[deepak2579]

Hi All,
I am planning a road trip from Thane to Udaipur, in the 3rd week of November. We are travelling in 2 cars (Ertiga CNG and Ford Figo), a total of 6 adults and 2 kids.
Post doing a lot of research about the roads and travel conditions, I have the following doubts which need your help:
1. Is a starting time of 4-5 am good enough to avoid the Truck traffic on the highway.
2. Is the Bharuch traffic situation on the Narmada bridge resolved or we have to live with the same on this trip?
3. I am planning to reach Udaipur by 7-8 pm in the evening. Am i too optimistic?
4. Are there any special stretches in terms of traffic or roads that need extra attention?

This is my first drive on this stretch.
Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Deepak

[tomraven99]

Originally Posted by deepak2579

1. Is a starting time of 4-5 am good enough to avoid the Truck traffic on the highway.

Don't worry about truck traffic in Gujarat as most of the highway is six laned. Do take the state highway from Vadodara to Shamlaji via Godhra to avoid the mess around Himmatnagar. You will face slow moving truck traffic on ghat sections around Udaipur-unavoidable. Roads are excellent throughout.
Udaipur to Vapi should take you about 8-9hours with breaks in between.

There were no jams on the Narmada Bridge when I did this section last week.

[santhosh_kumard]

Hello all,
Planning to go to Udaipur and back and I think the alternate route by taking SH-87 via godhra is a good suggestion ( my bil confirms that this is a good route ).

But google did put a small surprise by showing me a route via SH-188 starting from Anand all the way to Modasa before joining NH-8, bypassing Himmatnagar. Has anyone tried this route and drivability nature, post evening?.

I am planning to start around 3 PM from Navi Mumbai.

-Thanks
Santhosh

[Rajroshan]

I am leaving at 4-4.30 am from Thane on the 17th november in my skoda octavia, will probably take a night break at Chittorgarh and then on my way to delhi on 18th november. Proposed route: Thane-Baroda-Ahmedabad-Udaipiur via himmatnagar-Chittorgarh(night halt), Chittorgarh-Jaipur-Delhi. Read online that the old golden gate bridge between surat and bharuch is now open for traffic and so the cronic traffic is reduced drastically if not completely eliminated. Didnt get clarity about the traffic issue near himmatnagar though.

[Wanderers]

Originally Posted by Rajroshan

I am leaving at 4-4.30 am from Thane on the 17th november in my skoda octavia, will probably take a night break at Chittorgarh...... Didnt get clarity about the traffic issue near himmatnagar though.

Hi

Returned from Baroda 6th October-14.

No traffic problem near Himmatnagar. 20 Km on Ahmedabad- Himmatnagar is wide 2 laned road, but never a traffic issue.
Roads after Himmatnagar has worn out but uniformly (only top layer 2-3 mm is giving away) and no pot holes so you need not reduce your speed.

Even I stayed at Chittorgarh. Check the below link to my travelogue for Hotel details in Chittorgarh.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ittorgarh.html

[Sandy28]

Originally Posted by Rajroshan

I am leaving at 4-4.30 am from Thane on the 17th november in my skoda octavia, will probably take a night break at Chittorgarh and then on my way to delhi on 18th november. Proposed route: Thane-Baroda-Ahmedabad-Udaipiur via himmatnagar-Chittorgarh(night halt), Chittorgarh-Jaipur-Delhi. Read online that the old golden gate bridge between surat and bharuch is now open for traffic and so the cronic traffic is reduced drastically if not completely eliminated. Didnt get clarity about the traffic issue near himmatnagar though.

Both the sides of the Narmada bridge at Bharuch is now open for traffic and so the earlier issue of traffic jams is now substantially reduced. No need to take the Golden bridge via Ankleshwar. Ahmedabad - Himmatnagar - Udaipur is also great road and nothing to worry about.

[santhosh_kumard]

Some pics which was taken during the Ahmedabad/HimmatNagar bypass ( Baroda-> Halol->Godhra->Modasa->Shamlaji ) Gujarat SH-5. The roads are butter smooth, except for small speed breakers in entry to the towns and I was able to maintain an average speed of around 80 without ever going beyond 110. Thankfully the toll stations are all manned and

The roads have good signage, but very less number of petrol stations and eateries. There are some on the way, especially near the few toll stations.











Pics courtesy, my better half :-)

[amit_purohit20]

Hello,
Want to drive from Pune to Udaipur.

