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Friends,
Need information on the road conditions to shirdi, planning to go through ghoti - sinner road.

Uday

The Ghoti-Sinnar bypass was quite bad when I visited last during end of 2015.
Also, no facilities on this route and best avoided in low light conditions (early morning/evening/night).
Do consider going via Nashik, it has better roads and facilities.

EDIT:Please read posts on the previous page. In 2016, it was reported that Ghoti-Sinnar road was in excellent condition and then few months later in early 2017, again it seemed to have deteriorated.

Hi, has anyone travelled via the Ghoti-Sinnar route to Shirdi recently? I am planning on traveling tomorrow.

Hello Deepak,

Did you travel on the Ghoti Sinnar road earlier? Can you kindly update? Planning to drive down tomorrow.

I did the Thane - Shirdi run on 14th April 18. Started at 5 am and reached Shirdi at 8.45 am with one 15 min chai & loo break. Took the Ghoti - Sinnar - Shirdi route and its just superb. Its a 2 laned road and I could easily touch 80 speeds due to very thin traffic. The road is good to drive.

Hello ghodlur,

I have a couple of questions related to Thane to Shridi travel and would like to connect with you. Please send me a PM if you could as I can't do that currently.

Your advice would be helpful in planning my Thane-Shirdi journey :)

-Sunil

I tried to PM you, got this message instead.

Hello ghodlur,

Ok then allow me to post my queries here itself. I am planning to do the same Mumbai-Shirdi same day return for my parents on any weekend.


1) I wanted to know the condition of the road w.r.t. having a wheel chair borne senior citizen on board. Is it safe and also smooth with no or very few potholes?
2) What are the options for parking near by the holy temple so that my parents don't have to walk or cover a lot in this summer?
3) Any good place to recommend in Shirdi for food (lite lunch)?
4) How is the rush there on weekend mornings?

This will be my first Mumbai-Shirdi drive and visit to the temple as an adult. My earlier experiences have been as a child and by using public transport. Hence the queries.


-Sunil

Hi Sunil,

Mumbai-Shirdi-Mumbai is doable in a day provided you start early around 5ish. The route is Mumbai - Thane - Ghoti - Sinnar - Shirdi.

1) The road condition all through out till Shirdi is good. You may encounter early morning truck traffic till the Bhiwandi Naka, after which it is smooth sailing. So factor additional 20 odd minutes till Bhiwandi naka which later you can make up. Speeds of 80 are perfect. Some patches after Ghoti are rough but that's only for a km or so.
2) There is an underground parking touching the temple but the approach to the parking is a huge round about. The quickest approach to this parking has been cordoned off hence the extra running to access the parking. In addition to this there are parkings on the road or if you are staying at any hotel then the hotel parking is available. But I would suggest instead of parking your car in hot sun, better park it in underground parking. The parking fee is Rs 50/- for entire day.
3) There are couple of restaurants very near to the temple, I don't remember the names. The food is good. Keep in mind the restaurants are usually packed by 11.30 am, so plan your visit and darshan to finish before this.
4) Shirdi is crowded generally on weekends. Early morning crowds are not huge but considering the school vacations you never know when the crowd would swell.

Other than the above few important points to be noted.
1) Moment you near the temple, there will be hordes of people rushing to offer you parking, these are generally the stall owners who would coerce you to buy the offerings from them in return to the parking. Ask anyone way to underground parking, if required pay that guide a nominal tenner.
2) You will need entrance tickets which is bio metric enabled (i feel this is a big joke because it says to press the left first finger and people press all fingers except that). There is free entrance pass and special darshan pass costing Rs 200/-. Since you have a senior citizen and your first time, I would suggest to get the special darshan. Unfortunately all members of the family are required for the ticket buying bio metric antics. Also there is a special line for senior citizens for the darshan inside the temple, you can skip the general crowd line.

Imp - Keep yourselves hydrated all the time. Shirdi is relatively dry area, the heat is strong but no sweating.

Hope the above helps.

Happened to make a round trip to Shirdi on 28th April and can concur that the Thane-Sinnar-Ghoti route is the best one to take for the journey.

My overall experience was bad as I had to pick up some relatives from Khopoli and ended up taking the Lonavala-Chakan-Rajgurunagar-Peth-Narayangaon-Malwadi-Sangamner-Shirdi route, which was choked due to slow moving traffic on the Mumbai Pune Expressway and then going through the cities where the roads and traffic ended up making it a 6 and a half hour journey (excluding breaks).

The return was charted through the Ghoti - Sinnar - Thane route and took 4 hours (excluding breaks), which was with mostly sedate driving due to the night hours when the return journey was undertaken.

At Shirdi, tried to search for the underground parking as suggested by Ghodlur but ended up parking at a hotel right opposite the main gate of the temple for convenience (Rs 80 for Open parking).

Thought it may be useful to give a current picture for anyone contemplating a day run. Did Shirdi over the long weekend. Started at 6 am from Chembur and reached Shirdi at 10.45 am with one bio break. Rains have played havoc with the roads and the Ghoti-Sinnar route is a complete no-no - the potholes are painful and torment you for about 70% of this stretch. After darshan left at 2 pm and took the Nashik route which is much better relatively (say this as the highway was also riddled in stretches). ETA was 6.45 pm but had to take a detour and traffic under Thane into GB Road was awful to say the least - got home at 8.

Planning to do Shirdi from Chembur tomorrow. Any info on the latest road conditions on the Ghoti Sinnar stretch or should i prefer going via Nasik?

Hey Bharat,

Did you do this trip? How were the road conditions? I am planning to do this soon, so please share the advisable route.

Don't dare going via the Ghoti Sinnar stretch. Your car will develop n number of rattles after that stretch. Go via Nashik - that's your best bet. Excellent roads, you'll enjoy the drive.

Thanks Bharat.

Did Thane-Shirdi on the weekend - left on Saturday and came back on Sunday.

Took the Nasik route. All smooth and fast - except for the 10-15 mins that you may have to spend in Nasik city traffic and 1-2 work in progress patches, the road is all smooth.

Thanks,
Sunil