[Akshay1234]

I have a days work in Udaipur and instead of taking a flight I thought I should drive down. I have have much knowledge on routes etc besides the normal Bombay-Pune, Nashik. What i wanted to know is -

1) What is the approx distance by road from Mumbai to Udaipur.
2) Is one way comfortable possible in a day? What is the approx time it will take if I leave Mumbai at 630am.
3) How are the roads? What are the conditions like now being the monsoons?
4) Is it advisable to take the Innova or the Punto? (Punto being my preference since high speed stability is so much better) If the roads are great might even take the Accord.
5) Detailed route guide anyone? Do I just stick to the NH8 or are there shortcuts or turnoffs anywhere?

Thank you so much.

[issigonis]

>>>akshay,

How are you doing?
Hope you've got your Accord done after your scrape near Fountain?

I did a Bombay-Udvada-Udaipur run in Feb this year on the NH8. Roads were near perfect, traffic too, except for chaotic traffic near the Bharuch stretch. I have heard that roads till the Maharashtra border ( Charoti naka et.al) are not so good, but once you cross into Gujarat, the roads get tangibly better ( ref : BolBolero's travelogue on his Spiti valley run in his Bolero in July this year). I found the quality of the road right from the NE1 ( connecting Baroda to Ahmedabad), thence to the Himmatnagar exit on the left on the NE1, and then onto Himmatnagar, Shamlaji and finally to Udaipur excellent, with very good signage, clear markings on the road surface on turns. Of course, this being India, you will find trucks, bikes, bullock carts on the shoulder of the road coming from the wrong side; so you have to be careful.

I have posted an excel log which you can check at : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...bu-bombay.html.

This will give you an idea of the Bombay to Udvada and Udvada to Udaipur runs respectively.

You can also check out a thread by anainar who had been to Udaipur from Poona using the Ghodbunder Road, instead of the Western Express Highway. Check with hvk on the latest condition of the road, don't expect any issue on the Gujarat to Rajasthan stretch though.

The Bombay-Udaipur run is approximately 775 kms- it will likely take you about 10-12 hours with pitstops. If you start at 6.30 am, I would expect you to roll into Udaipur around 5-6 pm.

My order of preference for your cars : 1. Accord, 2. Punto, 3. Innova

Enjoy and drive safe.

P.S. : We should meet up again, soon.

[hvkumar]

Roads are great except from Ghodbunder to Vapi.
Traffic is dense most times of the day till Surat, after which the road widens and merges into the A'Bad expressway from Baroda.
Don't miss teh turning in expressway to enter Sardar Patel Ring Road to avoid A'Bad city - you can refer my log book for actual details.
Check out the following log book which has detailed route info for Bombay-Udaipur.
http://groups.google.com/group/hvkum...2009.xls?hl=en
Even with relaxed driving - and at least 2 halts - you can do the journey in under 12-15 hours.

[neofromcapone]

@akshay1234 - I did a Udaipur - Bombay in april, in the accord, no problems whatsoever, Infact I am glad we did not take the Innova. We started from Udaipur @ 8ish and reached Bombay before 17:00 same day, almost like a Bom-Goa run, with Lunch , Tea and Fuel Halts.
Just Make Sure you take the National Expressway,between Vadodra -A'bad its better than Bom-Pune Expressway.

[drifter]

Roads are mostly good, getting out of Bombay can be a pain. Leaving early is a good plan. Roads till Surat are patchy in places and traffic at Surat can take time if you hit it at peak time thanks to bridge constructions.

After Surat, it is almost flat out all the way. Route would be Bombay-Dahisar-Vapi-Surat-Vadodara-Ahmedabad-Himatnagar-Udaipur.

Use NH8 from Dahisar all the way to Vadodara. From there take the National Expressway 1 (NE1) to Ahmedabad. Take the NH8 towards Himatnagar and go all the way to Udaipur. This is part of the Golden Quadrilateral so expect 4-lane roads all the way. But expect traffic to come in the wrong direction especially in Rajasthan.


Have a good trip. Drive safe. It can easily be done in a day. Start early in the morning and expect to finish before sun down.

Drifter

[Akshay1234]

Thank you so much issigonis, hvkumar, neofromcapone and difter. You guys really helped. But the problem is my father is adamant on taking a flight. Now hopefully il be able to convince him to let us drive down.

Thanks again guys. Will keep you updated.

[h@r$h@l]

Akshay,

The roads from A'bad to Udaipur are fantastic except some rough patches. negligible. Once you on the Baroda to Ahmedabad express highway, ,make sure you take exit on the ring road with sign board for Udaipur / Ajmer / Jaipur etc. If you miss that you will come out to the main exit, which will lead you into the city traffic.

Another patch which i would advise you to look out for is Bharuch stretch. Instead of sticking to NH8, i generally take entry into Ankleshwar and then drive along the golden bridge into Bharuch and come out on the other end and re join the NH8. The Bharuch - Ankleshwar patch has heavy traffic most times. So better to avoid it.

Have a safe trip.

[issigonis]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

Thank you so much issigonis, hvkumar, neofromcapone and difter. You guys really helped. But the problem is my father is adamant on taking a flight. Now hopefully il be able to convince him to let us drive down.

Thanks again guys. Will keep you updated.

>>> akshay,

With roads near perfect, you will actually be flying low

Originally Posted by h@r$h@l

Akshay,

The roads from A'bad to Udaipur are fantastic ,make sure you take exit on the ring road with sign board for Udaipur / Ajmer / Jaipur etc. If you miss that you will come out to the main exit, which will lead you into the city traffic.

