[Rahul Bhalgat]

Hi Friends.

I may need to visit Bangalore for some work, which will take 3-4 days in Bangalore with uncertain date of return. For flexibility of schedules, I plan to drive to Bangalore from Pune.

To know about the road, traffic and eateries, I will go through this thread leisurely. But can anyone throw light on the total toll amount between Pune and Bangalore?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat

But can anyone throw light on the total toll amount between Pune and Bangalore?

Approximately 936 INR between Pune and Bangalore till NBTL after which depending on whether you take NICE road to reach your destination or not, you may need to spend additional amount.

[Vik0728]

Hi Guys,

I am in Pune this Friday, and staying over for the weekend at Hyatt Regency. Me and spouse are planning to rent a self drive car on Friday evening, and drive to Lonavala by about 6pm. If time permits, we may also just visit Khandala and get back on Sunday evening.

- Has it been raining in Pune like the way it is being reported in Mumbai from a few days now?
- As this is my first visit to Pune, is it safe to drive from Hyatt Regency (Pune Nagar Road) to Lonavala if we start by 6pm?
- Plan is to checkout on Sunday after breakfast, and drive to Khandala before returning to Pune. Is this a good and safe drive?

Really appreciate all your inputs and suggestions.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Hi Guys,

I am in Pune this Friday, and staying over for the weekend at Hyatt Regency. Me and spouse are planning to rent a self drive car on Friday evening, and drive to Lonavala by about 6pm. If time permits, we may also just visit Khandala and get back on Sunday evening.

- Has it been raining in Pune like the way it is being reported in Mumbai from a few days now?
- As this is my first visit to Pune, is it safe to drive from Hyatt Regency (Pune Nagar Road) to Lonavala if we start by 6pm?
- Plan is to checkout on Sunday after breakfast, and drive to Khandala before returning to Pune. Is this a good and safe drive?

Really appreciate all your inputs and suggestions.

More than anything else, with the rains battering around Pune and Mumbai, your major disappointment will be the extremely heavy crowd that will throng Lonavala Khandala on weekends, especially Saturday and Sunday.

I would strongly advise against this and you try something else and don't spoil your weekend.

Lonavala and Khanadala are places you avoid on weekends during and after rains because weekenders from 2 big cities of Mumbai and Pune just drive here if not anywhere else.

Also, you mention 6PM to depart Hyatt on Nagar road. It will take an easy 1 hour or little more on a Friday evening for you to even hit the Expressway for Mumbai and another 45 minutes for Lonavala from here. It can only be a good drive for a Friday night till Lonavala, followed by dinner and return but nothing apart from this - Like Sight seeing!

On safety aspects, you need not worry as all places will be crowded. You only need to make sure that you don't stop at secluded places that's all.

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Lonavala and Khanadala are places you avoid on weekends during and after rains because weekenders from 2 big cities of Mumbai and Pune just drive here if not anywhere else.

Appreciate your inputs paragsachania

We have not yet finalised the plan on either of the places, and thank you for suggesting otherwise.

[paragsachania]

Few significant updates from our drive to Pune and back last weekend:

• 6 Lane expansion work between Chitradurga & Hubli has gathered pace and already there were 3 diversions; Expect more in days to come
  
• Kolhapur - Satara : Remains perfectly well with no issues
  
• Satara - Pune : The good remains very good and the bad very bad - Roads get little iffy between Shirwal & Khedshivpur Toll with lots and lots of potholes both on the main carriageway as well as the diversions around here
  
• While the Harihar - Haveri stretch is devoid of any potholes and clean, as usual the Haveri Ranebennur Motebennur stretch has quite a good number of potholes , and they were being attended while we passed by; Hoping they all get leveled in days to come

FASTAG : Barring our favorite & pricey Hubli - Dharwad bypass which now costs 70/- one way, FASTag worked wonderfully in all booths.

Below list shows details of all the toll booths where you can decide to stick to the FASTag lane or enter any lane if you have FASTag.

• NBTL - Dedicated
• JAS Toll - All lanes
• Guilalu & Karjeevanahalli - Dedicated
• Hebbalu & Chalageri - All lanes
• Bankapura - Dedicated
• Hattarigi - Dedicated
• Hirebagewadi - Dedicated
• Kognoli - All Lanes
• Kini, Taswade, Anewadi - Dedicated
• Khedshivpur - There are at least 3 lanes neatly marked FASTag and you can enter any of them

We did not take the same route on return and instead merged the NH at Pachwad before Satara and hence I am not sure about the sections between Khedshivpur and Pachwad but expect similar feedback about this (potholes here and there).

Thanks to the truckers strikes last week that only intensified on Friday, we faced very little traffic all over the route and had a wonderful fast paced drive that we did JAS Toll - Lonavala in less than 11 hours including a breakfast and a refueling break and a convoy of 8 cars!

Return journey was full of trucks as usual and it did slow us down a lot of times, including the single carriageway Hubli Bypass.

Here's a small clip showing bad sections near Motebennur:

https://youtu.be/47Z6wLcGPAc

Night driving with rains can be rim benders If not vigilant.

