks stops. Moreover, I am not sure how long will I be able to drive at a stretch. This being my first long drive I have no clue how log will it take till i get tired and need to step down and stretch my legs. That's why kept these short targets.

Your input about PP between Varanasi and Kolkata was very important. HVK's trip log says there aren't many branded PP in that area. I was wondering what to do.

@HVKumar
Thanks for reminding the Kanpur Highway stretch. The way I have planned to refuel, will be good enough.

@pkumar
HVK's triplog mentions one Reliance A1 plaza at Aurangabad but doesn't mention any between Mohania and Sasaram.

@SSTraveller
Thanks a million for the directions. And I will definitely remember to dig in the New Khlasa Hotel. And you are right, there's nothing better than Shaktigar's Lengcha and Mihidana to calm an infuriated bengali mind!!!

And here are more questions.
@sbraj. When you were trying to imagine HVK Sir as mandrake fighting police menace, it rang a question deep within. Do the police generally harass? I will be driving solo. With a fair amount of luggage. In a car that is WB registered. Should I expect to be questioned in toll gates and patrolling units?

A friend wrote me this in a mail. Please tell me how true is this?
"do not drive over 80 at a stretch. Remember the 3 cylinder 796 cc engine can give u a max power of 47 bhp @ 6200 rpm. It might grown if you rev it up beyond its capability for long."



p.s. I was wondering if we should start a thread for first time long distance drivers. What to expect? How to plan? What to check while servicing your car? How much money to carry? What are various signalling languages on the highways etc... I believe first times like me will be grateful to get everything under one thread. There are various threads that contain such information, but it's cumbersome to go through every thread and find the relevant.

[hvkumar]

In my GQ log, I have not been able to list out all the branded petrol pumps, so there will be definitely more, don't worry. But refuel with a quarter in your tank as and when you see a good-looking pump. Petrol pump density is poor after Kanpur.

Police harassment - happily, we did not see any. We were stopped near Kanpur by some inquisitive cops, but since a VIP motorcade zoomed by at the same time, they lost interest in us and we took off. Don't worry, keep your documents in order, you should have no problems with cops, especially since your wife is also travelling with you.

Driving at high speeds - is no problem. No such thing about keeping speed limited to 80 kmph or whatever!

You can check out our GQ drive thread, which has lots of homilies about long-distance driving. There is also an exclusive thread for this somewhere.

Cash - my principle is I carry at least 2-3 times my most generous expenditure estimate. Carry enough to cover all costs in cash, and for medical and accident emergencies. I assume that there will be no ATMs anywhere. Sometimes, I top up my cash by drawing from a ATM.

Carry your mediclaim id card along.

Signalling languages - be familiar with strange truck driver language of using right indicators to say that you can overtake them - and also using the same when they want to go right!

Flashing headlights is more effective than honking behind a vehicle.

Beware of tail-light-less trucks after dark.

Keep checking the car at every halt - open up the bonnet, check oil and coolant levels, any loose wires, any oil leaks, your undercarriage for any loose stuff and tyres for any deflation or damage.

I never never inflate air on the highways. Meters are improperly calibrated and the ambient hot air inside the tyre is not the right time to check. If I have to check (mostly I never do), I check it at a time when I have not run the car much.

If you are running tubeless tyres, carry a spare tube with you. You may find a puncture mechanic, but he may not have tubeless tyre repair kit, hence you can always mend teh punctured tubeless tyre by putting a tube inside.

Keep your ASC service advisor's number handy, don't led any monkey of a mechanic tinker around on teh way, if there is any problem.

Carry your owner's manual along, familiarise yourself with the fuses in the car, learn to check them for any obvious electrical problems - like, say, Check light is burning continously or the car does not start.

[pkumar]

Originally Posted by moeinuk

@pkumar
HVK's triplog mentions one Reliance A1 plaza at Aurangabad but doesn't mention any between Mohania and Sasaram.

When i travelled in Sept 2009, i stopped for lunch at this Reliance A1 between Mohania and Sasaram. So this one is there for sure. But i do not know if there is another one on Aurangabad BP.

[moeinuk]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

In my GQ log, I have not been able to list out all the branded petrol pumps, so there will be definitely more, don't worry. But refuel with a quarter in your tank as and when you see a good-looking pump. Petrol pump density is poor after Kanpur.

I plan to refuel @ Varanasi. I your trip log there is an IOCPP just before VRNS BP. I was wondering if I will get anything just on my way out. With the Varanasi traffic I expect to waste a lot of fuel.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Don't worry, keep your documents in order, you should have no problems with cops, especially since your wife is also travelling with you.

Correction. I am travelling solo. No companions. My papers are in order. Rc. Insurance. Pollution. Noc from wb rto. Loan clearance etc etc etc... Hope i'm not missing anything.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Carry your owner's manual along, familiarise yourself with the fuses in the car, learn to check them for any obvious electrical problems - like, say, Check light is burning continously or the car does not start.

Is this Greek? OK OK I will learn it this weekend. Is there a web link?