[ashis89]

Originally Posted by ashis89

I took this route in late Nov 2021 while going to Bhubaneswar and again yesterday, on the return leg. I was bypassing Vizag around 12 - 1 pm on either occasions. Regarding the road, about 25 kms is excellent 6 lane concrete road with tolls. About 20 kms in uneven/broken 2 lane road with truck traffic. That said, there are not any big potholes and route won't be a challenge for a sedan or hatchback.

If one is unlucky, one might get stuck here. While I was lucky both times and crossed this junction in 2-3 mins, I could see almost a km long pile up of vehicles on the other side.

All said and done, this bypass is still preferred by a lot of private cars and small vehicles.

I have shared my experience of the Anakapelle bypass road in the post above. Some portion of the road is bad but can be traversed in any kind of car.

I would prefer this bypass over the city traffic. I did this route in mid-Feb '22.

Originally Posted by champ2108

I will be doing BLR - BBSR coming weekend (2-3 April).
Did the strech August 2021. Last time instead of taking the vishakapatnam bypass went through the city and lost a bunch of time crossing the city. So wanted to know how is the bypass road. Heard that the bypass has huge potholes.
Anyone can update the status of Vishakapatnam bypass road status.

Originally Posted by nibedk

Even with not so good roads it takes a lot lesser time and less stressful than driving through the city.

If I remember correctly almost 70% of the roads are done now, but the rest 30% is back breaking. I would still take the bypass though. Less stressful and saves time.

+1.

[PetrolRider]

Planning for my 1st multi day road trip from Pune till Bhubaneswar in 3rd week of April. I will be traveling with family, and I am the sole driver.
My plan to make it a 3-day 2-night affair (with a buffer day in hand).

Here is my plan:

Day 1: Pune - Hyderabad (done this route before)
Day 2: Hyderabad - Visakhapatnam / Rajahmundry (completely new)
Day 3: Visakhapatnam / Rajahmundry - Bhubaneswar (Did Berhampur -- Bhubaneswar before)

As I am traveling with family including my 8-year-old, the earliest I can start by 6 AM only. Also, I have my own issue with driving after sundown, hence I am not comfortable to drive after 7 PM. This gives me, excluding breaks, around 10 hours of drive.

I clearly see, I can do a bit more than Hyderabad on Day 1. But, as per google research, I find the next logical / practical stay over could be Vijayawada. This would add another 5 hours of drive at-least.
Will there be any place within 2 hours of drive from Hyderabad, where we could spend the night? If not, any place to stay in Hyderabad from where I can hit the ORR / Highway with least possible traffic / time?

Friends, who have frequented on those routes, how is current road condition at this moment. With 90ish speed, will it be possible to reach Vizag, if I leave Hyderabad around 6 AM?

In case, I could not stretch till Vizag on day 2, what is the most suitable place for break. Right now I am zeroing on Rajahmundry.

Also, any good place for bio break for family members between Solapur - Hyderabad / Vizag - Bhubaneswar?

[champ2108]

Completed my trip recently and passed through Kovvuru toll on April 2nd. The toll gate still collects cash (68 rupees). It took 10 mins to cross the toll and another 15 mins to cross the bridge and Rajahmundry bypass.

The roads have been patched but avoid to exceed speed above 60 since the patch work isn't great and bumpy.

[champ2108]

Originally Posted by PetrolRider

Planning for my 1st multi day road trip from Pune till Bhubaneswar in 3rd week of April. I will be traveling with family, and I am the sole driver.
My plan to make it a 3-day 2-night affair (with a buffer day in hand).

Here is my plan:

Day 1: Pune - Hyderabad (done this route before)
Day 2: Hyderabad - Visakhapatnam / Rajahmundry (completely new)
Day 3: Visakhapatnam / Rajahmundry - Bhubaneswar (Did Berhampur -- Bhubaneswar before)

As I am traveling with family including my 8-year-old, the earliest I can start by 6 AM only. Also, I have my own issue with driving after sundown, hence I am not comfortable to drive after 7 PM. This gives me, excluding breaks, around 10 hours of drive.

I clearly see, I can do a bit more than Hyderabad on Day 1. But, as per google research, I find the next logical / practical stay over could be Vijayawada. This would add another 5 hours of drive at-least.
Will there be any place within 2 hours of drive from Hyderabad, where we could spend the night? If not, any place to stay in Hyderabad from where I can hit the ORR / Highway with least possible traffic / time?

Friends, who have frequented on those routes, how is current road condition at this moment. With 90ish speed, will it be possible to reach Vizag, if I leave Hyderabad around 6 AM?

