[goandude]

Originally Posted by goandude

Did Mumbai Bangalore on Sat sunday. started from colaba at 1500 and stopped over at Pune (Baner road) at 1930. It was raining very hard for most of the trip. thus my plan of staying overnight somewhere in Satara got rained out.

some pics of the expressway under a deluge
The VRL volvo was travelling fast
And to top it all a traffic jam on the expressway

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Yes it does. No more chocking. Even for those taking the road below, they wont have to go through the jams caused at the commercial tax checkpost as a new place has been identified with adequate space to park trucks (as told to me by a cop from Nelemangala whom I had offered a ride last week)

Der aye durust aye - Couldn't have put it better as this was much needed for an entry point that was always chocked. This would put smiles on most of the faces including me who constantly do Belur and Pune witnessing the mess so far.

Wow! You what that means to people like you and me and many other right ? I am so happy. Heck our schedules used to be decided on the freaking Nelmangala pile up. This is true independence.

[Rajiv-Bang]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

This story appeared in Bangalore edition of Times of India

It was really good to read this news today. Finally they are planning to open the 19.5-km Expressway On Tumkur Road. It will be a big relief for a lot of T-BHPians travelling to Mumbai, Pune & Goa.

[INNOWAGON_CL]

Thanks for the update. Now that travel time from Mumbai to Hosur is getting shorter with the removal of bottlenecks, I can again plan my next drive from Mumbai to Coimbatore.

[paragsachania]

Did Bangalore-Pune-Bangalore between 21th and 24th August.

Though I reported travelling over all the bridges few weeks back, this time every bridge except the last one that I passed over the NH4-NH48 intersection was open for traffic. Looking at the pace of work suddenly I felt if this will open formally on time!

I had to drop wife and my daughter at HSR layout from Vidyaranyapura and after doing so, myself and parents took the Jail Road and reached NICE and continued towards Tumkur Road.

The traffic after NICE till the last bridge was a mess and we had a bad time bearing the jams on the service road and finally paid the toll at Nelemangala at 1pm exactly.

Lunch at Dobspet, Tea at Ghar, Ranibennur and passed Hubli bypass at 6-30pm and stopped for refuelling at BP bunk opposite to High Court. Belted non stop to reach Kolhapur and stopped for dinner at a hotel just opposite to the bridge that has a right for Ichalkaranji/Sangli. After dinner we continued ahead at 9-50pm and we reached Pune, Sinhgad Road at 12-20am. Traffic from Kolhapur onwards was very less this time and toll booths looked empty.

Way back, hit the bypass exactly at 6am and we were at NICE at 5-15pm and in HSR via NICE and Jail road by 6pm. Breakfast was at Hotel Kaveri in Tawandi Ghats (Bad it was) and lunch at Genysis in Davanagere.

Updates on the road:

Chitradurga-Davanagere > Almost done with 2/3 deviations and a couple of speedbreakers but doable easily under an hour's time with sedate driving as well.

Harihar bypass > From what it looked to me, It seems like this bypass will be a 2 laned one as I don't see any signs of another bridge being built over the river parallel to the existing one.

Ranibennur Bypass > Open as many including myself mentioned earlier and it was bliss to pass the town in evening.

Haveri Bypass till Bankapur - Final layer asphalting was in progress and traffic was allowed to share one section of the road and it means that this stretch is also ready almost.

Railway Gates > As usual, its only the bridge as we carefully checked if everything else was in place and It was. If the overbridge section is installed, the road from both sides can join soon.

New Development?

A speedbreaker has been Installed after about 6-8 Kms after Kittur and just that we folks dont miss the sign in the night, there is a blinking lamp just where the median breaks. Last June when I was driving, I was doing 80kmph and it was under daylight that I could see the sign. This time however, I was doing 120kmph when I saw the blinking light which I though was a warning sign to watch out for a break in the median and started slowing down and realised it much later that It was a speedbreaker. I didn't want to brake and hence sped over it. They are small speedbreakers installed very very closely and wont cause any damage and I was lucky too but doesn't meant that one can ignore and jump over it.

So, yet another speedbreaker on the Karnataka stretch of the NH4 over a completed stretch after we last ranted about the one nearSira. Way to go!

Refuelling:
Now, most of the fuel stations which earlier sold unleaded fuel sells only premium ones. Both ways, I had to refuel with premium petrol this time at the same places where I earlier filled only normal fuel. Arguing didn't help much as the attendant kept telling that its their manager who's told to do so.

Suggestion is not to continue further looking for bunks which sell normal fuel and then expect a mishap like 'netarchie' but refill at these places and avoid such situations.

[MX6]

The premium one's are there in MH side or KA side or both? How was the rains in Davangere stretch? I read in paper that there's a deluge there a couple of days back.

[Rajiv-Bang]

I had been to Neelmangala today,the 19.5-km Expressway On Tumkur Road is finally going to officially open from September 1 if the security guard, cashier at the toll gate are to be believed.The mock trials without toll charges have already started, i mean they ask each & every vehicle to stop as in normal toll booth, open & close the barrier. They are carying out their studies is what i was told. The toll charges on the electronic board was showing 15 bucks , i just hope they don't increase it.

