[VJ_MAVRICK]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

@VJ_MAVRICK: Thanx. VJ...

Also pl. suggest me on what would be the better food joints to stopover for breakfast n lunch on NH4.. i would be leaving b'lore around 3 - 4 AM.

Absolutely JM! That would be the best time to leave and i am sure you will hit Mumbai by the sunset assuming around 15 hours and evening Mumbai traffic will greet you . Not a problem as i too started around 3.00AM in the morning and reached Andheri east around 7.00PM crawling through the evening mumbai traffic.

[akroy]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

@VJ_MAVRICK: Thanx. VJ...

Also pl. suggest me on what would be the better food joints to stopover for breakfast n lunch on NH4.. i would be leaving b'lore around 3 - 4 AM.

3AM start means, you can stop at Reliance A1Plaza, Ranibennur (is it working still?) otherwise somewhere in Haveri.

Early Lunch can be had at Belgaum (Kumar was telling of a nice food joint, pls PM him) otherwise there was A1 Plaza but dont know whether it still on.

Abhi

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Originally Posted by akroy

3AM start means, you can stop at Reliance A1Plaza, Ranibennur (is it working still?) otherwise somewhere in Haveri.

Early Lunch can be had at Belgaum (Kumar was telling of a nice food joint, pls PM him) otherwise there was A1 Plaza but dont know whether it still on.

Abhi

That was a good point abhi as i too advised my pal on the same for A1 plaza (RaniBennur) and according to him the A1 Plaza food court was still active ,however the fuel station was closed for known reasons obviously.

[hrag]

The Reliance A1 just before Ranibennur was open on June 7, 2008. There is another A1 on the Chitradurga bypass, however I didn't check if this was open. This one is also slightly away from the main road - I have stopped here in April 2007.

Just after Ranibennur, the double road begins and you need to keep left for Haveri bypass. Keeping right would take you into Haveri town (you still need to go into Haveri town IF you want to go to Sirsi, Devimane etc.)

[prince_pervez]

My uncle did Bangalore - Pune last weekend.
He started at 6:00 AM and reached by 7:00 PM (half an hour for lunch at Belgaum).
Ohh..forgot to mention, he drives a Captiva.

[Jedi.Knight]

I will be driving down to Pune this weekend. Have done 3 trips in the past year and A1 was reliable in terms of food and other basic necessities. As mentioned here, we also had taken the halt at the Reliance A1 just before Ranibennur. Hope it is still operational.
Will post on the road condition on reaching Pune.

[akroy]

Originally Posted by VJ_MAVRICK

That was a good point abhi as i too advised my pal on the same for A1 plaza (RaniBennur) and according to him the A1 Plaza food court was still active ,however the fuel station was closed for known reasons obviously.

That means I guessed it right. There were doing great business and was open 24 hours.

When I went there last time during my goa trip I saw many buses coming in and out. At any point of time there were always 4-5 buses.

Ranibennur A1 plaza becomes a very strategic locations for the all the bus routes from Pune, Mumbai, Kolhapur, Goa, hubli etc etc

Abhi

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Originally Posted by Jedi.Knight

I will be driving down to Pune this weekend. Have done 3 trips in the past year and A1 was reliable in terms of food and other basic necessities. As mentioned here, we also had taken the halt at the Reliance A1 just before Ranibennur. Hope it is still operational.
Will post on the road condition on reaching Pune.

Thats a good number of trips you had put up Jedi and seeing your trip frequency, i think you can update this thread as and when required about the road conditions and have a safe drive.
cheers:

[JMaruru]

Guys,
Also can you suggest me about budget accommodation in the stretch between andheri west and malad west. I would be staying for 3 - 4 days..n mostly will be out in the day.. n need jus 2 sleep in the nite.

Thx.
JM

[VJ_MAVRICK]

PM Mumbai Bhpian "amtak" and he might be of help to you on this. Ofcourse, any Mumbai Bhpian if he happens to see this post might give you pointers.

[Jedi.Knight]

Managed to leave CV Raman nagar by 7:30 am on 12 July. Weaving through the dense morning Bangalore traffic, managed to reach Tumkur by 10:30. Below is the table indicating the distance and the time taken.

We reached home in Pune at 9:30 pm and the distance from Bangalore home to Pune home was exactly 850 kms. Time taken 14 hours.

As far as we could see all Reliance A1 were closed. For breakfast we stopped at Kamat just outside Bangalore. As we had food packed with us we did not stop at any other place. The only other stops were the obvious nature breaks.

We saw a BPCL outlet just after Ranibennur. It had a restaurant called Dhaba. The toilets were also clean. After Bankapura, there's a HP with similar setup which was also clean. Since we were flying in our new Corolla, we could only spot the above mentioned pitstops. The wipers were put to use around the Belgaum region and for some time after Satara.

All distances have been taken from mapmyindia.com and were more or less correct.

Hope the table helps. Any other questions..? Most welcome.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Thats a real condensed and nice report Jedi.Knight. From your log it seemed only 30 Kms were of bad stretches compared to the last time when i went. Definitely your concise report will be useful for potential travel enthusiasts.

[CorsaLove]

Nice Report Jedi.knight. It is very precise and exact as per my knowledge as I did Bangalore - HUbli last week.

The rest is for me to do in my next trip to Bhopal in October!

[viveklk]

This is good report buddy. Last December when I drove the road near Davangere was too bad. It doesn't look like that now from your experience.

[akroy]

Nice update Jedi, Had you considered Hebbal - Yelhanka - Dodaballapur - Dobbspet route it would have taken you just an hour to Tumkur from CV Raman Nagar. I construction acivity near Yestawanthapur takes a toll on the timings.