[Akadian]

Dear Kumar,

I've been thinking about that 12.5 hours from Bangalore to Bombay figure and have taken quite a liking to it. It is the optimum time in my estimation. Having done Kolhapur-Mumbai in 4.5 hours and Bangalore to Kolhapur in 9 hours in April this year when I was not able to go as fast as I would like owing to my wife's pregnancy, I think I could bring down the time from 9 to 8 hours easily. Adding up the two figures, it comes exactly to what you said. That is, 12.5 hours flat from Bangalore to Mumbai. Thanks for setting a good benchmark

[anainar]

Originally Posted by manish123

Well you were absolutely right. thanks for your wonderful suggestion of going via NICE Road. It worked for me. I left at 1:00PM from Koramangala, reached banerghatta NICE road entry at 1:30pm, touched NH4 at 2:00pm and was at Tumkur at 2:50pm. I did save atleast 30 mins by going via NICE Road (and of course the harrasement of Yeshwantpur-Neelamangala road)

NICE road seems pretty good option. During my drive back from Pune,stopped at Tumkur Cafe Coffee Day, left that place by 6:45 PM. Drove through NH4 took the ramp to NICE road, reached L&T Southcity apartment complex by 8:15. The toll is a bit steep though, at 63 Rs, is the steepest toll I paid for the entire trip.

Nainar

[manish123]

Originally Posted by Hurrycane12

Manish: Good to know it worked well; lucky you did not get stuck in any traffic at Banerghatta road. I guess you will be in Bombay by 3-4 PM.

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi; wish I could make it to Bombay for the festival too.

Belgaum to Mumbai, the road is fantastic, you can easily maintain an average speed of 100kmph. We left Belgaum at 9:20am & reached Pune by 1:30pm (with a 15 min break). Reached mumbai-Sion at about 5pm, since we stopped over for an elongated lunch at the pune-mumbai freeway. A caution though in the first tunnel. I was cruising in the tunnel pretty comfortably and the moment, the tunnel got over, there was this steep turn in which you won't be comfortable beyond 50-60kmph. I am not sure if I missed any signs of slowing down, but if its not put, then one should be careful

Originally Posted by anainar

NICE road seems pretty good option. During my drive back from Pune,stopped at Tumkur Cafe Coffee Day, left that place by 6:45 PM. Drove through NH4 took the ramp to NICE road, reached L&T Southcity apartment complex by 8:15. The toll is a bit steep though, at 63 Rs, is the steepest toll I paid for the entire trip.

Nainar

Toll is indeed pretty high. But considering that this will be either at the start or at the end of one's journey, people would prefer to start and end comfortably. On the other note, even the total toll from Bangalore to Mumbai comes around Rs 700 (including NICE road). I guess this is quite expensive considering that around 200kms of the strech is in absolute mess.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team : Please use the "edit" button if posting within 20 minutes of the first post, instead of creating another back-to-back post.

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by manish123

On the other note, even the total toll from Bangalore to Mumbai comes around Rs 700 (including NICE road).

Oops INR 491 was the last time I travelled from BLR to Pune.
Till Mumbai add at the most 100 bucks.

There are some toll booths where you have to show the previous receipt only. They let you pass. I too got ripped the first time, until Marathi speaking came to the rescue in MH and of course HV Kumar sir guided me on this.

[manish123]

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

Oops INR 491 was the last time I travelled from BLR to Pune.
Till Mumbai add at the most 100 bucks.

There are some toll booths where you have to show the previous receipt only. They let you pass. I too got ripped the first time, until Marathi speaking came to the rescue in MH and of course HV Kumar sir guided me on this.

If I remember correctly, only at 2 places, they let me pass looking at my receipt. At other places, I had to pay. Not sure, how many times I got ripped off.
From Pune to Mumbai, the toll is around Rs 200 (I don't remember the exact amount), but they charge twice

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by manish123

If I remember correctly, only at 2 places, they let me pass looking at my receipt. At other places, I had to pay. Not sure, how many times I got ripped off.
From Pune to Mumbai, the toll is around Rs 200 (I don't remember the exact amount), but they charge twice

From Mumbai - Pune you pay only once at the toll and show the receipt at the exit of the expressway and it is definitely not 200INR and is 140INR as far as I can remember.