The unscientific humps on the way out of Bangalore are still existing, couple of them really bad ,however towards Bangalore i came across only one bad hump.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by MX6

The premium one's are there in MH side or KA side or both? How was the rains in Davangere stretch? I read in paper that there's a deluge there a couple of days back.

Both and it is almost exactly halfway from Pune and Bangalore side. The Landmark is the Dharwad High Cour Bench Building and these 2 BP Bunks are located opposite to each other with long tower with a BP sign.

The only other safe bet would be inside Ranibennur (which many wont opt). I managed to drive till Ghar Ranibennur and refuelled at BP since I had good amount left when I was passing Dharward way back to Bangalore. If It was post night, I always fill up at this place as they are the only 24 Hour stations.

Regarding the rains, we passed Hubli till Davanagere under light drizzle good enough to give a hint of bad rain elsewhere and I too read the newspaper which has reported rains in these parts.

It was very bad when I was going towards Pune as I faced very heavy downpour between Harihar and Shiggaon.

One more update: The road from Bankapura onwards towards Pune (even on the opposite corridor) have developed dips on the slow lanes by constant movement of truck traffic and during rains the water logging can be witnessed and even if one tries to remain in the slow lane, the water and the dips makes it difficult to hold a straight line.

@MS, Your PM Inbox was full when I tried sending an update on the DIY today morning.

[MX6]

That dip used to be there since last year. I remember a drive to Kolhapur once last year and on the way back there was a deluge. There was enough eater on both the lanes on the return from Kolhapur to Satara. I had to reduce my speed so that I don't end up losing control of my car going over sheet of water!

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by MX6

That dip used to be there since last year. I remember a drive to Kolhapur once last year and on the way back there was a deluge. There was enough eater on both the lanes on the return from Kolhapur to Satara. I had to reduce my speed so that I don't end up losing control of my car going over sheet of water!

You are right when you say they existed since a year but this time the water over these caused a bit of tensed moments and I settled on the fast lane for a while. So, In rains, either completely slow down or get onto the fast lane.

Somehow I also forgot to mention that the Kolhapur-Pune section has developed manageable potholes at many places but the Pune-Kolhapur has the huge ones especially over Khambhatki Ghats and beyond. It only gets better after Satara due to the concretized section.

[djay99]

I will be travelling from Bangalore to Bagalkot via hubli coming friday SEP 10.
Any updates on road conditions?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by djay99

I will be travelling from Bangalore to Bagalkot via hubli coming friday SEP 10.
Any updates on road conditions?

There should be no 'significant' improvements in the past 2-3 weeks since I last travelled. You should be able to drive along till Hubli without a fuss as situation as of today is much better as compared.

The stretch shall be called complete only when the 2 railway crossings are done. Ranibennur has a bypass now and even the Haveri-Bankapura stretch seems to be getting ready completely.

I would suggest, just go ahead.

After all, today there is no hue and cry over the Tumkur Entry/Exit or even the Chitradurga Entry/Exit which have been accomplished long back and were major bottlenecks as reported by many.

[thedragula]

Recently did a Mumbai - Bangalore - Mumbai run last week in the Palio 1.6 GTX. Started from Mumbai at 6 am on 22nd August and reached Hubli at 5.30 pm. Halted there for the night and started at 7am the next day and reached Vijayanagar by 1.30pm.

On the return leg, started at 730 am only to drive 10km and return back to base as we detected a fuel leakage. Resolved the issue and started out at 930 am and reached Kolhapur by 845pm. Started the next day at 9am and reached Mumbai by 2 pm amidst heavy rains from Satara onwards.

The roads are in excellent condition, except the stretch between Ranibennur and Devanagere which are still riddled with potholes, innumerable diversions and worst of all, unscientifically designed speed breakers which scrape the underbody if you are not careful or will damage the wheels if you hit them at high speed. All these issues were spotted only on the Karnataka stretch of the NH4 and that's saying a lot.

The best stretches of road are Pune- Kolhapur-Belgaum and the Chitradurga Bypass.

The flyover on Tumkur road is not yet open and all traffic coming into Bangalore are led into a service road which you end up following if you dont watch out for the lone exit back into the NH4 (like we did )

Fueling was at

1) BPCL COCO - Khedshivapur enroute to Pune - Very good pump
2) Konduskar BPCL - Kolhapur (gave excellent mileage of 16.xx)
3) IOC - Chitradurga
4) Shell - Bangalore
5) HP Auto Care - After Tumkur
6) IOC - Nipani, Belgaum (had to fill as I was running out of fuel). but got good fuel.
7) HP Highway services - Vadgaon (after Kolhapur)

Did not face any issues with fuel from any of these pumps. The car was at its best using petrol from BPCL COCO, Konduskar and Shell. Unfortunately, we lost more than 15 litres of Shell petrol due to the leak.

Attaching some photos of the roads. Taken using mobile camera, so excuse the quality.

[djay99]

Thanks parag. What is the distance between BLR and HUBLI?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by djay99

Thanks parag. What is the distance between BLR and HUBLI?

Its 400 Kms and if started early, can be done under 5:30/6:00 Hours.