In case, I could not stretch till Vizag on day 2, what is the most suitable place for break. Right now I am zeroing on Rajahmundry.

Also, any good place for bio break for family members between Solapur - Hyderabad / Vizag - Bhubaneswar?

Hyderabad to Vizag is easily doable with stops in one day given that it is roughly 600 kms. Longer days due to summer will make it easier due to more daytime. Vijaywada to Vizag has good roads except for 15-20 kms. Once such will be after crossing Vijaywada city for a few kms and then near Kovurru toll till Rajahmundry bypass is over. Most of the roads are breeze. From Rajahmundry to Vizag the speed will reduce given that there are many towns and 2 lanes on each side. So speed decreases to an average of 60-70.

Vizag to Bhubaneswar you will hardly find any proper places since most of the towns are bypasses until you reach Berhampur. Only proper option would be fuel stations after Vizag until you enter Odisha.

[das.sui]

Hey Folks,
Am travelling from Chennai to Bhubaneswar this weekend. Travelling with wife and my 6yo. My wife does share the driving duties more often than not during our long drives.
I have the below plans, need your suggestions on which one is better:

Plan A:
Start from Chennai on Saturday around 3PM, Night halt at Ongole. Sunday cover the entire distance from Ongole to Bhubaneswar.

Plan A.A:
Start from Chennai on Saturday around 3PM, Night halt at Ongole. Sunday cover the Ongole to Vizag or stretch till Berhampore if possible. This makes it a 2 halt trip.

Plan B:
Start from Chennai on Sunday morning and retire at Vizag for the day. Cover Vizag to Bhubaneswar on Monday.

I need to be in Bhubaneswar by Monday evening at least, as my cousin's marriage is on Tuesday.

Also is anyone from here travelling on the same day?

[Swaminathan]

Thanks to the information shared by bhp-ians in this thread.

Helped ne in the drive from Hyderabad to Puri and back to Bangalore in the Last week.

Thought of additional information.

Ferry Ride :
From Puri to Brahmapur - Got the Ferry ride from Satapada to Janhikuda across the back waters of Chilikha, this ride makes the complete trip shorter by 90 kms. I was on the Ferry on Sunday and the timings from Satapada were 10 AM and 1 PM. I was lucky to reach just on time 9:54 AM and managed to catch the Ferry along with my vehicle. This ferry reduces the distance from Puri to Brahmapur by 90kms and drive through village roads (all in good condition)

Total time :
From Puri to Bangalore, it took me 21.5 hours including the Lunch and Dinner breaks, started at 9 am from Puri and reached Bangalore next morning 6:30 AM

Bad patches
Near Godavari 4th Bridge ~10 kms
Entry from Naidupet to Tirupathi ~40 kms

[bong_voyager]

Originally Posted by das.sui

need your suggestions on which one is better

Plan B is much better..if you can start at 5am from vizag on monday, you will be in time for lunch in bhubaneswar

[bong_voyager]

Originally Posted by Swaminathan

From Puri to Brahmapur - Got the Ferry ride from Satapada to Janhikuda across the back waters of Chilikha

Even i was contemplating taking this route on my way back from puri. Can you pls give a section wise time breakup of this route like puri to satapada, ferry ride and janhikuda to nh16.

[Swaminathan]

Started from Puri - 9 AM

Reached Satapada - 10 AM (It takes less than an hour to Satapada, keep a 15 mins buffer - Villages enroute need to slow down, honk for local 2 wheeler traffic etc.)

Ferry time - 45 mins (Reached Janhikuda side by 10:45ish)

Reached Brahmapur - 12:30 PM

[bong_voyager]

Hi All, will be returning back to Bangalore from Kolkata next week. However this time wife wants to have darshan at Puri instead of our regular stop at Bhubaneswar. Requesting local folks to guide on what would be the best route back from Puri to NH16? Google shows below two options. Any update on recent road condition is much appreciated. Thanks in Advance

[Swaminathan]

Originally Posted by bong_voyager

Hi All, will be returning back to Bangalore from Kolkata next week. However this time wife wants to have darshan at Puri instead of our regular stop at Bhubaneswar. Requesting local folks to guide on what would be the best route back from Puri to NH16? Google shows below two options. Any update on recent road condition is much appreciated. Thanks in Advance
Attachment 2306800

You can take the New Jagannath Road - There is another route through Satapada which includes a Ferry ride if you are interested. You can view my last post in the same Thread. I just used the Ferry route and we enjoyed as a family.

