[samarth.bhatia]

Note to Mods: I understand that there is another "Updates" thread on the Yamuna Expressway. I have created a new thread to update on the experience of two Bhpians - Me and sameerg001.
If need be, please merge with the existing thread.
Thanks!

7 Hours, 2 Bhpians, approx 500 kms. - A Sunday Well Spent

On Thursday of last week, I am informed that we have a leave tomorrow.
Saturday's a working day for me.
An off on Saturday = A three day weekend = A long drive.
Well what can I say, I'm good at math, lol.

Call up the usual junta. The usual junta does the usual. Ignore my cries for a drive!

Then I realize, I have my Team-BHP mates! Let's call them up!
Sameer, the eveready boy agrees for a drive outta town enthusiastically. Watch out for the new Eveready ad featuring our very own sameerg001 :P

We decide on a Sunday trip to Agra.
Why Agra? Well 'cause that's the end of the road for Yamuna Expressway, that's why!

After a nice home made Sunday breakfast, we're off for the e-way! Yay!

The weather's just fine. The music is good (yes I confirmed with Sameer, he liked it too, lol). Greater Noida e-way shows a Black Safari with LTD sticker on the lower right side. Driving away in a hurry, the Safari is gone before we can even think of catching up and saying Hi.

On reaching the entrance to the Yamuna e-way, we see a small cluster of cars waiting. And then we notice a sign saying "Petrol Pump After 163 kms". Oh well, might as well fill her up.

We enter into Greater Noida with nobody willing to guide us to the closest pump. And then we see a Petrol Pump uniformed chap waiting to cross the road. We immediately talk to him. He asks us for a lift till the pump and we agree.

The re-fuel is taken care of soon enough, and we're off.

On reaching the e-way again, the guard stop each car.

Now what?
Sir, please don't cross 100.

Ok.

After a curving upwards section, we are witness to a whiter piece of road than I have ever seen before!
And with 3+3 lanes, and a safety lane on either side, bordered by a broad grass patch, this is definitely a pleasure to just see.
For a minute there, I almost forget why we're here.

But only for a minute.

Pedal to metal brings us to a quick 100.
And it's a bit hard to resist not going higher, considering the empty straights here!

Shucks! Why concrete?
This is rough and quite noisy.
But heck, we're on a Chevy Beat.
This probably wouldn't even be felt on better cars.

The only problem I have is the stray dogs, as has been pointed out various times in the other Yamuna e-way updates thread.
On the edge, there's a guard rail, with frames having barbed wires. This surely isn't stopping the canines from entering.
Along the way to Agra, there are numerous carcasses of the poor doggies.

Other than that, we're doing just fine.
And there's a slight breeze with light rains. Perfect.

After crossing the second toll (on reaching Mathura, IIRC), we stop to check to check our the Public Conveniences. The Restaurants are closed. The wash-rooms are open and clean.

Some clicks of the car and the road, and we're off again.
Next stop, Agra.

I'll stop here so Sameer can enter his experience, and clicks!


A few clicks of the drive so far:

The Noida-Greater Noida Stretch. Old, but holding up good.





Entrance from Delhi side - Sunday crowd? I'm hoping there wouldn't be rush all the way to Agra And then I read "Petrol Pump after 165 kms" - we run to Greater Noida!



Fill up at Greater Noida:



Here's the entrance from Greater Noida side, after filling her up.



Presenting to you, ladies and gentlemen, a first hand view of the Yamuna Expressway!





We stopped for some pics:




There's good back up ROFL:



Here's a side road running next to the e-way:



Surface texture:



Approaching the BIC exits, my heart starts pumping a bit faster.




The Buddh International Circuit.




We paid no toll, but the toll nakkas looked neat.




Shortly after the toll-payment, we stopped here (Public Convenience Point):





This is the story so far.
More soon.

Disclaimer: Official photographer for the trip, Mr. Sameer Gupta (sameerg001).
Take a bow.

Cheers.
Sam

P.S. the roads are arrow straight, and we could comfortably cruise at 120 kmph in the middle lane. Official limit is 100, so we tried sticking to that. And I would personally say it would be good if they start enforcing that soon.
Many a cars were doing well over 150 kmph.

[sameerg001]

Well, Here's my bit of story.

Thursday, 9th August- It was an usual day, I was surfing Team-BHP, with usual Evening tea and some snacks. Then, came a Text from Samarth, Asking for a trip outta Delhi. Plan was to leave Delhi on friday and back on sunday.

