Re: Bangalore - Pune - Mumbai : Route updates & Eateries I self-drove solo in my own car from Blore to Thane (near Mumbai) on June 7th, and brought back my 80+ years old senior citizen parents to Blore on June 10th (they were living alone in Thane, managing social-distancing with great difficulty).
Was prepared with all the passes as needed then (these rules keep changing):
- Fitness/medical certificate for me from an ICMR approved hospital in Blore
- KA exit pass (was required then)
- MH entry pass
- MH exit pass
- KA entry pass (with all traveler details)
I left home prepared with packed breakfast, lunch and dinner, tea in a flask, and a zillion water bottles, and hand sanitizers (and was careful NOT to use it inside the car), toilet tissues, etc. The plan was to avoid restaurants and hotels, transact in a contactless manner as far as possible, and pull over on service roads or safely on the shoulder for intermittent rest/tea breaks. Also loaded up Rs 3000 on my ICICI FASTag using UPI (the cheapest option), and Rs 5000 on PayTM (for contactless diesel) before I left home.
FASTag worked superbly, never had to open my window. I crossed 16 toll plazas each way. All toll plaza were FASTag enabled except one toll plaza. And amongst the 15 toll plazas that were enabled, all lanes were enabled, except one. And my ICICI FASTag worked flawlessly in ALL those 15 toll plazas, in onward as well as return journey. So that’s great to see, 3 cheers for Nitin Gadkari! Of course, the downside is that there are still a few vehicles who were paying cash in the FASTag lanes, but I guess that’ll take time to settle. The plus side for me was that I could pay tolls without having to open the window or exchange currency, thereby comply with maximal social distancing. Total tolls for the trip about Rs 950 each way. Anyway, about the drive …
Took 15 hours door-to-door in the onward journey, and 19 hours door-to-door in the return journey. ONWARD JOURNEY:
Left Blore home at 5.15 am. Reached Chitradurga at 8 am. The Tumkur – Chitradurga stretch is fantastic. Was able to comfortably and safely cruise at 120 kmph between Tumkur and Chitradurga. It’s a 6-laned road and in very good shape. Stopped for breaker just after Chitradurga outside a Mysore Cafe (which was open only for tea) for breakfast.
Saw a lovely bypass under active construction just before Chitradurga, which I guess is the Chitradurga bypass and will eventually become part of the same NH48 that I drove on.
Then took a tea break just after Shiggaon just before 11 am (near SRJVG College Ground).
Lots of active 6-laning work and overpasses being built on the 200 kms stretch between Chitradurga and Hubli, hence many diversions; had to maintain slow speeds on this stretch. This would be wonderful to drive when complete. The contractor was PNC Infratech, IIRC. Very active work going on.
Just south of Hubli, I saw the Hubli bypass under active construction (which is perpendicular to NH48 and is part of another highway)
Hubli to Dharwad was only 2-laned road, about 30 kms long. Good condition and scenic with gentle rolling hills, but slow speeds and dangerous to overtake. It is maintained/tolled by Nandi Infra, and this was the sole one that didn’t accept FASTag! (Looks like any project taken up by Nandi Infra is jinxed. Just like the Blore - Mysore expwy which never happened, 2 decades ago!) This was the slowest stretch. I hope they 4/6-lane it sometime.
After Dharwad (towards Mumbai) it is again 6-laned and scenic. Fantastic roads. Beautiful bougenvillas on the divider, clean concrete. Very comparable to California Hwy 99 or something.
I stopped for a tea break at 12.45 pm about 20 kms before Belgaum.
At 2.15 pm, I entered MH near Nippani, IIRC. There was a very nice huge, beautifully concrete floored lay-bye (about 20 acres in size) setup for entry pass examination and query. That was my first experience with inspections. It felt like a US port of entry! I had no issues, was allowed on 2 mins. Thereafter there were checkpoints every few hours, I just had to flash my pass through the window and they let me go.
Highways were very crappy in the MH side of the border. Looks like Gadkari has neglected western Maharashtra, I have no clue why. NH48 between Pune and Satara is 6-laned but totally crappy. You can maintain good speeds, but it's surface quality is verrry bad. It beats me how this was allowed to happen (or allowed Reliance to get away with it; its their work I believe). And most of the incomplete works in this stretch had indications of minimal to 0 work in progress.
Also, in MH especially, I saw all kinds of inconsistent highway number signages, viz. NH48 (new name), NH4 (old name) and AH47, and all of them looked fresh and in good condition. I don't understand why they can't solve this simple problem and disseminate the updates to all stakeholders and keep it consistent.
After Pune, I hit the MPE, which was absolutely fantastic as always.
Reached my parent’s place in Thane at 8.15 pm. RETURN JOURNEY:
Again packed ample food and water, along with pillows for my mom for sleeping in rear seat. And some Tamil dramas and old Hindi songs on a USB pen drive for my parents. Left Thane home at 5.15 am. I don’t have any logs for the return, as I was busy with my parents. But took things more leisurely, took more breaks, so it took 19 hours on the return, I reached Blore home at midnight.
The border at Nippani was smooth. The KA staff were very helpful, they checked my pass and documents and ID card, and they saw my senior citizen 80+ aged parents, and made it smooth. They stamped “Home Quarantine” on my parents arm, I was excused despite asking them twice. I guess its because I stayed in MH for only 2 days
Needless to say, all of us quarantined ourselves for full 2 weeks after reaching Blore, including my wife and kids who actually didn’t travel (but yet, just to be safe)
Last edited by vharihar : 3rd July 2020 at 15:38.
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