1) Which route is the best between Vadodra (Baroda) and Udaipur
A) Baroda- Ahmedabad ringroad-Himmatnagar-Udaipur
B) Baroda-Godhra-Modasa-JoinNH8 coming from Himmatnagar-Udaipur
C) Baroda-Anand-Samarkha-Rahtalav-Pansora-Chunel-Ladvel-Bayad-Dhansura-Modasa-RegularNH8 to Udaipur (Google shows this as shortest route)
https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Pu...d73.68!2d24.58

But I want to use the one which has less traffic and a smooth highway to reduce driving time.

2) Can I now bypass Ankleshwar and go by the regular bridge or still have to go through the city and golden bridge?

Any other inputs from your side to reduce the driving time because I want to reach Pune to Udaipur in a single day. Is it possible in a day?

I have driven from Pune to Bangalore in a day and 17 hours of max driving with breaks.

Please guide.
Thanks

[ampere]

Originally Posted by amit_purohit20

Hello,
Want to drive from Pune to Udaipur.

1) Which route is the best between Vadodra (Baroda) and Udaipur
A) Baroda- Ahmedabad ringroad-Himmatnagar-Udaipur
B) Baroda-Godhra-Modasa-JoinNH8 coming from Himmatnagar-Udaipur
C) Baroda-Anand-Samarkha-Rahtalav-Pansora-Chunel-Ladvel-Bayad-Dhansura-Modasa-RegularNH8 to Udaipur (Google shows this as shortest route)

Stick to four lane via Baroda-AMD. Its the best option.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Ahmedabad - Mehsana - Palanpur - Abu Road - Udaipur

Isn't that a big detour Parag?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by amit_purohit20

Hello,
Want to drive from Pune to Udaipur.

1) Which route is the best between Vadodra (Baroda) and Udaipur
A) Baroda- Ahmedabad ringroad-Himmatnagar-Udaipur
B) Baroda-Godhra-Modasa-JoinNH8 coming from Himmatnagar-Udaipur
C) Baroda-Anand-Samarkha-Rahtalav-Pansora-Chunel-Ladvel-Bayad-Dhansura-Modasa-RegularNH8 to Udaipur (Google shows this as shortest route)
https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Pu...d73.68!2d24.58

But I want to use the one which has less traffic and a smooth highway to reduce driving time.

2) Can I now bypass Ankleshwar and go by the regular bridge or still have to go through the city and golden bridge?

Any other inputs from your side to reduce the driving time because I want to reach Pune to Udaipur in a single day. Is it possible in a day?

I have driven from Pune to Bangalore in a day and 17 hours of max driving with breaks.

Please guide.
Thanks

Its only 3 months since we drove up north and I will recommend -

Ahmedabad - Mehsana - Palanpur - Abu Road - Udaipur

All the flyovers are functional at Mehsana now Including Palanpur.

The route is fantastic, devoid of any traffic and a scenic till you reach Udaipur.

When driving up, we used Himmatnagar option and that had bad patches and some slower sections due to heavy truck traffic and terrain.

Return we used the Abu Road option and it was the best decision.

If I were you, I will pick the Abu Road option any given day!

Ahmedabad SP Ring Road - Mehsana - Super good L&T 4 lane toll road (2-3 places flyover work was in Progress in Sept 14 but not a botheration at all)

Mehsana - Palanpur - 4 Lane

Palanpur - Abu Road - Udaipur - Super good 4 lane

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by amit_purohit20

Hello,
Want to drive from Pune to Udaipur.

1) Which route is the best between Vadodra (Baroda) and Udaipur
A) Baroda- Ahmedabad ringroad-Himmatnagar-Udaipur
B) Baroda-Godhra-Modasa-JoinNH8 coming from Himmatnagar-Udaipur
C) Baroda-Anand-Samarkha-Rahtalav-Pansora-Chunel-Ladvel-Bayad-Dhansura-Modasa-RegularNH8 to Udaipur (Google shows this as shortest route)
https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Pu...d73.68!2d24.58

But I want to use the one which has less traffic and a smooth highway to reduce driving time.

2) Can I now bypass Ankleshwar and go by the regular bridge or still have to go through the city and golden bridge?

Any other inputs from your side to reduce the driving time because I want to reach Pune to Udaipur in a single day. Is it possible in a day?

I have driven from Pune to Bangalore in a day and 17 hours of max driving with breaks.

Please guide.
Thanks

From Baroda bypass, turn right towards Halol.
Baroda-Halol-Godhra-Modasa-Shamlaji is a fantastic 4-laned no-traffic link road option to avoid the expressway/ Ahmedabad/ Himmatnagar sector. Very fast, very good roads.

