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-   -   Bangalore to Raipur (Chhattisgarh): Which Route? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/97801-bangalore-raipur-chhattisgarh-route.html)

Hi,

I am planning to drive down from Bangalore to Raipur. Google Maps shows the route via Hyderabad and Nagpur to Raipur.
However I am not sure if that's a safe route with family. Would you help me with the route.. I wouldnt like to miss anything scenic on the route.. even dont mind taking detours.. Any recommendations pls?

Thanks,
JP

The Bangalore-Hyderabad-Nagpur-Raipur route is quite OK. Like Bangalore-Hyderabad, the Hyderabad -Nagpur route too is a very busy one (NH-7 Kanyakumari-Allahabad) with a lot of buses, trucks and cars plying thereon.
Again Nagpur-Raipur route is through NH 6 the Mumbai-Kolkata highway.Here again there's a lot of traffic always.Its however advisable to cover the Nagpur-Raipur leg during daytime as the stretch near the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border is forested (Deori onwards)and south of NH 6, the outlaws have bases.No incident of any kind on the highway has been ever been reported but for our personal safety the suggestion to travel during day!

The best route is via Hyderabad and Nagpur.
No issues regarding safety, totally safe.
Roads are good most of the way.
Some bad sections in AP-MH border (NH7), MH-CG border jams (NH6).
Ideally, you can plan to reach Adilabad on Day 1, Raipur at end of Day 2.

Thanks Anajn and hvkumar Sir.
Is there anything worth seeing in this route if we take some digression?

Not much, I am afraid.
If you take detours, maybe you have something.
Near Penukonda - Lepakshi Temple, with its giant bull
Near Nizamabad - Basar, a unique temple for Saraswathi Devi
Tadoba WLS - off Pandharkawada, but that requires lots of time, at least a day

So does the detour to Basar,the road from NH7 to Basar is not in the best of shapes.Start early from blore if you want to reach Adilabad on day 1,else you would waste time negotiating hyderabad traffic on the outskirts of nh7(on the nagpur highway side),there are a couple of stretches and bridges that are being built so huge jams near Kompally

Nice to see some discussion about Raipur on this forum. I am natively from Raipur and thought of contributing to the topic.

The best route would be Bangalore-Hyderabad-Nagpur-Raipur as others already mentioned. I think the Hyderabad to Nagpur stretch is pretty good. The road from Nagpur to Raipur will be NH6 and it was under expansion to become a 4-lane highway or so. So a lot of construction work was going on there till sometime back. Beware of this as it might take quite a lot of time because of this. Earlier I used to manage Raipur-Nagpur in like 4-5 hours easily when the road was not being constructed.

Also, Maharashtra has good roads so expect good roads till the end of Maharashtra and be prepared for crappy roads once you enter Chhattisgarh.

By the way do we have any BHPians from Raipur here?

Actually, the roads on the MH side are worse than the roads on the CG side. Road widening is still going on. You can still do Nagpur-Raipur in under 5 hours.

Here is snippet from my log based on my Bangalore-Hyderabad-Nagpur-Raipur drive in December 2010. I don't think road conditions would have changed a whole lot in 2-3 months. Hope this helps!

I halted at HYD since I had a friend there who did not give me an option but stay at his place :) As Kumar sir said, you can do Bangalore - Adilabad easily on day-1 and thereon to Raipur on day-2.

Bangalore (Whitefield) - Hyderbad (Kondapur) [600 kms/7.5 hours]
---------------------------------------------------------------

- NH-7 is simply superb on this stretch
- 4-laning is 100% complete
- Bypasses are operational for all major towns including Penukonda, Anantpur,
Gooty, Kurnool, etc
- Three BP Ghar outlets (with decent food and fairly clean toilets) - after
Chikkaballpur, after Gooty, and somewhere near Jadcherla (essentially after
every 2 hours or so)
- Coming from South on NH7, getting onto JN Expressway is a bit tricky as the
signages are very poor due to ongoing construction work. I completely relied on
my GPS here. Just before this turn-off, the road becomes 2-lane and you will see
a huge under-construction flyover. You have to take a left *before* this
flyover.
- At the end of the expressway, one can now go straight *below* the
under-construction flyover at Gachibowli/JN Expressway junction to enter
Kondapur area - no need to take a left and then a U-turn
- Took me exactly 6.5 hours to cover the 550 kms from from Hebbal flyover
(Bangalore) to start of JN Expressway (Shamshabad), with a couple of short
tea-breaks and crusing speeds of 100-110 kmph (max)
- Caution: Watch out for chaotic local traffic on Kurnool by-pass, where
everybody appears to be on a suicide mission. Drive very slowly/carefully
through this stretch. I saw minor accidents here on both onward as well as
return journey.

