[Sinner666]

Originally Posted by ptushar

Bumping up an old thread.

I am planning a drive next week from Delhi to Haridwar & Rishikesh. Needed some information on the route and any recommended places for food.

1. For folks in Delhi, I am going to rent a car, hence want to know where do I need to pay the Uttar Pradesh road tax. Google maps shows a road through Gazipur, over what looks like a flyover. Is there a UP RTO post somewhere here? Or is there a recommended route to enter UP where I can pay the road tax.
2. Can this tax be paid online?
3. Hopefully the RTO post between UP and UK should be easy to spot as this is a National Highway. Again, any recommendations here
4. How are the road conditions between Delhi & Rishikesh | Rishikesh to Devprayag | Devprayag to Kanatal | Kanatal to Mussoorie?
5. Lastly, any recommended places to stop for food?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hey ptushar,

Did you manage to do this? How was the route? I plan to drive to Kanatal this weekend, and wanted to check on the current route conditions.

TIA

[ptushar]

Originally Posted by Sinner666

Hey ptushar,

Did you manage to do this? How was the route? I plan to drive to Kanatal this weekend, and wanted to check on the current route conditions.

TIA

Oops. Saw this very very late. I believe you would have already done this route by now. I had been upto Devprayag and then returned back to Rishikesh. I did the Rishikesh to Mussoorie route via Dehradun.

How was your trip?

[Sinner666]

Originally Posted by ptushar

Oops. Saw this very very late. I believe you would have already done this route by now. I had been upto Devprayag and then returned back to Rishikesh. I did the Rishikesh to Mussoorie route via Dehradun.

How was your trip?

Did this last to last week. Updating road status for the benefit of others.

Was planning to take the Meerut-Muzaffarnagar-Roorkee-Haridwar-Rishikesh route, up till Kanatal.

However, after Muradnagar, Google showed a major jam, and routed us through the Upper Ganga Canal road, which let us bypass Meerut, and got us back on to NH 334 around Khatauli.

Narrow single lane road running parallel to a canal throughout. Although it had very less traffic (not desolate though), and scenic (calm canal on one side, and sugarcane fields on the other), you can't maintain too much speed because of two reasons - 1. narrow single lane with rather low embankments on both sides mean you need to take your car off (down) the road to overtake; 2. This time of the year, it was loaded with slow moving overloaded tractors/trucks carrying sugarcane. We made a mental note not to take it again, if we cross it back at night.

Okay-ish road conditions up till Roorkee from Khatauli - regular 4 laned highways with the usual occasional traffic jam thrown in. Around Roorkee, things start going downhill - traffic starts building up once you approach Roorkee, and you get stuck in the city for the lack of a bypass.
Roorkee to Bahadrabad is an undivided 2 lane stretch marred with infinite patchworks & potholes. Add too much bus & local traffic, and its a real pain.

You get somewhat good roads till you approach Haridwar, and post this its a slow crawl to Rishikesh - roads are dug up in many places owing to widening work/flyover construction. Could also be the time we crossed it too - around 6 PM.

Rishikesh to Kanatal via Chamba was good, with only occasional patches where road widening work was happening, and traffic channeled into single lanes, but overall good roads.
Overall, started at 1PM from Delhi, and reached Kanatal at 10PM (including a 1 hr food break).

Return, we followed the same route, till Google again threw up red in Meerut, and showed a delay of 2hrs+, and suggested the Upper Ganga canal road again. Took the risk as we were 2 cars and 3-4 people in each, but not one of the best decisions - it was just too foggy, with extremely poor visibility. Was able to maintain an average speed of only about 40km/h.

Managed to reach back the highway at Muradnagar, and stuck to it till Ghaziabad. Started at 12PM from Kanatal, and reached Gurgaon at 11PM (including 1.5hrs break for food & a flat tire repair)

A special mention on the Upper Ganga Canal road: Although a bit shorter & faster, it is relatively empty. Only when I got back and read up on the road did I realize how unsafe it was, and the magnitude of risk we took that foggy night dawned upon me. Would advise fellow members to not stop for anything on this road.

