[Akash_N]

Originally Posted by 1lokesh

Leaving today for Mumbai. Any fresh updates please. NH50 or regular Belgaum Kolhapur Satara route? Travelling with family with planned 2 night halts if needed. Thank you in anticipation

I am planning a work trip to Pune, need to leave on Sunday, 1st June. Planning on the Banagalore > Hosapete > Vijayapura > Zalki > Shirwal > Pune Route.

Please report back your experience if you did decide to take this journey.

[napster]

I started my journey from Bangalore to Pune via NH48 at 4:30 AM on Sunday, 25th May, hoping that an early start would help me beat the morning traffic and make decent progress on the highway. My destination was Balewadi, and I chose NH48 over the Solapur route primarily because I was traveling with kids and wanted to avoid the stress of navigating Pune city traffic in the late evening though I was aware of the ongoing construction work on NH48.

The first half of the drive was manageable—I reached Belagavi by 1:20 PM, which seemed like a good pace considering the ongoing expansion happening for Hubballi-Dharwad bypass road. This time though lot of work is still to happen, passing this particular stretch was less stressful as they have opened few sections of the new road which at least allows you to go past slow moving vehicle relatively safely.

I hoped to be home by around 9 pm. But things deteriorated quickly after Belgavi. There were multiple diversions due to ongoing road work, and the highway was clogged with heavy traffic, mostly because of the weekend rush and the end of the holiday season. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to travel that day. The stretch between Belgavi-Kolhapur was the worst in terms of Road Quality.

As I moved past Kolhapur, the weather turned. A spell of heavy rains made driving difficult, reducing visibility and adding another layer of risk. At Karad, I was stuck in a 40-minute jam, and just before the Khambatki Tunnel, at a place called Wele, I got caught in a massive 1.5-hour gridlock (Reason - 3 laned highway + 2 laned service road converging together into 2 lanes and some oversmart people had removed the barricades from service lanes which I think were put only for this reason to avoid a bigger bottleneck ) .

Eventually, I reached Pune at 1:00 AM, ending what turned out to be an exhausting 20.5-hour journey. After this experience, I’ve decided that I will not be using NH48 again for at least the next year and a half, or until the road conditions and construction work improve significantly. From now on, I’ll prefer the Solapur route, even if it means braving Pune’s inner-city traffic as this route offers a peace of mind (even if the quality of stops is not great on this route).

Ironically, despite everything, I was somewhat fortunate to have taken this route—reports later confirmed that the Solapur highway had briefly gone underwater due to cloudburst-like rains, making it impassable for a time. So while NH48 was far from ideal, it may have been the lesser of two evils that day.

[1lokesh]

So made it to Hubli smoothly. Not a lot of stress except a few diversions here and there. My car is behaving a bit bumpy probably because it’s loaded a lot with stuff (heavier than normal luggage).
As it is a low GC sedan, with this kind of load, I’m a bit more worried about the route ahead. Just checked the route on GMaps and its shows this route, passing through Chikodi, sangli and tasgaon.
Is this a better route than the usual one?

[amolpg]

Originally Posted by 1lokesh

So made it to Hubli smoothly. Not a lot of stress except a few diversions here and there. My car is behaving a bit bumpy probably because it’s loaded a lot with stuff (heavier than normal luggage).
As it is a low GC sedan, with this kind of load, I’m a bit more worried about the route ahead. Just checked the route on GMaps and its shows this route, passing through Chikodi, sangli and tasgaon.
Is this a better route than the usual one?

No, I don't believe it is, I have been to Sangli few months ago from Satara. You either take Vijayapura - Solapur - Pune or you stick to usual NH48.
GMaps shows this route since it considers NH48 is blocked at places instead of diversions.

