[rajivtelang]

Did this 2000+km trip Bangalore - Pune - Goa - Bangalore. Details as follows.
Bangalore - Pune
Started on 19th at about 4.30PM and made a stay at Sankama boutique hotel, Davanagere. Next morning started for Pune and found roads in MH are not as great as KA but manageable. Many patches are seen on the potholes and road is quite drivable. Just be careful about the speed check radars. I saw one van with a cop aiming the gun on moving cars including mine. Still some sudden surprises will be there with new big potholes here and there. Make sure you watch for other lane before trying to avoid since the vehicle in other lane might be doing the same. No other specific mention about roads.
Pune - Goa
I made a stay at Belgaum on 21st night by starting at 4PM from Pune. I never had the ambition to take any ghat at night. On 22nd morning started towards Chorla and had some tough times navigating through the deadly craters on the road. Ertiga has 185mm GC and did not have any belly scratch at all but I had to go in zig zag fashion making sure both tyres are maintained on surface and seldom falling in the potholes. Some potholes are way too deep and falling in them could miss a heartbeat. These potholes are filled with muddy water making it impossible to judge their depth. Either you wait for other vehicle to pass through and follow the steps or risk your vehicle by experimenting around it. Saw one Brezza with a massive head on collision on a tree on other side. May be that happened earlier night. I cannot recommend Chorla but on my return trip I took Anmod which is way too much horrible. If you have other choices please consider them if you have more details.
Goa - Bangalore
This info is not valid in this thread directly but just in case somebody wants to take Anmod ghat for south Goa in current scenario, you could in inviting some serious trouble. I took this route today, 23rd August. There are around 8kms after Anmod checkpost towards Dharwad. These start around 4km after the post. Road does not exist where the half done concrete road meets the tar. Again that broken section is filled with muddy water. I made a mistake of getting off the concrete section a little earlier and my Ertiga got stuck in a place with loose gravel. I could not move forward or backward since the front wheels were just spinning in gravel. Some fellow car drivers asked my dad and wife to get out to reduce car weight and I could take it out. In short if the car is with GC of 180mm or more you can somehow manage the road with great difficulty. Anything lower means you need to really struggle hard but very unlikely that you will not scrape the belly.

Summary:It is good to avoid these two ghats if you feel Amboli is a better route. But please note that the condition of the roads worsens every hour since there is heavy vehicle traffic. I read a lot about Anmod but the description 4 days ago does not match with today's condition, it is way too worse.

[rakesh_r]

Looking at the road conditions, is Pune Bengaluru doable in a day?

Originally Posted by architkarpe

I was checking the waze and Radarbot app. They are showing many camera locations between Pune and Kolhapur.
I would like to know wether there are any fixed speed cameras in these stretch (like on the Pune - Mumbai expressway) or the speeding tickets generated by interceptors only?

Which one would you recommend for this stretch, Waze or Radarbot?

[architkarpe]

I have been using both on split screen view but found radarbot is better has more users than waze. It is easier to mark locations. I am using the free version of the app. I make sure to mark the locations and confirm if present and disagree if not present.
As the number of users grows it will be more accurate.
It has saved me from challans at ridiculously low speed limit points. The stretch after the tunnel after Mahabaleshwar phata has a speed limit of 40kmph.
And you will find a fixed speed camera or interceptor standing there.

[MorePower]

Drove from JP Nagar to Pune on Saturday. Left JP Nagar at 5 am. Reached Pune at 7.45 after 4 breaks totalling 2 hours 45 minutes. Had to drive slowly due to mild drizzle until Tumkur, which turned into heavy downpour until Davanagere. Stuck to the middle lanes since water had accumulated in the right lanes. Saw a couple of cars losing control due to aquaplaning. Be careful in the monsoon season.

Road surface was good overall except for the stretch immediately after Tumkur junction. Huge potholes at regular intervals, up until the VRL canteen. 2 diversions after Davanagere, rest of the highway work has been completed in KA.

As always, traffic becomes heavy upon entering MH. Saw a bunch of cops standing near the median, under the flyover 3 km before McDonald's in Kolhapur. Wasn't an interceptor, saw them clicking pics of cars on mobile phones, not sure for what traffic violation.

