[Sutripta]

^^^
Baharagora I believe is still a car breaker.

If you do not mind a lot of extra Kms, think about Ranchi - Hazaribagh - Bagodar.

Regards
Sutripta

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

^^^
Baharagora I believe is still a car breaker.

If you do not mind a lot of extra Kms, think about Ranchi - Hazaribagh - Bagodar.

Regards
Sutripta

Sutripta da, even then I would not be able to avoid this astoundingly horrible stretch between Jamshedpur and Chandil. Believe me its equally a car breaker if not worse. I did the Baharagora stretch a couple of years ago and I felt this was a lot worse.

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

I did the Baharagora stretch a couple of years ago and I felt this was a lot worse.

Yes Samarjit. I even had to replace the rear portion of the silencer pipe in my car, after I took the Jamshola-Baharagora route last month. I also posted my experience in this forum, right after returning home.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post2624129
But I was in Galudih in January 2011, a year earlier, and even drove to Jamshedpur once, yet the road was not all this bad during that time.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

Yes Samarjit. I even had to replace the rear portion of the silencer pipe in my car, after I took the Jamshola-Baharagora route last month. I also posted my experience in this forum, right after returning home.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post2624129
But I was in Galudih in January 2011, a year earlier, and even drove to Jamshedpur once, yet the road was not all this bad during that time.

Okay. That stretch has also deteriorated pretty badly right from JSR till Lodhasuli. This is as per info available in other forums. So looks like both the stretches are horrible to say the least. I am not thinking if I should take the Bandwan - Khatra route to Bankura. Heard that even though the roads are local, they are not as bad. Will make some inquiries before I start on Saturday.

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

I am not thinking if I should take the Bandwan - Khatra route to Bankura. Heard that even though the roads are local, they are not as bad. Will make some inquiries before I start on Saturday.

I think that it will be better to take the Ranchi-Hazaribagh-Bagodar-NH2 route, as is suggested by Sutriptada, if you are willing to cover the extra distance.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

I think that it will be better to take the Ranchi-Hazaribagh-Bagodar-NH2 route, as is suggested by Sutriptada, if you are willing to cover the extra distance.

The route till Chandil is another horrible car breaker and was not sure about how bad it was till Ranchi so skipped NH33 entirely.
Took an alternate route through local roads going through the scenic Dalma Forest Sanctuary, Bandoan, Ranibandh, Khatra and then through Bankura.

Roads within Jharkhand are mostly car breakers though this route seemed to have less broken roads. Around 10 kms of thoroughly broken roads which meant actually there was no tarmac but only stones to be seen. Had to drive between 5-10 KMPH to avoid any damage to the car though the underbody scraped only once or twice on the route. The route is pretty scenic as it goes through the Dalma hills and then the Mukutmanipur route. Once you are into WB, the roads are good mostly except for certain patches. Will put up my experience on the travelogue. Unless you own an SUV its a very bad idea to come to Jamshedpur by road in any which way. I will never do it again.

Time to go and get the car checked and see if there is any major damage .

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Will put up my experience on the travelogue.

Looking forward to it. Esp. the stretch through Dalma.

Regards
Sutripta

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Took an alternate route through local roads going through the scenic Dalma Forest Sanctuary, Bandoan, Ranibandh, Khatra and then through Bankura. The route is pretty scenic as it goes through the Dalma hills and then the Mukutmanipur route. Once you are into WB, the roads are good mostly except for certain patches.

For the sake of me and possibly for others, will you please upload little details of this road? Is it the very road which passes by the two places called "Quilapal" and "Manbazar", both of which is in Purulia? Had you noticed two small towns on your way, having these names?

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

For the sake of me and possibly for others, will you please upload little details of this road? Is it the very road which passes by the two places called "Quilapal" and "Manbazar", both of which is in Purulia? Had you noticed two small towns on your way, having these names?

Hi Rahul, to take the Manbazar route, you have to turn left from Bandoan while I went straight through the Dalma Forest Reserve and then to Khatra and then Bankura to go on to NH2. Google Maps cannot come up with this route as the roads are not updated. Only MMI could give me this route when I broke it up into multiple via points. Below is an image of the route I took. Not sure about the Manbazar route as I didnt get any feedback from anybody about it.



The roads inside Jharkhand are mostly broken but not as bad as the Chandil or the Baharagora route. But these are local roads hence mostly single lane or two laned with local traffic to boot. The time taken to traverse was almost the same though with less damage to the car. Whatever happens, not advisable to try driving to Jamshedpur. I will cover all this once I can get the detailed travelogue together. Loads of work at office is preventing me from getting this done as of now.

[debuda]

I drove from Jamshedpur to Calcutta (Rajarhat) and back last week in my XUV. While going I took the usual (shortest) route via Bahragora, Chichira border, Lodasuli and Kharagpur. The distance from my house in Sonari to Rajarhat (Tata Hospital) was 301 km by this route.

The drive was very painful up to Kharagpur. On NH33 (Jamshedpur to Bahragora) there are some horribly broken and cratered stretches. It took me 4 hours to reach Bahragora, i.e., with an average speed of less than 25 kmph. I expected things to get a little better after entering Bengal (at Chichira border, 17 km beyond Bahragora), but it was not to be. Till about 3 years ago, the NH6 used to be quite good after entering Bengal but I have noticed that the maintenance of this road (Chichira border to Kharagpur) stopped completely ever since the Trinamool govt. took over in Bengal and now this stretch is almost as bad as the Jamshedpur-Bahragora stretch.



The engine bottom guard of my XUV got damaged somewhere between Jamshedpur and Kharagpur.