Ankleshwar-Bharuch is still a toss between Golden Bridge & NH8 bypass, unpredictable.

With an early morning start at 4 am from Pune, reaching Udaipur the same day by 7 pm is possible, with food breaks. However, roads are likely to be congested this busy holiday weekend, with delays expected at all toll gates

[amit_purohit20]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

With an early morning start at 4 am from Pune, reaching Udaipur the same day by 7 pm is possible, with food breaks. However, roads are likely to be congested this busy holiday weekend, with delays expected at all toll gates

Thanks for all your help and with your motivation I plan to take this journey and complete it in a day.

I had pm'ed Ganesh and Sunil and have got lightning fast responses from them too.
Thankyou all. I plan to take this journey on 6th February Friday. I hope traffic should be less.

I will update this thread once I am back for the benefit of others.

[suniladhiya]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

From Baroda bypass, turn right towards Halol.
Baroda-Halol-Godhra-Modasa-Shamlaji is a fantastic 4-laned no-traffic link road option to avoid the expressway/ Ahmedabad/ Himmatnagar sector. Very fast, very good roads.

Ankleshwar-Bharuch is still a toss between Golden Bridge & NH8 bypass, unpredictable.

With an early morning start at 4 am from Pune, reaching Udaipur the same day by 7 pm is possible, with food breaks. However, roads are likely to be congested this busy holiday weekend, with delays expected at all toll gates

HVK Sir,

Just returned from trip to Vadodara and agree with you one hundred percent on your "toss" comment above. On outward leg on 22nd got stuck on NH8 bypass for about one and a half hours. Vowed that this is the last time i will try the bypass and advised Amit also accordingly through pm. Now, today morning on way back to Pune just happened to miss the Bharuch exit and went on the flyover and hey presto - across the bypass bridge in 10 minutes flat - perhaps the R-Day holiday contributed to the sparse traffic. But the major development I noticed is that L&T has been given the contract for building a completely new bridge over the Narmada parallel to the existing bridge on the bypass - in fact we saw L&T heavy construction equipment working in full swing on both sides of the existing bridge - so hopefully within the next year or so we will have a permanent solution to this problem.

Also, work on two additional flyovers in the Manor-Charoti areas in in full swing and I would expect it be over in the next six months.

[amit_purohit20]

On Friday 6th I started at 5:40 am and reached Udaipur at 12:40 am, 19 hours with two major breaks of 45 mins and 30 mins. I didn't hear to all your advice and tried bypassing Bharuch using NH8 and got royally stuck. Thanks to other Bhpians I tried going in the opposite direction and overcome a 3km plus queue of mostly trucks. Got stuck for 1.5 hours at around 3 in the afternoon. After Vadodara missed the halol exit and again got stuck in a traffic jam before NE1 for again 1 hour. Had to jump my car over a broken divider took a U turn and again came back via Halol, Kalol, Godhra, Lunawada, Modasa, Shamlaji. Road condition excellent sparse traffic and no one there in night to help. Do not miss going down the lunawada bridge otherwise one will straight head back to Godhra like I did in dead night darkness. But strongly support going via godhra rather than Ahmedabad Himmatnagar. There is some bridge before NE1 starts which is under repair thats why the traffic jams.
What should be my way out while returning to pune to avoid Bharuch traffic jam?

[Rajroshan]

The drive to delhi from mumbai with a night halt at chittorgarh was really good. We left from Thane at 4.30 am and reached chittorgarh hotel at 6 pm taking 3-4 stops on our way for bfast, lunch, diesel and evening tea/snacks. . Route followed was exactly as I mentioned in my earlier blog which was quite good and no major traffic or road issues. We stayed at hotel meera near chittorgarh railway station, room was average, but for a charge of 1000 rupees for the night for an A/C room it was quite reasonable.
Next day left for delhi, road was good, a few traffic diversions on the jaipur delhi highway caused traffic jams and the road had bad patches from around 80kms before gurgaon toll naka. At gurgaon toll naka we were greeted by hoardes of cars coming from everywhere and that was not even the peak hour at 5 pm!! But overall a superb drive, totally enjoyed it. Diesel was cheapest at neemrana on the boarder of rajasthan and haryana at 51.91 (diesel in delhi was at arnd 54 that time), but now I think its the same as delhi cause of some excise revision by rajasthan government which I noticed on my trip to jaipur in january first week.

After staying in delhi for 3 months am gonna be driving back to mumbai in the next few days. This time will probably change the route a lil in between. Instead of going to baroda via ahmedabad will be taking the route Udaipur-modasa-anand-baroda and then thane.