[goandude]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

If you are staying in North Bangalore areas, deviate left from Jalahalli Cross signal itself. Othersiwe all the bridge is open and hardly takes 15 mins from Jass Toll at Nelamangala till NICE Intersection.

Guys If coming from Neelamangala, there is an elevated road above the old road,
1. where does this elevated rd end?
2. I ask b'cause at night what would be the landmark to get off the elevated road, to be able to take the left turn to jalahali cross road.

Plan to take this jalahali rd, Lt at bel circle, rt at Kuvempu circle to cv raman rd then the usual nandi durg rd

Thus the turnoff NH4 is important to me.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by goandude

Guys If coming from Neelamangala, there is an elevated road above the old road,
1. where does this elevated rd end?
2. I ask b'cause at night what would be the landmark to get off the elevated road, to be able to take the left turn to jalahali cross road.

Plan to take this jalahali rd, Lt at bel circle, rt at Kuvempu circle to cv raman rd then the usual nandi durg rd

Thus the turnoff NH4 is important to me.

When you pay toll and continue over the newly done road, after a few kilometers you'll pass the exit to NICE road (you continue further) and then after about 2 kms, you'll see barricades mentioning no entry for 2 wheelers, rickshaws any further. THIS IS EXACTLY where you stay left and get off the toll road and another kilometer away is the Jalahalli Cross signal.

By the way, what time of the night you want to drive that way? If its post 9-00PM, stick to the main road and continue via Yeshwantpur as the jam isnt that bad at 9-00pm when I last drove on 30th November.

[goandude]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

you'll see barricades mentioning no entry for 2 wheelers, rickshaws any further. THIS IS EXACTLY where you stay left and get off the toll road and another kilometer away is the Jalahalli Cross signal.

By the way, what time of the night you want to drive that way? If its post 9-00PM, stick to the main road and continue via Yeshwantpur as the jam isnt that bad at 9-00pm when I last drove on 30th November.

Thanks parag, useful info. i'm leaving mumbai by 6 am and plan to reach bangy outskirts by 9 pm or so.

[goandude]

Guys thanks for all the inputs from your side. Came back from Bangalore yesterday. Stats as follows
Mumbai Bangalore start 0610 end 2240. total driving time 14:40 and halt time 2:10
Bangalore Mumbai start 0530 end 2145. total driving time 14:35 and halt time 1:40
Daytime driving speeds about 110 and night time 90 kmph

The difference between MH NH4 and KA NH4 is huge in terms of type and amount of traffic. KA is full of trucks and MH less trucks but more 2 and 4 wheelers. No service rd on MH side so traffic is bothersome. Toll waiting time in MH is long and unruly with a lot of cutting lanes and jostling for space.

The work is fast progressing on the KA NH4 and the elevated road connecting Neelamangala to Yeshwantpur is a FANTASTIC time saver.

OT Tankful to tankful highway gave me 23.x kmpl

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by goandude

Guys thanks for all the inputs from your side. Came back from Bangalore yesterday. Stats as follows
Mumbai Bangalore start 0610 end 2240. total driving time 14:40 and halt time 2:10
Bangalore Mumbai start 0530 end 2145. total driving time 14:35 and halt time 1:40
Daytime driving speeds about 110 and night time 90 kmph

Decent timings there dude! You know how good the road condition is today as compared to a year before and am sure you enjoyed the drive as well.

The difference between MH NH4 and KA NH4 is huge in terms of type and amount of traffic. KA is full of trucks and MH less trucks but more 2 and 4 wheelers.

Well, in the night the scene in MH changes. Its more of trucks who would've parked at Kagal and enter MH towards Pune/Mumbai once the messy local traffic clears up after 9pm. Along with them are the private buses from Kolhapur in considerable numbers. Also, its more of TN,KA and KL trucks in the night between Kolhapur and Pune/Mumbai and less of MH trucks.

On the other hand, as many would notice how the Mumbai-Pune expresway gets clogged post 12-00am with trucks who target getting out of MH into KA early mornings. Hence, if you start at 4-00am from Pune, you'll still see good number of these trucks till you enter KA.

The truck traffic is thinner more for the fact that these poor fellows would need to go through the pain of navigating through the messy traffic in Kolhapur, Umbraj, Karad and longer toll booths and hence prefer doing it between 9-00pm and 6-00am.

In the night you see all of them driving in the left lane and allowing you to overtake without a honk/flash of lights.

