[Amazing]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Yes, this is a very nice place to get refreshed. Neat and clean, good open space, spacious parking, good food, space to walk around as well.

And yes, little tricky if we are towards bangalore. We will have to take a "U" turn in to the service lane on the left. So, we should slow down and turn ON the indicator at least a Km before.

I had recommended Apoorva in April 2015 [ link below]. Yes, its really a nicely located, Clean facility in this stretch. Is it open all night as well in case you are passing that stretch around 1 am or so ?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3692175

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Amazing

I had recommended Apoorva in April 2015 [ link below]. Yes, its really a nicely located, Clean facility in this stretch. Is it open all night as well in case you are passing that stretch around 1 am or so ?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3692175

Thanks Amazing. Apoorva was always recommend by many. I only visited it for the first time and liked it as you too did.

A perfect break from Kamats ☺

[aviddenis]

Hi,

Road Update as on 5th August 2015. Drove from Hosur to Mumbai(End of Ghodbunder Road) as part of my Kanyakumari to Himachal, Ladakh trip. Time Taken 13 Hours including Lunch and tea breaks. One hour of delay was contributed in negotiating Pune Byepass to enter the expressway.

Karnataka Sector: Excellent Roads throuout. Only 3 speeadbreakers near Rannebennur turnoff are noteworthy obstruction to a smooth drive.
Belgaum - Kolapur Sector: Very good roads.
Kolhapur - Karad: Very Good Roads with Lot of 2 wheelers on highway
Karad- Satara - Shirwal: Very Good roads. Patches of under construction / diversions in this entire stretch. But we could still maintain fair speed
Shirwal - Pune: Very Good roads but heavy traffic that borders on jam on entire Pone Byepass leading to Expressway. Heard from daily/regular commuters that this is adaily feature.
Pune - Ghodbunder Road: Excellent Roads

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by aviddenis

Karad- Satara - Shirwal: Very Good roads. Patches of under construction / diversions in this entire stretch. But we could still maintain fair speed
Shirwal - Pune: Very Good roads but heavy traffic that borders on jam on entire Pone Byepass leading to Expressway.

Hmmm! Is the stretch between satara - pune - satara better? It was a nightmare due to the 6 lane work. Also, how is the pune - mumbai expressway? Heard of land slides and resultant road blocks.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

Hmmm! Is the stretch between satara - pune - satara better? It was a nightmare due to the 6 lane work.

Things have got really better now. Most of the sections 6 lane work is complete and they have now painted the lane markers as well. In fact, The stretch from Katraj all the way till the Old Katraj Bypass is done (with markings & Railings) and even the Overbridge here is functional (May 2015).

2 weeks before, I drove till Panchagani, Turning off after Satara and the roads are much better compared to earlier days although this is hardly a chunk from the overall 110 kms stretch starting before Satara Bypass ending at Dehu Road end of Pune Bypass.

[aviddenis]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

Hmmm! Is the stretch between satara - pune - satara better? It was a nightmare due to the 6 lane work. Also, how is the pune - mumbai expressway? Heard of land slides and resultant road blocks.

Satara - Pune Stretch: Only 2 or 3 spots where flyovers are under construction are an impediment. But the slip roads are good and the traffic flowed slowly. Did not face any potholes or wavy surface etc. No Traffic jams either.

Re Pune Expressway: Pune Bombay lane was closed on a 100 m stretch and traffic diverted to the other lane with drum barriers demarcating the 2 streams of traffic. Apart from that, beautiful road conditions though it was raining heavily in certain stretches that evening.

[jayeshnd]

After my last post in Dec 2014 and promise of giving new updates of this route, I am writing this, almost after 8 months -apologies for the lethargy. In the meanwhile though, I have travelled twice on this route and here are some updates:
- road from Tumkuru to Kolhapur remains absolute delight for the motorists. Nice, even level tar all across with all the modern markings, signboards and scientific layouts on the crossings. Additionally, no cattles (unless you are very unlucky), very good long distance visibility and no surprise humps.
- After Kolhapur, you have to slow down due to lot of traffic, relatively narrower road (it's 4 lane though) and construction work at many places. If you are travelling during the "running season" of the sugar factories, you will see lot of tractors and bullock carts fully laden with sugar canes. During night and low visibility periods, some of them are really dangerous with no lights/radium strips and even worse, some of them coming on wrong side. During monsoon, sugar factories are usually closed and you will not face this traffic currently.
- If you start early and scale up to Nipani (last town of Karnataka) around lunch time, stop by a new restaurant called "White House". It has got beautiful location, nice landscaping, quick service and tasty food. While going towards Pune, it is on your left side on the small ghat section near Nipani.
- Pune - Mumbai expressway was partially closed last month because of ongoing repair work after two fatal landslide events in last June & July. Traffic was diverted from the Anda crossing to Lonavala town and then onto old highway till Rasayani toll naka. It took additional 3 hours for us to get through the jams due to this diversion but it was absolutely bearable as the stretch is very scenic, and more so, it becomes more beautiful during rains. Also, I must appreciate the arrangments by the local administration -be it sign boards, information leaflets, traffic segregation or manning important places with adequate policemen -there was not a single point to complain about. It was quite a humble scene to see policemen and district administration folks standing in full rain throughout the day (and even night times) to regulate the traffic.