Have you paid anywhere else? Viz., exit from Mumbai suburb's toll nakas, Vashi Bridge etx?(which is expected anyways)

[anainar]

This is what I could gather -- from Pune...

Shivpur - 45 ( first toll gate after leaving Pune )
748.600 - 25
Taswade - 46
Kini - 46
Kognoli - 25
Hattagari- 30
Bagewadi- 30
Bankapur - 40
Hubli-Dharwad bypass - 31
guilalu - 35
KJHallli - 40
Tumkur - 23
NICE Rd -63

All added up comes to Rs.479. This includes NICE Toll also. If you take that away it should be 416. If you take the Dobbspet route, you can remove another 10 Rs. One of the toll roads, IRB toll gate of Khambatki ghat section is toll free now with the plazas having been removed. Per my discussion with one of the NHAI official who took a ride with me, the toll by NHAI is roughly in the range of 60 paise per kilometer for a passenger car.

I dont think you can get ripped. At Taswade you have an option to pay toll for Kini plaza also( and vice versa ), as they both are owned by Konark. In case they charged you at both the places, then it is possible your tolls got jacked up by 92 Rs. Or they charged you under different category of vehicle What was your ride?

Nainar

[JVH]

Last weekend, I drove from Bangalore to Belgaum.

The bad roads which were tolerable have become worse. Specially from the stretch between Chitradurga to Ranebennur. I literally thought my GTX's suspension would fail me. I only picked up speed just 60 kms before Hubli. Before that one has to concentrate all the time for the horrible diversions and the big pile up of potholes.

I don't think this is going to improve any sooner. Piece meal approach with poor workmanship will prevail.

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by JVH

Last weekend, I drove from Bangalore to Belgaum.

The bad roads which were tolerable have become worse. Specially from the stretch between Chitradurga to Ranebennur.

Thats some seriously bad news man. To think of it, I was getting mentally prepared for this journey on the last week of this month. Guess I'll have to hire an army tank for Chit - Ranebennur.

[JVH]

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

Thats some seriously bad news man. To think of it, I was getting mentally prepared for this journey on the last week of this month. Guess I'll have to hire an army tank for Chit - Ranebennur.

The rains didn't help either specially in the diversions. If you recall, red mud and some stones are used wherever there is a diversion. This has gone for a toss because of the rains and you see red water everywhere. Your car will get painted with beautiful colours for sure

I saw lot of cars stranded just before or after the diversions. Yup, army tank is a better bet for the trip.

[abtom]

Originally Posted by JVH

The rains didn't help either specially in the diversions. If you recall, red mud and some stones are used wherever there is a diversion. This has gone for a toss because of the rains and you see red water everywhere. Your car will get painted with beautiful colours for sure

I saw lot of cars stranded just before or after the diversions. Yup, army tank is a better bet for the trip.

Has anyone done the Bangalore to Pune trip by road since JVH's trip earlier this Sept? Is the trip I plan (details below) doable? Any updates on the Chitradurga - Haveri stretch road conditions? From my map it looks like a 125km stretch?

I plan to do the Bangalore to Pune trip on 18th Sept. The plan is to start at about 4AM from Ramamurthy Nagar (near Banaswadi). My destination in Pune is Aundh Road, Khadki. If I do the trip between 12 to 14 hours I will consider my mission complete. I have to make allowance for at least 2 stops of not more than 1 hour each.

I will be driving a Qualis. For most part I will be the driver though my wife does some short spells.

I recently drove upto Nelamangala and so am pretty familiar with the construction activity on NH4 from Peenya onwards. In fact, I plan to take the Bangalore outer ring road past Hebbal upto BEL circle, turn right towards Jalahalli, take the road to Dasarahalli and enter NH4 at the Dasarahalli junction. The reason is that between BEL and Yeswanthpur, on the Outer Ring Road there is a level crossing that can delay you a good 15-20 minutes if closed.

[viveklk]

Originally Posted by JVH

Last weekend, I drove from Bangalore to Belgaum.

The bad roads which were tolerable have become worse. Specially from the stretch between Chitradurga to Ranebennur. I literally thought my GTX's suspension would fail me. I only picked up speed just 60 kms before Hubli. Before that one has to concentrate all the time for the horrible diversions and the big pile up of potholes.