Hyderbad (Gachibowli) - Nagpur (Surya Nagar - where bypass meets NH6) [500 kms/6.5 hrs]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

- An awesome alternate to bypass Hyderabad if you have taken the JN Expressway
towards Gachibowli/Kondapur/hi-tech city area is to continue onwards towards
Miyanpur cross-roads, take a right on NH9, and take a left on Medak Road after
about a km. This left-turn should be fairly easy to spot since all trucks take
this route. Signages, again, are quite bad. This route is fairly simple - after
taking a left on Medak road, just keep going stratight at the few junctions you
come across. If in doubt, ask for Medchal, which is where this route hits NH7,
north of Hyderabad city. I would strongly recommend this route to bypass
Hyderabad if headed for Nagpur.
- Four-laning is in full swing and is around 60% complete on this stretch
- All bypasses b/w Hyderabad and Adilabad (Kamareddi, Nirmal, Adilabad, etc) are
operational. Some of these are fairly long and add to the distance but very
convenient.
- Some of the under-widening 2-lane stretches b/w AP/MH border and Hinganghat
are failrly bad with potholes to watch out for
- No decent eating joint on this route - recommended to carry your own food
unless you are ok to enter one of the towns enroute.
- One BP Ghar is about to open near Adilabad.
- Nagpur bypass (towards Raipur) is infested with local traffic as well as
potholes but is still a better alternate than driving through th city *if* you
are headed to NH6 (east or west). It is recommended to drive through the city if
you are headed north-ward (NH69 or NH7) since in this case the bypass is just
too long and not worth it.

Nagpur (Surya Nagar - where bypass meets NH6) - Raipur (Shankar Nagar) [300
kms/4.5 hrs]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Four-laning in progress here as well, about 60-70% complete
- Nagpur to Bhandara is still 2-lane with bad surface and heavy traffic.
Certainly the most painful stretch on this sector.
- Some good snacks available at 'Rabri Wala' on NH6, about half-hour away from
Nagpur by-pass towards Bhandara.
- If you are unlucky, you might get stuck in a truck-jam at MH/CG border at
Chichola check-post. This is similar to the Walayar situation on the TN/KL
border.
- Roads from Bhandara to Raj-Nand Gaon are a delight even where 2-laned
- Getting though Raj Nandgaon is a pain given the two massive under-construction
fly-overs
- It is recommended to take Durg bypass (saves a lot of time at a cost of INR
40) unless you are driving through during night, when the town is sleeping
- Raipur ring-road is also undergoing widening but still recommended if you are
going to eastern parts of the city and driving during day time

Thank you all.. thats an excellent info..

cool_dube: What a coincidence that I also stay near whitefield. Just like you, I have a black Safari and used to used to have an Alto prior to it.. That's three similarities and not usually easy to find :)

hvkumar sir: I may not want to retrace me steps on the way back. Google suggests another route during return via Jagdalpur(NH-43) - Vijayawada(NH-221) - Kadapa (NH-5 and then some unknown road) - Rayalchoti - Chittoor( NH-18) - Bangalore(NH-4).

Any opinion on this route would allow me to see another unvisited part of india.

Thanks,
JP

The Jagdalpur-Vijaywada route you mention goes via Sukhma, Konta & Bhadrachalam and is part of the dreaded Maoist corridor. This highway is to be avoided at all costs, it is perpetually in bad condition and sees lot of Maoist action. I have been in this road in 2008 and would not recommend it to anyone.

Another alternative is Jagdalpur-Koraput-Jepore-Vijanagaram-Vizag, but that road is seeing lots of petty extortion by Maoists of late. Besides, some sections are in bad condition and it also sees lots of truck traffic.

Thanks you HVK Sir.. This info is such a life saver which no google can ever match. :).

Any chance of taking a much longish route via Chandipur - Bhadrak - Cuttack and follow the highway along the east coast. There are two reason for the same:

- Bhadrak is my birth place. I have not been there since last 19 years but still remains as soft corner for me.
- I did lower half of the ECR from Chennai to Rameshwaram towards the end of 2009. I loved it and now want to touch the upper part of ECR.