After Kharagpur, the highway to Calcutta is very good as it is a part of the Golden Quadrilateral.

While returning from Calcutta, I decided to avoid the NH6 / NH33 and drove via Durgapur. From Durgapur (Muchipara Mor) I drove via Bankura, Indpur, Khatra, Ranibandh, Jhilimili, Banduan and Patamda. This route bypasses Purulia.

The highway from Calcutta to Durgapur was excellent and the only problems I faced were an early morning jam on Jessore Road (airport to Bally Bridge turn off on Jessore Road) and the usual jam (took an hour to cross) at Panagarh. After Durgapur, the road to Bankura is still quite good though a few potholes have developed. From Bankura to Jhilimili the road is narrow but the surface is quite good. This stretch is also quite scenic.

Things get problematic after Jhilimili. The 16 km stretch between Jhilimili and Banduan is narrow, broken and full of frequent speed-breakers. From Banduan to Jamshedpur (50 km) the road is slightly broader but in a bad condition.

The total distance from Rajarhat to Sonari, Jamshedpur worked out to 363 km (62 km longer than the Bahragora, Kharagpur route) by this route. Despite the additional 62 km, it was a much better experience, the 50 km of bad stretches between Jhilimili and Jamshedpur notwithstanding.

Next time I drive to Calcutta, I might take the Chandil-Purulia route to Bankura though it is about 40 km longer than the Patamda-Banduan-Jhilimili-Indpur route. The reason is that the Jamshedpur-Chandil route (via Adityapur) is now reasonably good and I hope that the broken stretches on this route would be less. But I can be sure only after physically experiencing the route, especially now (just after the monsoons).

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by debuda

Next time I drive to Calcutta, I might take the Chandil-Purulia route to Bankura though it is about 40 km longer than the Patamda-Banduan-Jhilimili-Indpur route. The reason is that the Jamshedpur-Chandil route (via Adityapur) is now reasonably good and I hope that the broken stretches on this route would be less. But I can be sure only after physically experiencing the route, especially now (just after the monsoons).

Debuda, great to see you took the Jhilimili route. Its a very scenic route and I took it once when I returned from Jamshedpur to Kolkata. That time, I had taken the route through Purulia and Chandil while coming to Jamshedpur. Back then the stretch of NH33 from Chandil till Pardih was thoroughly broken with craters and the surface non-existent. However that was I think about 3 years back. Since then I have heard it has been repaired as they make NH33 4 lane going towards Ranchi. What were your timings?

[debuda]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Debuda, great to see you took the Jhilimili route. Its a very scenic route and I took it once when I returned from Jamshedpur to Kolkata. That time, I had taken the route through Purulia and Chandil while coming to Jamshedpur. Back then the stretch of NH33 from Chandil till Pardih was thoroughly broken with craters and the surface non-existent. However that was I think about 3 years back. Since then I have heard it has been repaired as they make NH33 4 lane going towards Ranchi. What were your timings?

Now there are two ways to drive from Jamshedpur to Chandil :

1. Take NH33 after crossing Mango.
2. Take the newly built, partly 4-laned road via Adityapur and Kandra.

The last couple of times I drove to Ranchi, I took NH33 and found the stretch between Jamshedpur and Chandil reasonably okay. But those trips were before the monsoons. This stretch has a tendency to deteriorate rapidly and I would suspect that it may have become bad during the rains. If I have to drive to Chandil now, I'd take the Kandra route.

During my recent drive to Calcutta, it took me 10 hours to reach Rajarhat via Bahragora and Kharagpur! The return trip via Durgapur took 9 hours.

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Baharagora I believe is still a car breaker.

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

I did the Baharagora stretch a couple of years ago and I felt this was a lot worse.

Originally Posted by debuda

I drove from Jamshedpur to Calcutta (Rajarhat) and back last week in my XUV. While going I took the usual (shortest) route via Bahragora, Chichira border, Lodasuli and Kharagpur. The drive was very painful up to Kharagpur.

Am reviving an old thread because I wish to put some update on this Calcutta-Kharagpur-Baharagora-Jamshedpur route. A person I personally know very well has taken this route just a few days earlier. Though he traveled only up to Ghatshila, I believe the rest of the stretch beyond that should be somewhat OK. And he wrote that:-

"Today just, I have come back to kolkata from ghatsila tour. Bahargora is no more nightmare now. Roads are re laid though two laned. Here is some details. 1. Ghatsila to bahargora -56 km, road is in decent shape except 2 km real bad road after 25 km of ghatsila. 2. Bahargora to chichira road is also good except 3 km real bad road before chichira check post. Rest upto kolkata is in decent shape. Took only 4 hrs 30 mnts ( including 40 mnts break at koaghat) to cover 266 km . from ghatsila to home."

I guess we may now use this shorter and very much previously dreaded route.
Thanks.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

I guess we may now use this shorter and very much previously dreaded route.
Thanks.

Yes this is good news. Coincidentally even my classmate from school traveled yesterday and he did the entire stretch from Jamshedpur to Baharagora in 1 hour flat. He vouches that the entire stretch is rid of all the dreaded potholes. In fact he also traveled into Jamshedpur through Chandil and he says that even that stretch has improved and is being currently being made 4 lane. Kudos to the new Jharkhand government.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

I guess we may now use this shorter and very much previously dreaded route.

Thanks.
I remember one other time when this road was in excellent condition: around a year after Jharkhand was formed. Didn't last for long though.

Regarding the thread title on safety, I don't think it is an issue anymore, provided commonsense precautions are taken.
See Samarjit Dhar's thread
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ml#post3873244

Regards
Sutripta