[A_Basu]

I did this route, solo, during the heatwave week of May 1. Here's my experience (warning: I drive a bit slow ):

First day

Started from Bangalore a little after 4:00 AM. Reached the hotel at 6:00 PM. The route was Bangalore - Hoskote - Tirupati - Nellore - Ongole - Vijaywada.

Here's my speed graph:



I had a burst tyre when I was about 20 kms from Vijaywada. Got the stepney fixed at a roadside puncher shop.

Second day

Started from Vijaywada at around 5:30 AM and was in Vizag by 2:30 PM. After a quick lunch, I dropped in at the nearest Ford workshop, intending to book an appointment for the next day for a roadworthiness check and tyre replacement. But after arriving there, I learnt the next day the workshop was closed because of Eid. It was already past 4:30 PM, and I wouldn't have been able to get my car there by 5:30 PM (when they closed shop), so they treated my case as "roadside assistance" and sent a person with me to the hotel. The Ford person did a visual roadworthiness inspection, and then took the car and me to a nearby tyre shop, and supervised the replacement of all 4 tyres.

I'd got the car checked at the Bangalore Ford workshop a week before the journey. They were told about the trip, and yet they failed to warn me about the tyres. The Vizag person said a visual inspection of the tyres should've alerted them to possible mishaps and that they shouldn't have relied solely on the odometer readings.

Anyway. Very very thankful to PPS Ford, Maddilapalem, Vizag for helping me get out of this scary situation. By 7:00 PM, my car was good to go!

Last day

I took about 8.5 hours to cover the last 430 km between Vizag and Bhubaneswar. The roads till now had been quite good. The road just outside Vizag was good too.



But, about 150 km down, road-widening work was going on. So, after every 10 km or so of highway, there's a 1-2 km stretch of mud roads, which slowed me down considerably.

Learnings, advice, etc.

1. This was during a heatwave. I had placed the phone in the mobile holder clamp on the dahsboard. But, despite the car AC, the phone gave me a temperature alert. There was direct sunlight on the dashboard, plus phone was using CPU heavily for GoogleMaps and FindMyPhone, and I had also shared my live location with my family, so this overheating happened. For the rest of the journey, I placed the phone on the front passenger seat inside my cap (because there was direct sunlight on the passenger seat too), and directed 2 AC vents directly on to it. My next car, I'll look for one that has navigation built *into* the dashboard itself.

2. Throughout the journey, the sun was directly in my face, and the sunvisor of the car doesn't help much because I'm short. I *was* wearing a baseball cap, but I needed to adjust the cap's bill with every bend and curve on the road. Next time, I'll get a wide-brimmed hat.

3. Just outside Kolar, there's a good pitstop called Highway StarHighway Star. Thereafter, no such pitstops. I'm a bit finicky about eateries and restrooms, so I carried my own trail mix.







I did not use any of the eateries on the way. I did spend some time at the Cafe Coffee Day outlet a little before Vizag, though.

4. At the end of day 1, besides a burst tyre, I also had dry eyes. I know of the advice to remember to blink while driving, but the AC and the heatwave meant, I did end up with dry eyes. So, after reaching Vijaywada, I bought this.



Overall a good experience, but this was the first time I drove solo for such a long stretch. It's only thanks to the Team-BHP forums actually (where I've been lurking for the past 3 years, reading up on advice, and gathering the courage to do this trip).

I also tweeted about it and wrote about it on my trips website.

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by ashis89

I have shared my experience of the Anakapelle bypass road in the post above. Some portion of the road is bad but can be traversed in any kind of car.

I would prefer this bypass over the city traffic. I did this route in mid-Feb '22.

Update 24th Sep 2022:
Please don't take this bypass, the bad portion of the road became worse, huge craters on the road. Frequent movement of heavily loaded trucks spoiled the local roads very badly, I was very frustrated after driving on this portion.

[ankitsharma]

Hey Fellas,

I will need to be in Hyd in the second week of December. Planning to explore Vizag and Odisha (Bhubaneshwar/Konark/Puri/Cuttak) on my way back to Delhi.
Any ideas on the routes, condition of road and places to visit will be helpful.

I am planning to go this way: Hyd -> Vizag -> Odisha -> Ranchi -> Lucknow -> Delhi.

TIA

[Game_of_Roads]

Originally Posted by SKC-auto

Update 24th Sep 2022:
Please don't take this bypass, the bad portion of the road became worse, huge craters on the road.

I'm traveling Bengaluru-Kolkata tomorrow, wanted to know what is the suggested alternative to the Anakapalle byepass ?

Also, is the bad stretch after Anakapalle or even before, i.e. elamanchili