No service rd on MH side so traffic is bothersome. Toll waiting time in MH is long and unruly with a lot of cutting lanes and jostling for space.

The demographies of western ghats would probably not permit service lanes. Along with it is the urbanization and industries all around Kolhapur and while entering Pune and of course those Ghats of Khambatki and Katraj.

If you recall, the service lanes in KA exists mostly between C'Durga and Hubli and after that between Dharward-Belgaum-Kagal and you know how empty and flat things look on both sides when you drive here barring a few stretches. You dont have service lanes when you enter C'durga bypass or for that matter when you pass Kittur, Hirebagewadi or Tawandi Ghats as well. The moment you enter MH, its more of not so straight stretches mostly.

Did you notice queues at all at any of the Toll booth in KA? I am sure you didn't except may be the Jas toll at Tumkur and Nelemangala or even the new toll on Tumkur Road. It is always the case since years now and sometimes one can do eeena-meena-deeka and select an empty lane of his choice.

The cutting of lanes and fighting for space is hence more common in MH due to the sheer increase in traffic and impatient private drivers.

The same happens in NICE toll booth in Bannerghatta Road on Fridays and Sundays and I have heard at Krishnagiri toll as well.

The work is fast progressing on the KA NH4 and the elevated road connecting Neelamangala to Yeshwantpur is a FANTASTIC time saver.

. It is the best development in the recent past. So which route you took to reach your destination?

OT Tankful to tankful highway gave me 23.x kmpl

Impressive number there.

[goandude]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Decent timings there dude! You know how good the road condition is today as compared to a year before and am sure you enjoyed the drive as well. I did enjoy the drive it has improved considerably since august

On the other hand, as many would notice how the Mumbai-Pune expresway gets clogged post 12-00am Expressway was ok in the evening compared to the day i was driving to pune where it was clogged. I find expressway traffic is connected with holiday season and weekends.

In the night you see all of them driving in the left lane and allowing you to overtake without a honk/flash of lights. Agree totally.


. It is the best development in the recent past. So which route you took to reach your destination?


Impressive number there Thanks.

NH4, neelamangala, yeswantpur, mekhri circle, ulsoor, OMR, CV raman ngr. like you said traffic at 9 pm was okish and reaching home was a breeze. OTOH getting into mumbai (expressway end @960 kms at 1930) was a pain. reached colaba at 2145hrs @ 1015km.

I paid Rs 659 towards toll during my Bangalore to Mumbai trip on 18/19 Nov 2010. Here are the details:

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

I paid Rs 659 towards toll during my Bangalore to Mumbai trip on 18/19 Nov 2010. Here are the details:

With the Nelemangala Elevated Expressway open (15/-) and two more toll booths almost ready to become operational between Chitradurga-Haveri, I am sure it will add another 75/- easily.

[Fauji]

Just returned from Bangalore - Shirdi trip and drove on NH4. As rightly said by Goandude, the NH4 Maharashtra is full of 2W. Karnataka stretch was better till evening. But after Davanagere, there were hordes of trucks which slow you down considerably. The nuisance on this road - same applies everywhere - are vehicles coming on wrong side. This is quite stress full at night as it is difficult to notice them.

Bad strecthes - Couple of KMs around Davangere (more because of diversions), two railway crossings at Harihar and Haveri. Both are manageable as distance is only 2-3 KMs
Best strecthes - Kolhapur - Dharwad and Tumkur - Chitradurga. The first one is possibly one of the best strecthes in India as well as very scenic. At this time of the year, the country side looked like patches of snowl!! courtesy grey/white bllooms of Sugarcane. When we drove after monsoons last year, it was green all around!!!

[hrman]

I did the Bangalore to Mumbai roadtrip on 25th December. Started at 5.15 am from Anand Nagar, Bangalore, reached my place at Dahisar-Mumbai at 9 pm. Took some 16 hours including 2.5 hours of break in between.
The road quality is great throughout, except the minor diversions around Haveri.
Since we left at 5.15 in the morning, we met dense fog after the Nelamangala toll gate. This lasted for some 30 minutes, and reduced our speed. However with daybreak we got better visibility.
The rail crossing after Ranebennur took some 30 minutes to cross. Thanks for the BHPians for pointing out the speedbreakers between Ranibennur and Haveri.(near Brahmasagaram). Those are nasty. There was a 2 laned road for half an hour around Belgaum, which was the only part of the highway which was without the divider.
Too many 2 wheelers around Kolhapur all the way till Pune were painful to avoid.
I must say, the quality of the NH4 is far superior compared to the Pune-Mumbai expressway, where the latter does not inspire too much confidence for driving above 120 kms. Could also be because it was late evening and dark by the time I got onto the expressway.
Overall, my experience was enjoyable.It was the first time I was on such a long roadtrip. Thanks to the BHPians who posted their travelogues, from which I drove the inspiration that it was possible to negotiate this drive. I am looking forward to the drive back to bangy on the 1st.