Extended routes:
(1) Pune - Shirdi - Mumbai: We drove to Shirdi during the December14 trip and took Pune-Rajgurunagar-Sangamner-Loni-Rahat-shirdi route instead of usual Pune-Ahmednagar road. Till Sangamner, road is Ok, but there is lot of local traffic and you can not maintain uniform speed. Road from Sangamaner till Shirdi is still horrible, as it used to be 20 years back, when I was studying in Pravaranagar engineering college -
(2) Mumbai - Surat - Thane: We also went further to Surat on both the trips and road from Mumbai (actually Thane) to Surat is also a no-complaint route. Depending on the time of the day, you may face traffic in Thane city but once you are on Ghodbunder road, vehicles keep moving through numerous signals smoothly till Fountain cross and then onto Western Express Highway. While in Thane, it is bit tricky to get on to the correct route as there are very few signboards and people end up going through the city instead of taking bypass flyover. To its worst, while returning back, I strayed on a wrong flyover and ended up on the Nasik road instead of Pune. We had to go through Mumbra town traffic and then got onto the express way.
(3) Pune - Mahabaleshwar - Satara: While coming back to Bengaluru from Surat last week, we took a detour of Mahabaleshwar. Actual plan was to take Thane-Mahad-Mahabaleshwar route but someone advised of it's bad condition, so we took Thane-Pune-Khedshivapur-Panchagani-Mahabaleshwar root and that seemed wise decision, as the road was neat throughout. While coming out of Mahabaleshwar next day, we took Satara road and joined the Bengaluru highway after about 52 km. Most part of this 52 Km stretch is a narrow ghat road but road condition is good.


While my XUV gave us absolute comfort and driving pleasure through these long routes, its GPS navigator gave me trouble by showing wrong suggestions many times. Relying on my Tab's Google and Here (Nokia) maps or asking directions to locals was far more reliable.

[srinih75]

Originally Posted by aviddenis

Hi,
Road Update as on 5th August 2015. Drove from Hosur to Mumbai(End of Ghodbunder Road) as part of my Kanyakumari to Himachal, Ladakh trip. Time Taken 13 Hours including Lunch and tea breaks. One hour of delay was contributed in negotiating Pune Byepass to enter the expressway.

When did you start from Bangalore? I may plan to drive with my 7 year old end of September. Wife and 3yr old are going by flight as per a function and my plan depends on how work gets me at that point. There is possibility to go to Shiridi. Wanted to see if it makes sense to go on that road trip.

[NPV]

With a late afternoon, say 4pm start when can one realistically reach Belgaum with Sedate driving ?

Originally Posted by NPV

With a late afternoon, say 4pm start when can one realistically reach Belgaum with Sedate driving ?

8 hours including breaks. My timings in the night/morning in the reverse direction:

[aviddenis]

Originally Posted by srinih75

When did you start from Bangalore? I may plan to drive with my 7 year old end of September. Wife and 3yr old are going by flight as per a function and my plan depends on how work gets me at that point. There is possibility to go to Shiridi. Wanted to see if it makes sense to go on that road trip.

Hi,
Regret the delay as I am in Leh with bad connectivity. We started from Hosur (not to confuse with Hosur road) at 8 am and reached Mumbai at 8 pm. But with Kid, I would suggest you to break the jouney someplace. If you plan to go to Shirdi, then my knowledge is a year old and at that time Pune Nasik Shirdi roads were not good. Someone who has travelled more recently can update better.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by NPV

With a late afternoon, say 4pm start when can one realistically reach Belgaum with Sedate driving ?

I've started pretty much similar time from Hosur, was at the entry into Hubli 950pm with a 15 min or so break. So you should be in Belgaum 11 pm-midnight-ish.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by narayans80

I've started pretty much similar time from Hosur, was at the entry into Hubli 950pm with a 15 min or so break. So you should be in Belgaum 11 pm-midnight-ish.

Thanks narayan!
Based on the feedback I received from a lot of folks, we're more likely to start at 4am on Day 1 of our trip, rather than a 4pm start on Day 0.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by NPV

Based on the feedback I received from a lot of folks, we're more likely to start at 4am on Day 1 of our trip, rather than a 4pm start on Day 0.

If your destination is beyond Belgaum, makes sense to start Day 0 and stay earlier (like Hubli/Dharwad). You still save about 300 km that way for Day 1 drive. Except for some minimal evening traffic at Chitradurga (around 630-7pm), there was very minimal traffic barring a few trucks here and there.

[hrman]

Anyone gone recently can update on the cost of tolls from Bangalore (Neelamangla) upto Mumbai (Vashi)?