An old article, but the conditions still look the same. http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/fo...ads-india.html

[Wanderer]

I did a trip to Hardwar and Hrishikesh from Gurgaon this 18th May weekend. Started around 10.00 P.M. and took the usual Delhi-Meerut Expressway - Raj Nagar Extension Elevated Road until the National Highway crossing for the Upper Ganges Canal Road. Continued on the canal road until Mohammadpur Road crossing ( Gmap bearings - 29.706349, 77.860794) from where I took a left and caught the main Delhi-Hardwar road NH-334. Continued on the same road and crossed Roorkee at about 3.30 A.M and reached Hardwar at 4.30. Continued till Hrishikesh were I had planned to stay and reached by 6 in the morning. Returned on 20th afternoon via the same route. Both ways 8hrs travel time approx. including 1 hr rest. Following points noted:
• Crossed Upper Ganges Canal Road between 12 A.M. and 2.30 A.M. almost at dead of night. There was intermittent traffic and very scarce police patrolling, probably 1 per 30-35 kms. So stopping on that stretch is a no-no, except in case of an emergency, that too near the various crossings. The road beyond the bearings given above is pretty bad and I had to reverse after continuing for 500-600 mts and take the left for NH-334 although Gmaps insisted otherwise.
• The Canal road by the way is butter smooth with proper reflectors and signages. There is one thing though, while returning , the lane was pretty bumpy rather wavy, and given the average speed of 60-70, I encountered quite a few such waves which tries to throw the car off-balance. Being a Polo it held its ground, but lighter cars need to be extra careful. The fun part being, the road is two laned and the other lane does not have any such imperfections.
• After crossing Ghaziabad, Muradnagar and Modinagar still remains a bottleneck at any point of time.
• Highways bypassing Hardwar are in a mess right now due to undergoing constructions and expect loss of atleast an hour due to traffic snarl while going towards Hrishikesh and onwards.
• Road condition from Manglaur till Hardwar is smooth but tricky with sudden expansion and contraction in road width and multiple diversions, few being almost non-visible at night. Preferred to trail a pilot vehicle.

[swatir]

Planning a trip to Rishikesh from Delhi soon via Meerut-Muzaffarnagar-Roorkee-Haridwar-Rishikesh. How is the latest road condition?

Also we are planning to rent a car from Delhi airport. Any idea about zoomcar service?

[VT-RNS]

Hi All,

Thought I'll update this thread from my recent drive early this week.
Day 1 Morning: Greater Noida to Roorkee
Took the EPE as my cousins stay close to Pari Chowk, and then joined the Delhi-Meerut Expressway near the Dasna exchange. From there on, the Meerut Expressway is smooth as butter till it ends. Crossing Meerut wasn't too painful on a Tuesday morning. Post Meerut, the NH is 4 lane, with busy traffic in all forms (including opposite side driving with some speed!! the audacity!) but atleast the road quality is in excellent condition. Wasn't too stressful though and as soon as we reach Roorkee, took the Canal road to go into the city for some personal work. You can stick to NH and bypass Roorkee otherwise.

Day 1 Afternoon: Drove to Haridwar from Roorkee. Crossing Roorkee town is a pain, given 2 lane road and usual town traffic. Once we hit the NH to Haridwar, it gets better.
Road quality within Haridwar and to key places of interest is okay at best.

Day 1 Evening: Haridwar to Rishikesh
Firstly, didn't realize how much Haridwar has spread out (coming here after 15 years). A new flyover is being built on the main NH (understandably) so that is one spot where traffic moves slowly.
Rest of the drive to Rishikesh is uneventful and road quality is good. Post sunset, the slow driving autorickshaw/ e-rickshaw and even cars were a major pain as they are not using reflectors and move without any indicators.

We did take a detour at AIIMS so as to enjoy the winding roads of the National park (cross the other side of Ganga) to reach our final destination at Parmarth Niketan Ashram. The National Park roads were in excellent condition and we enjoyed the drive in the dark.

Day 2 Late Morning: Started back for Greater Noida.
The only difference is that we took the Rajaji National Park road that runs parallel to the canal from Rishikesh till Haridwar (where the road finishes at Chandi Mandir). You cross the Ganga here and back on the NH towards Delhi NCR.

Side Note: Another evidence of how well the roads are in rest of India than in Maharashtra. I was really surprised to experience good quality roads through out. No major potholes, or speed breakers on the NHs.

The only issue was the surface quality of the EPE (and WPE). The patch work done is terrible, the surface is so uneven that car can get super bouncy. I kept speed limited to 100 kmph for this reason. Very shocked at the state of the Peripheral Expressway

[Chewbecca]

Hi Bhpians,
Looking to do this next weekend from Gurgaon so wanted to check if any one has any latest updates. I'll be actually be driving up to Westin Ganges (if I'm not wrong it's actually on road going up from Rishikesh city). Any advice on where to stop for food as well? Have kids traveling with me but want to avoid Fast food chains to give more Road trip like feeling)
Thanks in advance