[1lokesh]

Thanks everyone for your inputs. Started from Hubli at 11 am and reached Wakad pune by 9pm. (Including a total of 1.5 hrs/3 stops)
Took the Nh48 throughout and didn’t heed to repeated please by GMaps for course correction. Glad that I didn’t.
Overall if it’s day time l, not a rush weekend and no/less rains, you could take this route and be assured against the fear of NH50’s shortfalls. Trouble starts after belgavi up until Kolhapur and then starts again, (a bit milder though) as you approach Karad. We were fortunate to cross this bottleneck (and a long one) within 25-30 minutes.
I had a few jumpy ones on the road from that tunnel after aaram hotel till all the way to Pune. Some scary potholes made my suspensions screech in pain. Bad ones. Be careful please, they just come out of nowhere. Mostly due to it was dark else I may have been able to avoid these.

Overall NH48 wasn’t as bad for me atleast but surely it’s gone downhill. I don’t understand why is the work so haphazard and especially all the service roads so broken

[tenjij]

Hey Sarthak,

I did my NH50 via Hullikele-Hosapete-Solapur-Pune trip, the second time from Bengaluru to Pune on 20th May 2025. Last year I was able to complete the journey in less than 12 hrs. But this time the rains just didn't allow me to go freely till Tumkur. Still I was able to reach Pune at Wanowrie in 13.5hrs.

I feel that it will take more than 18 months for NH48 to be back to normal especially the Khambatki Ghat Tunnel and Flyovers near them.

20.5hrs is like taking 6hrs more than the usual time.. I empathize you with this considering I was about to take NH48 this year but considering the reviews on YouTube of different people, I stayed away from it.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by napster

Ironically, despite everything, I was somewhat fortunate to have taken this route—reports later confirmed that the Solapur highway had briefly gone underwater due to cloudburst-like rains, making it impassable for a time. So while NH48 was far from ideal, it may have been the lesser of two evils that day.

Where was this waterlogging? Would be good to know if this can be a routine pattern at this location?

Is it because water cannot be drained from the road out thanks to bad design? Or its just sheer volume of water?

[rakesh_r]

Last week travelled from Pune to Bengaluru and back by a VRL Volvo 9600 bus. Boarded the bus at Wakad bridge at 3:45 pm and got down at VRL depot, Anand Rao circle by 12 pm. The total travel time took around 20 hours. We encountered a heavy traffic jam at Karad, almost an hour of gridlock. On top of that, the bus suffered a tyre blowout at the side wall (most probably due to wrong tyre pressure or bad roads). Helped the two drivers change the tyre, which took around an hour. The return journey took around 18 hours owing to heavy rains, which made the drive more challenging.

[tenjij]

Originally Posted by ampere

Where was this waterlogging? Would be good to know if this can be a routine pattern at this location?

Is it because water cannot be drained from the road out thanks to bad design? Or its just sheer volume of water?

The water log was near Patas. We were early by 2 days. The water logging was on the 22nd or 23rd May. We travelled on the same route on 20th and way before the pre monsoon rains poured near Solapur.

The logging was because of the sheer volume of rains. Design can also be blamed. It poured the whole morning and afternoon leading to one side being blocked and an Innova which got submerged in the water. Thankfully, there was no one inside that were trapped.

[condor]

Stopped at Hotel Purohit near the Guilalu toll plaza (between Hiriyur and Chitradurga) yesterday. Decent place for food. Has a charging facility also for the EV folks.

Though it is on the west side of the highway, access for folks travelling southwards is also very easy.

[napster]

Originally Posted by ampere

Where was this waterlogging? Would be good to know if this can be a routine pattern at this location?

Is it because water cannot be drained from the road out thanks to bad design? Or its just sheer volume of water?

Don't know about the exact location but the heaviest rainfall was near place called Bhigwan. This is next to the Ujani Dam.

[Akash_N]

Finished my Pune trip yesterday.

Bangalore to Pune - 1st June - Sunday
Route taken (NH50/NH65) - NICE Road - Tumkur - Solapur - Pune Viman Nagar

Started at 6AM from South Bangalore. Reached Viman Nagar at 9PM
About 1 hour 15mins of stops for breakfast, lunch, nature calls and fuel.