Wish a Happy New year to all Team BHPians.

[KishoreC]

I just did Bangalore - Bombay on 23rd Dec and Bombay - Bangalore on 2nd Jan as part of our 10 day Rajasthan trip.

While going started at 2PM on 23rd and reached Panvel at 6:30 AM on 24th. I saw great advantage in night driving on this stretch. I could continuously make 110 - 120 KMPH for couple of hours. Belgaum, Kolhapur and Pune was crossed during night and with very minimum traffic.

Only problem is most of the Kamat's are open only till 11PM.

Was quite impressed by the ease with which you can cross this 1K odd kilometers. The Haveri stretch is a pain. Surprisingly the Dharwad - Hubli stretch, being a 2 lane highway is in quite good condition.

In my opinion the best stretch is from Belgaum to KA-MH border. It's a recently tarred, butter-smooth four lane, least obstruction road.

[Fauji]

For those of you who love good food when they drive on this route

a) Break for Excellent Masala Dosa in Laxmi Bhavan in Chitradurga or Benne (butter) Masala dosa in Shree Sagar in Davanagere.

b) If hungry for lunch, Hubli is a good place to eat in famed Khanavalis - Lunch homes - in city. You will get traditional North karnataka thalis

c) Thakur pedas from Line Bazar in Dharwad. The ultimate Dharwad peda. Nothing else matters

d) Kunda and Kachoris from Purohit's in Camp in Belgaum.The best you can ever get.

[Fauji]

Missed out "Nargis" - Masala puffed rice - not sure how the name "Nargis" came along in Harihar/Davanagere

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Fauji

For those of you who love good food when they drive on this route

a) Break for Excellent Masala Dosa in Laxmi Bhavan in Chitradurga or Benne (butter) Masala dosa in Shree Sagar in Davanagere.

b) If hungry for lunch, Hubli is a good place to eat in famed Khanavalis - Lunch homes - in city. You will get traditional North karnataka thalis

c) Thakur pedas from Line Bazar in Dharwad. The ultimate Dharwad peda. Nothing else matters

d) Kunda and Kachoris from Purohit's in Camp in Belgaum.The best you can ever get.

Good suggestions there fauji but when Ranebennur didn't have a functional bypass, we had almost all of the Bhpians complain about passing this town end to end wasting so much of time.

In a journey that spans 850-1000 Kms one way without a night halt (well, thats what most of here have been doing), It is complemented by breaks on the highway or the bypass itself rather that venturing into even one of these towns/cities enroute and killing precious time.

Entering Davanagere and exiting is never exciting when one thinks of either reaching Bangalore or Pune/Mumbai.

I loved the Khanavalis inside Dharwad town but that was only when I had to change/buy tires enroute Pune and realised it takes almost 2 full hours (including lunch break) to enter and exit back to the 4 laned section. The Hubli-Dharwad road has a strict speed limit of 40kmph and 'always' there are cops with speed guns waiting for you.

Belgaum on the other hand is accessible as Sankam is almost close to the highway with proper entry to exit. Even Ramdev can be tried as it isnt too far away and roads aren't clooged but not any further.

Most of the places advised on this route are always along the highway whether it is Kamats, McDs, Sankam, Genesys, Ghar BPCL, Mahendra Executive so as to spend mimimal time in getting in and out.

Of course, when one is on a touring spree along NH4 with multiple tourist options to visit, the list like yours can get longer and hence the time to reach as well but then, thats the choice one needs to contemplate upon.

[goandude]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

In a journey that spans 850-1000 Kms one way without a night halt (well, thats what most of here have been doing), It is complemented by breaks on the highway or the bypass itself rather that venturing into even one of these towns/cities enroute and killing precious time.

Most of the places advised on this route are always along the highway whether it is Kamats, McDs, Sankam, Genesys, Ghar BPCL, Mahendra Executive so as to spend mimimal time in getting in and out..

+1 to that Parag. In fact to reduce time spent at stops even furthur we take packed b'fast and lunch.