I don't think this is going to improve any sooner. Piece meal approach with poor workmanship will prevail.

Oh man, I'm going to do Bangalore-Belgaum next week, this sounds really bad. Looks like rain has screwed this stretch further. I'll get my SX4 checked before starting...


Thanks for sharing the info.

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by abtom

Has anyone done the Bangalore to Pune trip by road since JVH's trip earlier this Sept? Is the trip I plan (details below) doable? Any updates on the Chitradurga - Haveri stretch road conditions? From my map it looks like a 125km stretch?

I plan to do the Bangalore to Pune trip on 18th Sept. The plan is to start at about 4AM from Ramamurthy Nagar (near Banaswadi). My destination in Pune is Aundh Road, Khadki. If I do the trip between 12 to 14 hours I will consider my mission complete. I have to make allowance for at least 2 stops of not more than 1 hour each.

I will be driving a Qualis. For most part I will be the driver though my wife does some short spells.

I recently drove upto Nelamangala and so am pretty familiar with the construction activity on NH4 from Peenya onwards. In fact, I plan to take the Bangalore outer ring road past Hebbal upto BEL circle, turn right towards Jalahalli, take the road to Dasarahalli and enter NH4 at the Dasarahalli junction. The reason is that between BEL and Yeswanthpur, on the Outer Ring Road there is a level crossing that can delay you a good 15-20 minutes if closed.

The critical stretches are as below

1. Ramamurthy nagar to Nelamangala (some 35-40 KMs) This might take some where 60 minutes depending on the traffic and road conditions
morning 4 AM it should clear stretch.

2. Nelamangala to Chitradurga : you can do this stretch in 3 hours if your drive well.

3. Chitradurga - Harihar-Davangere - Ranebennur - Haveri : this stretch is said to be in bad condition, some time back Lukeskywalker told me that some of his friends travelled this stretch yesterday and the feedback is very bad. This stretch can take you 4 hours-5 hours easily

4. Haveri-Hubli-Dharwad-Belgaon : this stretch seems to be ok, This stretch can be done in 3.5 hours.

5. Belgaum to Pune (sinhaghad road bypass) is 4 hours, roads are generally very good. Khadki would be another 45 minutes in city traffic.

So total it should take you 15-16 hours including breaks etc.
if you leave at 4 AM, you can reach for dinner 7 or 7.30 PM.

drive safe.

[JVH]

Originally Posted by viveklk

Oh man, I'm going to do Bangalore-Belgaum next week, this sounds really bad. Looks like rain has screwed this stretch further. I'll get my SX4 checked before starting...


Thanks for sharing the info.

I'm doing another trip this weekend. Will post the experience by early next week.

If you do happen to make the trip sooner, Statvegabond has his observations spot on and you can rely on it except that I would not call Chitradurga - Haveri stretch bad but horrible and pathetic.

[pkumar]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

The critical stretches are as below

1. Ramamurthy nagar to Nelamangala (some 35-40 KMs) This might take some where 60 minutes depending on the traffic and road conditions
morning 4 AM it should clear stretch.

2. Nelamangala to Chitradurga : you can do this stretch in 3 hours if your drive well.

3. Chitradurga - Harihar-Davangere - Ranebennur - Haveri : this stretch is said to be in bad condition, some time back Lukeskywalker told me that some of his friends travelled this stretch yesterday and the feedback is very bad. This stretch can take you 4 hours-5 hours easily

4. Haveri-Hubli-Dharwad-Belgaon : this stretch seems to be ok, This stretch can be done in 3.5 hours.

5. Belgaum to Pune (sinhaghad road bypass) is 4 hours, roads are generally very good. Khadki would be another 45 minutes in city traffic.

So total it should take you 15-16 hours including breaks etc.
if you leave at 4 AM, you can reach for dinner 7 or 7.30 PM.

drive safe.

I would like to differ on some of these timing figures, as per my opinion.
(1) Haveri to Belgaum i did in 2 hours at night time. I dont think even for very average speed driving it would take more than 2.5 hours.

(2) Neelmangala to Chitradurga stretch can be very easily done in 3 hours. Without any high speed driving.

(3) I did Chitradurga to Haveri in 2.5 hours, during night time, with rain most of the time.
I believe it can be comfortably done in 3 to 3.5 hours.