Sorry, I am asking you for too many combinations..

Thank you..

Yes, that is a freakish route, but enjoyable.

The Bangalore-Nayudupet (via Chittoor & Tirupati) route to NH5 is good, and once on NH5 it is a fabulous drive all the way to the OR border via Nellore, Ongole, Guntur, Vijaywada, Eluru, Rajahmundry, Annavaram, Vizag & Srikakulam.

Roads in OR are still being widened, but for now, most places they are in good condition and pose no problems.
In OR, you cross Berhampur, Bhalugaon, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack to reach Bhadrak.

After going to Bhadrak, the best plan would be to retract your way back to Cuttack and take NH42 to Sambalpur via Denkanal & Angul (good roads), and then go to Raipur on NH6 (decent roads).

From Bhadrak it is not worth going all the way north via Baripada to join NH6 at Jamshola/Baharogara to go via Jashpur and Keonjhar.

Quite interesting indeed - just that my Safari is Cycus Grey and I still have the Alto :)

I had the same line of thought and had almost finalized on the Jeypore - Vizianagaram route for my return leg but after hearing all sorts of horror stories about this route, decided against it as I was traveling with family. Had no choice but to take the same (NGP-HYD) route back. However, the Jeypore route does remain on my to-do list :)

Kumar Sir - you never cease to amaze me with your infinite knowledge on Indian roads!!! clap:

[quote=cool_dube;2274476]I had the same line of thought and had almost finalized on the Jeypore - Vizianagaram route for my return leg but after hearing all sorts of horror stories about this route, decided against it as I was traveling with family. Had no choice but to take the same (NGP-HYD) route back. However, the Jeypore route does remain on my to-do list

Folks,

Just returned from a trip to Chattisgarh and Kanha yesterday. The route we took was

Bangalore - Tirupati - Vijayawada - Vizag - Vizianagaram - Jeypore - Jagdalpur - Kanker - Chuikadan - Kanwardha - Kanha (Kisli) - Seoni - Nagpur - Hyderabad - Bangalore. Distance covered 4100 KMs in Scorpio.

Here is the road condition

a) Bangalore - Tirupati - Srikalahasti - Vijayawada - Vizag : Very good roads through out. Four laning till Kolar is almost done. Four laning ends at Kolar and be preapred for truck traffic slowing you down till Chittoor. Leave early to avoid this. NH 5 after Nayudupeta till Vizag is a blast. The traffic increases between Vijayawada and Guntur and slows you down.

b) Vizag - Vizianagaram - Jeypore - Jagdalpur : NH 43 is in very good condition except for 15 KMs in ghats which is being repaired. Very much manageable. One of the most scenic roads. Being March, it was brown but still beautiful. Should be amazing after rains. No safety concerns. We never had any issues. Cool Dube, plan your next trip on this.:)

c) Roads in Chattisgarh and MP must be best in the country. We did not see a single pot hole though small road humps were pain.

d) Kanha - Seoni - Nagpur - Hyderabad:

i) Kanha - Seoni - Fantastic road

ii) Seoni - Mansar - ON NH 7. Average road. Broken at many parts and large pot holes. Slows you down as you will be driving through ghats.

iii) Mansar - Kamptee - Nagpur - Average road till Kamptee. Kamptee-Nagpur stretch is a misery as you will pass through city traffic on small road. This continues till you hit NH 7 after Nagpur

iv) Nagpur - Hinganghat - Very good four lane.

v) Hinganghat to Wadki - Misery. Railway crossing, single lane, bad road, truck traffic all this slow you down considerably.:Frustrati

vi) Wadki - Pandarkheda - Good four lane road

vii) Pandarkheda - Adilabad - Road condition good. But single lane. Deviations. Slows you down. Track traffic is less - may be beacuse we drove in hot afternoon.

viii) Adilabad to Armur - Fantastic four lane. Telengana never looked so beautiful.

ix) Armur to Kamareddy - Misery. Single lane, bad road, truck traffic. All this slow you down considerably.

x) Kamareddy - Hyderabad - Fantastic four lane.

xi) Hyderabad - Bangalore - The best stretch of highway in the country.

Many thanks to H V Kumar for inputs in planning this route. Will be posting travelogue soon.