My first reaction after reading the Text, Plan is cool and I'm free too ( I think in mind ). I went ahead to ask dad and Mom for the trip, After which they refused to allow me for the trip, Due to some prior commitments.

I told same to samarth and asked him, where he is heading ?, To which he says, If it's long trip then Lansdowne, or Agra, If we return back same day. I said, Let's do agra then on Sunday.

Plan got finalize on saturday noon, We'll be leaving samarth's home at 12 in the noon and will be back by 8 PM. I was damn excited for this trip

The sole reason, we were doing Agra was opening of grand e-way.

I got up at 9, got ready and left home ( dwarka ) and reached samarth's home ( gk-2 ) exact at 11, which we finalized. I was offered some yummy parantha's and lassi at his home and got charged up for the trip. Upon reaching, samarth's house. I remembered that, I left the camera at home, Asked samarth to charge up his camera, which we did, but it didn't lasted too long. We left at 12:30 and reached by 3:30 at Agra.

Samarth was at the wheel, trying hard to fight with Delhi's Traffic to reach Yamuna e-way as soon as possible. On reaching DND, we spotted a HR registered Black safari, with Got bhp sticker at the back. The guy was DAMN F-A-S-T. We tried to catch him up and say hellp, but after few seconds, we gave up the idea. Now, next stop was a Petrol Bunk, As soon as we reached the entrance of Yamuna e-way. There was a board on left hand side, which said next petrol bunk 165km away

We took a U-turn from there and went to G.noida to get her filled up. She took 1400/- worth of petrol and we were ready to hit the E-way.

God, when I'll get to see the E-way, Me thinks in Mind.

Soon, we took the turn toward Yamuna e-way. Upon seeing the E-way, first thing came to my mind- Man, roads like this exist. It was the whitest road, I've ever seen and arrow straight.

I rubbed my eyes and was all excited to experience the Drive.

We were soon doing around 100 kmph. The sound of FFE was awesome, We opened up the windows to let fresh air come in along with Sound of FFE.

Fresh air coming in, With some nice music playing, I was in complete Nirvana.

We took couple of breaks for clicking pics and one break each side at public convenience stops. We reached Agra at around 3-20 PM and bought some, soft-drink and Chips and started moving towards Taj mahal. BUT

Just after moving couple of kms ahead, we face a HUGE jam. Looks like, all Delhi-NCR janta was at Agra. After, wasting over 30 mins in JAM ( mind you, we just moved 1 km in that 30 mins ). Time was around, 4 PM. We were hungry.

Then we saw a U-Turn at the distance, Samarth asked me, What to do ?, I said, Do as you want, and after a little conversation, we decided that let's just have some lunch at some dhaba nearby and then off to Delhi.

We took a U turn and started searching for food, Asked few truck drivers and Agra's janta and They suggested us to have food at 'Mahavir Dhaba'. We started searching and after 30 mins. We finally reached, so called mahavir dhaba.

But, wait. There is no space to seat. Lot's of people waiting around. The seen was like, similar as that on Sukhdev dhaba. After searching a bit, we finally managed to find space.

We asked waiter to take our order and he says ' Time lagega sir, khana dene mein '. We said, okay ( kya karein papi paet ka sawal hai lol ). We asked to him, to bring the food. And about the food, Least said is better. But we were Hungry, So we ate our food and took a water bottle, paid the bill and set off, on our way back.

[drmohitg]

Man I regret missing it. My tickets got confirmed for saturday evening otherwise I had decided to give you a call on sunday morning and join you guys. So did sameer get a chance to drive too :P?

[sameerg001]

After which, we filled up the petrol in beat and Started return journey. We left around 4-40 PM and reached samarth's home at 7-15 PM and I reached my house ( dwarka ) 5 mins before 8 PM ( unbelievable )

On our way back, we got a chance to click some pics and shoot a small video of C63 AMG. Man, she's and monster and sounds like one too. We asked owner regarding the price, He said 1cr

Here are the few pics, which clicked :

Awesome road


Road was fairly empty, considering it was sunday.


Approaching, 1st toll plaza


T-rex, looks hot, no ?


Samarth clicking, her girl :P


Restaurants and Rest rooms, just after toll plaza's.


Jam at Agra


Lunch @Mahavir Dhaba


Lush greener, Throughout the e-way


Crowd @ Dhaba


Cheers,
Sameer

[sameerg001]

Road is straight, as arrow


C63 AMG

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Man I regret missing it. My tickets got confirmed for saturday evening otherwise I had decided to give you a call on sunday morning and join you guys. So did sameer get a chance to drive too :P?