No other speed cam or interceptor anywhere in MH or KA. Road conditions surprisingly were good throughout MH, barring a few undulations in the road surface.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

Looking at the road conditions, is Pune Bengaluru doable in a day?

Surely doable in 12-14 hours with 2 breaks. This is based on one week old data when I travelled. Not sure if recent rains have damaged the roads.

[MorePower]

Drove back from Pune to Bangalore today. Started from Pune at 5 am, reached Bangalore at 6 pm with 3 halts totalling 2 hours. Pune Satara stretch was good overall, with minor road undulations on flyovers on the outskirts of Pune. Have to be careful while driving in the dark. Satara Kagal stretch was a breeze. Diversions at 2 places due to flyover work.

Road conditions upon entering KA were generally good with a lot of pothole patchwork. However large potholes started appearing between Haveri and Harihar on all the flyovers. Need to be very careful here. The Harihar bypass flyover was shut, due to maintenance work. Had to take the old 2 lane undivided route.

Closing in on Tumkur, the potholes started reappearing. These ones were particularly nasty. Can do some serious damage to the rims. Have to be watchful on the section between Prerana Motors and Pavithra Idli junction.

[nileshch]

Originally Posted by MorePower

Closing in on Tumkur, the potholes started reappearing. These ones were particularly nasty. Can do some serious damage to the rims. Have to be watchful on the section between Prerana Motors and Pavithra Idli junction.

Last week, I drove BLR-BSL-BLR via Solapur. While crossing Tumkur at about 4 am, the car hit a nasty sinkhole-like pothole that came out of nowhere and my tyre burst up. Thankfully the rims were fine. But had to do the rest of the 1100km journey on stepney. Be careful, guys!

[comfortablynumb]

Chandni chowk bridge demolition scheduled for September 9:

Hindustan Times: Demolition of Chandni chowk old bridge to begin on Sept 9, traffic block of 10 hours.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/citie...573524410.html

This is the spot in question.

[Lucifer68]

Thanks to all who are providing regular updates.
Planning for drive with family, starting from Bangalore - Kolhapur - Nashik and return starting next weekend. Will share the travelogue.
Kindly continue to share any watch out / be aware observations. Helps a lot.

Thanks all.

[cselvam]

Travelled from Bangalore to Mumbai yesterday, road conditions as below

Bangalore to Tumkur - as usual roads are good but traffic is more so early morning start you are good. just watch out for potholes when you exit tumkur for 5 kms till you join 3 lane roads, i had alloy wheel bent and tyre burst last week in same stretch, especially early morning like 5-6 am you can't see the potholes clearly. After the tollgate and speed breaker, you can keep to left lane, seems little better compared to right or middle lane.

Tumkur to Hubli - All good, except some rough stretches because of rain damage near Hubli for few kms.

Hubli to Dharwad - as usual 2 lane road, nothing new except few speed breakers that didn't exist last time when I travelled

Dharwad to Belagam - good, some roadwork for few 100 meters but nothing to worry.

Belgaum to kolhapur - roads good two wheeler traffic is more so you will need to reduce your average speed.

Kolhapur to satara - roads ok but two wheel traffic takes one lane so you get only one lane

Satara to Pune - good 3 lane roads, some potholes in right most lane so stick to middle lane, sometimes potholes are in between middle and right most lane so just need to. E careful. Pune by pass seems more damage because of rains and more traffic, otherwise manageable. Just be careful around satara and Pune by pass roads, roads are good otherwise.

Pune to Mumbai : excellent as usual, we went to panvel so not much city traffic to reach destination.

Breakfast we had at Ganesh hotel just before Hubli
Lunch we had Amar only Veg at Satara
Coffee break just before Mumbai at near Food Mall.

Overall all good except City bypass roads developed potholes and bit of local traffic also joining bypass.

Speed guns : I noticed was that there were speen guns in Ertiga here and there hiding behind trees on extreem left when you enter and exit major cities in Maharashtra, one I noticed on expressway as well. Didn't note the exact location, but with bit of f rains and traffic we didn't anyway do much of speed, beyond that even if you spot speed gun I don't want to break suddenly and cause accident so drove as usual. It is too much pain to watch out for 40 or 50KM speed signs and slow down exactly to that when you are with so much of bike traffic and other vehicles.