Roads are decent. The stretch after Tungabhadra Dam for about 20 kms has a few service roads due to construction.
Checked with a few people around Vijayapura(Bijapur) regarding the road condition for Zalki - Pandharpur - Shirwal route. Was suggested to avoid it as its a narrow 2 lane road, so you will slow down.


Pune to Bangalore - Tuesday
Route taken (NH50/NH65) - Viman Nagar - Solapur - Tumkur - Nice Road - South Bangalore

Started at 5.30 AM from Viman Nagar. Was home by 6 PM.
About 1 hour 30mins of stops for breakfast, lunch, nature calls and fuel.

Starting early allowed to make maximum use of empty roads. Was able to cover
Pune - Solapur Bypass in under 3 hrs.
Solapur Bypass - Chitradurga - 6hrs (Stopped for fuel & nature calls in between)
Lunch at Paakashala, Chitradurga
Chitradurga - South Bangalore - 3 hrs

The aim was to reach NICE road before rush hour traffic.

Road is decent, with proper planning for stops and making use of the good clean stretches,

[cdrajeevkumar]

Originally Posted by Akash_N

Finished my Pune trip yesterday.

Bangalore to Pune - 1st June - Sunday
Route taken (NH50/NH65) - NICE Road - Tumkur - Solapur - Pune Viman Nagar

Started at 6AM from South Bangalore. Reached Viman Nagar at 9PM
About 1 hour 15mins of stops for breakfast, lunch, nature calls and fuel.

Roads are decent. The stretch after Tungabhadra Dam for about 20 kms has a few service roads due to construction.

Checked with a few people around Vijayapura(Bijapur) regarding the road condition for Zalki - Pandharpur - Shirwal route. Was suggested to avoid it as its a narrow 2 lane road, so you will slow down.

Road is decent, with proper planning for stops and making use of the good clean stretches,

Hi Akash,

I will be taking the trip next week to Pune (Viman nagar / Koregaon). I would appreciate if you could advise if it is still recommended to go via Solapur, given that monsoon is striking hard!

Also, other forum members expressed that eateries are not good on this route. What is your take on this?

Finally, if you can help me with the total toll that you paid, it would be great

Thanks,

Rajeev

[Akash_N]

Originally Posted by cdrajeevkumar

I would appreciate if you could advise if it is still recommended to go via Solapur, given that monsoon is striking hard!

In my opinion, this is still a better route than Kolhapur Satara stretch (only due to the ongoing construction).
This route is a drab, decent stops are far and few. So it really depends on what you are looking for. That being said, the road surface is pretty decent, even with rains.

In regards of the monsoon, I would pick a slower levelled tarmac road over the muddy, barely there service lanes in monsoon.

Originally Posted by cdrajeevkumar

Also, other forum members expressed that eateries are not good on this route. What is your take on this?

Yes as I said, you will have to maintain lower expectations in regards of food and facilities on this route, but once you crossover into Maharashtra (after Bijapur) food options a plenty.
Before that, keep an eye out for Paakashala & Naivedyam on chitradurga bypass.

Originally Posted by cdrajeevkumar

Finally, if you can help me with the total toll that you paid, it would be great

As far as I can see, toll deducted on the fastag is Rs. 3120 for the whole trip.


Hope this helps.

[autoweirdo]

Originally Posted by cdrajeevkumar

Hi Akash,

Also, other forum members expressed that eateries are not good on this route.

I will be taking same route tomorrow for Kharadi (Pune) my only worry is of traffic due to Palkhi around Pune, will update thread post journey.

For food post Chitradurga bypass if you are fine with diversion in Bijapur (Vijayapura) you have Qaswa Hills opposite golgumbaz famous for non veg.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/JdGho5wCyoQuC6S9A

Another option is new restaurant post Kushtagi - Green Restaurant had tried snack items which were good.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ps5P9B9HvjdXnm1u5

Else just before Kushtagi you have Nandgokula, but over the time I felt quality is bit down but south indian delicacies like dosa, bisi bele baath are still good.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/TxZQC6QU4HvDyjfB7

You can keep these for reference for this route.