Koi nahi, Come to Delhi Again, We'll plan 1 Again.

And regarding the Driving part, Man you just touched the sensitive nerve . He didn't gave me the wheel, Nor i asked for it. As, Even If I would have been at Samarth's place, I wouldn't had allowed anyone else to drive.


@samarth- Thanks alot buddy for the drive and please put up the videos man.

Cheers,
Sameer

[AlphaKilo]

I don't want to spoil your enthusiasm or mood, but I am pessimistic about this E-Way being waste of money or would be more of a Politico show off suv's seen doing insane speeds w/o paying tolls and we "mango people(aam janta)" have to pay exhorbitant rates of toll and yet stick to the speed limit.

OTOH I am sure JayPee would have done good study and have engineered the road to last with minimal maintenance for atleast 4-5years. Otherwise it wont be a commercial success.

Technically, the top layer concrete needs to be smooth finished for lesser road noise. My view of original E-Way :

Pic courtesy: original uploader.
Its German Autobahn.

[beast_within]

Man, I was eagerly waiting for this e-way to open up and when it eventually did I was not able to join you guys. Fantastic write-up and do post videos Sameerg001.

[samarth.bhatia]

Here are some videos.

Driving on the expressway:

Driving on the Yamuna/Taj Expressway on an FFE'd Chevy Beat - YouTube

A 360 Degree View of the expressway:

360 Degrees View of Yamuna Expressway - India - YouTube

The exhaust note of the T-Rex (please use headphones here):

Sound at the end can:

Chevy Beat FFE - YouTube

The C63 AMG exhaust note + pictures (please use headphones here):

C 63 AMG on Yamuna E Way - YouTube

All in all, an awesome road, and an awesome drive.
I just wish it remains well maintained. And more importantly, I wish it becomes safer than it was this time - the speed traps weren't functional, there were lots of dogs - dead and alive, and lots of pedestrians (thankfully all alive).
I shall post some more points later.

A complete video story coming up soon.

Cheers and drive safe.
Sam

P.S> Sameer bhai, you are welcome to drive the car anytime, I just forgot to offer (Read: I was too selfish, and the road was too tempting, lol). Oh, and T-Rex is male

[AlphaKilo]

Man that growl of the AMG!Makes me go weak on my knees. Was it a demo car?

[sameerg001]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

Man that growl of the AMG!Makes me go weak on my knees. Was it a demo car?

No, It was a brand new car. Owner was driving himself.

Cheers,
Sameer

[nitinralli]

Sameer you said you guys paid the Toll, but wasn't the expressway free till 15th august??

[sameerg001]

Originally Posted by nitinralli

Sameer you said you guys paid the Toll, but wasn't the expressway free till 15th august??

Yes, It is toll free till 15th August. We were made to stop at every toll gate, where they noticed the car number and then let us go.

I guess, I didn't wrote anywhere that we paid toll, Did i ?, If yes, then sorry on my part

Cheers,
Sameer

[nitinralli]

Originally Posted by sameerg001

Yes, It is toll free till 15th August. We were made to stop at every toll gate, where they noticed the car number and then let us go.

I guess, I didn't wrote anywhere that we paid toll, Did i ?, If yes, then sorry on my part

Cheers,
Sameer

Shortly after the toll-payment, we stopped here (Public Convenience Point):

Sorry it was not you but Samrath Well in any case, nice to see you didnt. Even i had a plan to drive down, but i was alone hence i didnt. If i knew you guys were there, then would have joined for sure. Missed it.

[sameerg001]

Originally Posted by nitinralli

Shortly after the toll-payment, we stopped here (Public Convenience Point):

Sorry it was not you but Samrath Well in any case, nice to see you didnt. Even i had a plan to drive down, but i was alone hence i didnt. If i knew you guys were there, then would have joined for sure. Missed it.

And I was about to ask you for the drive on saturday, But thought- Maybe, you'll be busy

[samarth.bhatia]

Originally Posted by nitinralli

Shortly after the toll-payment, we stopped here (Public Convenience Point):

Good catch there, Nitin. I meant After crossing toll payment counter.
I have requested the mods to change it, to avoid confusion for other readers.
And yes, prime reason for the drive on Sunday itself was the road being toll-free .

It would've been nice to meet you.
Will look forward to it on the next meet/drive.

Cheers.
Sam