Road maintenance work : there are some places in Maharashtra where they fixing potholes and also bruning the bushes in median. They have enough road signs and warnings with red cones, so nothing to worry just watch out for those warnings in right lanes or if some lorries are moving from right most lanes to middle lane.

[sanket456]

Travelled from Whitefield, Bangalore to Sinhagad Road, Pune on Sunday with my family. I started early morning at 4.30 AM and reached Pune at 6 PM with ample break for Breakfast at Apoorva resort Davanagere, Lunch at Amar Only Veg restaurant Nipani and Tea near khed shivapur toll plaza.

Apoorva resort Davanagere is good option for breakfast, if you have an early morning start from Bangalore. I reached around 8.30 AM and had benne dose. Good facilities overall with clean washrooms.

Amar only veg restaurant near Nipani is a good option for family. It serves Jain food as well so anyone looking for Jain food should mark this location. You will easily reach this place around lunch time as it is around 4 and half hour drive from davanagere. Here is the location - Amar Restaurant Location .

Overall roads are good with some bad patches in between. There are bad patches on Neelamangla to Tumkur stretch. Please drive carefully and watch out for potholes on this stretch as these potholes appear suddenly and high speed can cause damage to tyres & rims.

Some work near tunnel on satara to pune section is in progress. Located speed gun near Hubli and then on Kolhapur- Karad section.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

Chandni chowk bridge demolition scheduled

Demolition scheduled to be on 1- and 2-Oct.

There will be a nine-hour traffic block on the Katraj to Dehu Road highway, from 11 pm on Saturday to 8 am on Sunday

https://www.hindustantimes.com/citie...301449581.html

It may be ideal to skip travel on this route entirely this weekend; go through the city because these timelines will most likely be very fluid. Expect a lot of traffic, considering the Metro work within the city.

[autoweirdo]

Travelled from Pune to Bengaluru on 30th Sep, following is the update:
Pune-Satara: Fairly good road and luckily not much rush at toll plazas too as started at 5AM.
Satara-Kolhapur: Good condition and diversion at 2 flyovers but side roads were fine. Faced foggy conditions post satara for 15-20kms but it was not as dense as we see in North India.
Kolhapur-Hubli: Patch work going on post Kognoli Toll, seems like rain as has caused damage at many places. Patchy roads even post Tawandi ghat but not bad enough to slow down your ride.
Hubli - Tumkur: 2 diversions and side roads are broken with potholes so need to be bit careful to avoid bottom scrapping. Roads were good and didnt faced any pothole issue near Tumkur as mentioned in posts above(seems like Tumkur to Sira stretch is riddled with potholes)
Post Tumkur: Heavy traffic due to weekend rush, even nice road was having heavy rush.

Pit stop at Updadhya Ruchi post Chitradurga, coffee was really good
Reached Varthur around 9PM with multiple stops as travelling with infant.

Speed Interceptors: Were near entry and exit of Chitradurga Bypass

[autoweirdo]

Travelled back from Bangalore to Pune, following is the update:
1) Bangalore-Tumkur : Good road overall and early morning start so didnt faced any traffic
2) Tumkur-MH Border: Best section (sans Hubli Bypass), road is now patched up post Tumkur but its shoddy job so lot of undulations better to keep on extreme left for first 15kms
3) MH Border-Pune: Good roads covered traffic prone areas of Kolhapur in afternoon so didn't faced much traffic.

I made pitstop just after Harihar tollbooth (Chalageri), Suki restaurant - dosa and idli were nice and clean bathrooms too. Saw VRL buses also stopping there.

One funny observation, I topped up diesel at BPCL COCO before Tumkur toll. Somehow i felt engine smoother than compared to topping up at other COCOs. Not sure if cloudy climate played role

[c@rwate]

Hello guys,
I apologise for digressing a bit from the topic - I will be traveling from Pune to Sringeri and exiting the Pune-Bengaluru route at Bankapura and will travel via Shikaripur.
I wanted to know if anyone has an idea about the route safety and surface quality on this route. I will be the lone driver for my Honda City 2020 MT, traveling with 4 more (1 senior citizen mom) and probably full boot load.
I plan to leave Pune earliest, possibly at 5 AM and plan to reach in 14 hours (Google shows 13 hours). I am also aware of the fact that I will reach my destination after sundown and hence anxious.