[vivek95]

Drove Mumbai--Pune--Belgaum today that concluded 3 hours back. Started at 6:15 a.m from Mumbai ( Mulund ) and reached Belgaum at 3:45 pm including a total of 2 hours break in between. Some updates from my end -
1. Mumbai--Pune Expressway - remains fantastic !
I stopped at this swanky new food mall at Khalapur that has opened up recently. Plenty of food joints and has a Starbucks too. This one is a proper food court type seen in a shopping mall.



2. Pune--Satara - remains very good. No real bad potholes as such till Shirwal. No complaints from my side at all. Khambatki ghat and beyond is excellent.

3. Satara-- Kolhapur - pure bliss ! Amar hotel ( Tavandi ghat fame ) has opened it's branch at Satara city now on the highway ( left side heading towards Pune ).

4. Kolhapur -- Belgaum - pure bliss again !

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by vivek95

Amar hotel ( Tavandi ghat fame ) has opened it's branch at Satara city now on the highway ( left side heading towards Pune ).

Diagonally opposite to Vital Kamat where we had stopped for Late lunch on Saturday during return.

This isn't marked right now and we noticed it may have not opened as yet too but here is the approximate location.

Amar will be a very good option on this stretch for those looking for purr vegetarian food.

We as usual had stopped at Amar on a Saturday morning soon after leaving Kolhapur too!



This time parked at lay bye and walked across from the break in the median because 8 cars crossing to other side would have been dangerous when traffic from other side is descending on a fast curve.

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

We as usual had stopped at Amar on a Saturday morning soon after leaving Kolhapur too!



This time parked at lay bye and walked across from the break in the median because 8 cars crossing to other side would have been dangerous when traffic from other side is descending on a fast curve.

If I am not wrong, last time around you guys parked a little ahead after the first uphill curve.

I used that truck lay bye space the other day to overtake two trucks that occupied both lanes and were moving at less than 10kmph. I stayed behind for sometime but decided to take this laybye, the moment I confirmed that no vehicles are parked within it, to get past these crawling trucks.

[vensum]

Hello everybody,

i may need to go to Pune this Friday or Saturday i.e. August 03 or 04 to pick up a car and drive back to bangalore. Is there anyone planning to drive from Bangalore to Pune on these two dates? if so would love to accompany. I am a very good and safe driver and can drive if need be. Please PM me. Thanks a million.

[vivek95]

Drove solo from Belgaum to Bombay on 1st August 2018. It was an all night drive, having started from Belgaum at 7:00 pm and reaching Mumbai ( Mulund ) by 4:30 a.m including a total of 2 hours stop in between. It rained intermittently heavy from Satara to Mumbai. Roads remain excellent all throughout except for one diversion between Shirwal and Pune. I drove too comfortably without any apprehensions. By the way there was as usual a good amount of traffic in Maharashtra that thickened even more on Pune--Mumbai expressway.

[sidpunjabi]

Originally Posted by vivek95

I stopped at this swanky new food mall at Khalapur that has opened up recently. Plenty of food joints and has a Starbucks too. This one is a proper food court type seen in a shopping mall.
Attachment 1785205

Hi vivek95,

This new food mall looks great. Where exactly on the expressway is it? When you say Khalapur, I'm presuming it's somewhere close to the toll naka.

My usual stop is the food court that's ~500-1 km after the toll naka.

I'm planning to drive down to Pune in the next few days, so would love to go here instead.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by sidpunjabi

Where exactly on the expressway is it? When you say Khalapur, I'm presuming it's somewhere close to the toll naka.

Yes and this is part of the Truck Terminal building and hence popularly known as Truck Terminal Food Mall.

Location : Expressway New Food Mall.

My usual stop is the food court that's ~500-1 km after the toll naka.

While the earlier one attached the HPCL COCO exists, this one is just before that, towards Pune, and soon after the Khalapur Entry toll.

[sidpunjabi]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Yes and this is part of the Truck Terminal building and hence popularly known as Truck Terminal Food Mall.

Location : Expressway New Food Mall.

While the earlier one attached the HPCL COCO exists, this one is just before that, towards Pune, and soon after the Khalapur Entry toll.

@paragsachania : From the Google map, it seems like I have to exit the expressway at the same point as the HP COCO stop but there'll be a left just before that'll take me to the terminal. Will check it out!! Thanks

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by sidpunjabi

@paragsachania : From the Google map, it seems like I have to exit the expressway at the same point as the HP COCO stop but there'll be a left just before that'll take me to the terminal. Will check it out!! Thanks

Yes, the exit to this new Food mall is just about 50 metres or so before the exit for the HP Coco/ food mall. There is a proper nicely built 4 lane road that leads to this new food mall. Trust me, this is the swankiest place you have ever seen on any Indian highway. Not a surprise to me to acknowledge that the first of such kind in our country came up on Mumbai--Pune Expressway. No where else in India are two metro cities located so close to each other with a beautiful expressway connecting them. Everyday traffic between Mumbai and Pune is also crazy high at all times, hence this kind of plush food court is viable to operate here I guess.