>>> If I am not mistaken, the blue coloured signboard on the left hand side indicates a left turn for Rajkot (and Himmatnagar). I had overshot the sign by 25-30 metres as I was looking for a sign telling me about Udaipur. Please keep your eyes peeled for this signboard, otherwise you will carry on and land inside Ahmedabad, unless you want to go that way.

Regards

[harjeev]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Roads are great except from Ghodbunder to Vapi.
Traffic is dense most times of the day till Surat, after which the road widens and merges into the A'Bad expressway from Baroda.
Don't miss teh turning in expressway to enter Sardar Patel Ring Road to avoid A'Bad city - you can refer my log book for actual details.
Check out the following log book which has detailed route info for Bombay-Udaipur.
http://groups.google.com/group/hvkum...2009.xls?hl=en
Even with relaxed driving - and at least 2 halts - you can do the journey in under 12-15 hours.

I totally agree. I did the same stretch a couple of days back and the route till vapi is pathetic. I left Ghodbunder around 11am ish and was at Vapi McDonalds around 2pm. Distance in kms is not much but the traffic is a big pain. After that the route is a breeze though. I stayed the night 40kms before Surat as I had some issue with my car, left next morning around 7am and managed to reach Jaipur by 930PM.
The only place where the route is bad is after Ahmedabad which has single lane for 5-7kms and then aftre Upadpur towards Chittorgarh again single lane for 5-7kms. Other than that the route is a breeze though.
I have the GPS track is anyone is interested please let me know.
Cheers

@HVK sir, your travel details were a bible for me. Thanks for doing all the hardwork and managing to jot down all the details.
I did BLR-PUNE, PUNE-VAPI, VAPI-JAIPUR & JAPIUR-DEL. Will be puting up he details shortly.
Cheers

[issigonis]

Originally Posted by harjeev

I totally agree.
I have the GPS track is anyone is interested please let me know.
Cheers

@HVK sir, your travel details were a bible for me. Thanks for doing all the hardwork and managing to jot down all the details.
I did BLR-PUNE, PUNE-VAPI, VAPI-JAIPUR & JAPIUR-DEL. Will be puting up he details shortly.
Cheers

>>>harjeev,

I am interested in both - the GPS track and the details of your trip.

Regards

[BolBolero]

@ Akshay,
Try to leave by 5.30 am. latest from Bombay. That way you avoid a lot of traffic, especially upto Vapi. After Vapi, the roads are super smooth, except for a few stretches where, flyover work is going on. Overall the roads in Gujarat and Rajasthan are a breeze to drive on.

[hvkumar]

Yesterday, Souvik Das & Co took 4 hours to cover the first 220 kms from Ghodbunder to beyond Valsad, reporting some terrible pot holes till Vapi. which can slow you down considerably. However, having left Ghodbunder at 5 am, they reached Udaipur before 5 pm after taking a leisurely lunch halt en route.

[Akshay1234]

Looks like this isnt gonna happen. My dad wants to finish everything off in a day so the only option is taking a flight. Sorry guys and thank you soo much for the help. This thread will hopefully be useful for others.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Yesterday, Souvik Das & Co took 4 hours to cover the first 220 kms from Ghodbunder to beyond Valsad, reporting some terrible pot holes till Vapi. which can slow you down considerably. However, having left Ghodbunder at 5 am, they reached Udaipur before 5 pm after taking a leisurely lunch halt en route.

This means there has been considerable damage in the last 2 weeks. I started from Thane at around 2.00 pm on the 15th of August and reached Baroda a little before 9.00 pm with a leisurely 40 odd minute halt at Vapi. The roads beyond the Fountain hotel turning were conducive to good speeds. In fact Ghodbunder was the worst stretch till I hit the Chiloda Himmatnagar section on day 2.

I did the Baroda Jaipur stretch the next day starting at 08.00 hours and reaching Jaipur city at 08.30 pm with one meal halt, one fuel halt and one halt at Rajasthan Sales tax check post to discover that the floatilla of nearly 30 odd extra wide and extra long Volvo and Man tractors towing individual mobile counterweights and trailers (equipped with rails and hydraulic locks) were ferrying DMRC coach bogies (24+ nos.) and engines(6nos) totaling 60 minutes. I ran into this convoy at the Chiloda circle and finally saw them off at the ST check post. They were using Volvo tractors (350+bhp) for the engines and a mix of MAN imported tractors (300+ bhp) & MAN locally assembled tractors(270+ bhp) for the coaches. Needless to state that the Volvo and imported MAN tractors were the preferred ones with the drivers of the convoy. They were coming from a port in Gujarat (name starting with G or was it Mundra) and would take a total of approx. 3 weeks to get to Delhi covering anywhere from a low of 60 to a high of 110kms in a day.

The third day I covered Jaipur to Manesar starting at a little past 1.30 pm and reaching at 05.00 hrs with an extended fuel stop of nearly 40 minutes(fuel + density test+ quantity test +filter paper test).

The remaining stretch from Manesar to South Delhi(45~50) kms took 2.30 hours.

I plan to drive back to Bombay starting around the 20th of this month. HVKumar in your opinion do you think I should factor in extra time for the damaged section or should I expect the roads to be patched up by then if not fully repaired.

[hvkumar]

Khoj, the road has lots of pot holes between Vapi and Ghodbunder, especially in the Vasai-Virar area and traffic is slow, you will have to dodge pot holes. I don't think things will improve till early next month (it is Ganpati season in Bombay and all activity comes to a halt). I think you can budget 30 minutes extra for the Vapi-Ghodbunder sector.