Team-BHP > Street Experiences


View Poll Results: Which State has the worst Highways in India?
Andhra Pradesh 18 2.11%
Arunachal Pradesh 4 0.47%
Assam 6 0.70%
Bihar 35 4.10%
Chhattisgarh 4 0.47%
Goa 3 0.35%
Gujarat 2 0.23%
Haryana 30 3.51%
Himachal Pradesh 5 0.59%
Jharkhand 3 0.35%
Karnataka 54 6.32%
Kerala 324 37.94%
Madhya Pradesh 15 1.76%
Maharashtra 244 28.57%
Manipur 2 0.23%
Meghalaya 1 0.12%
Mizoram 2 0.23%
Nagaland 7 0.82%
Odisha 4 0.47%
Punjab 5 0.59%
Rajasthan 3 0.35%
Sikkim 4 0.47%
Tamil Nadu 4 0.47%
Telangana 1 0.12%
Tripura 0 0%
Uttar Pradesh 28 3.28%
Uttarakhand 6 0.70%
West Bengal 40 4.68%
Voters: 854. You may not vote on this poll

Reply
  Search this Thread
158,082 views
Old 19th February 2022, 19:15   #166
BHPian
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Chennai
Posts: 46
Thanked: 91 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

This question got me thinking so much, I'm yet to vote.

I've driven across many states of our wonderfully diverse country, here's how I understand them.

1. TN : home state, driven on all kinds of roads, extensively. Fully agree that they're the best.
2. KL : multiple short trips to Munnar (roads and traffic are ok, but also since one touches very little of KL). Drove across some parts, mixed experiences. Drove once from North KL to Trivandrum once in a TUV AMT. Suffice to say, I don't want to repeat that experience. Narrow roads, rash bus drivers, takes too long to cover distances, quite strenuous.
3. AP : Regular visits to Hyd and Vizag, from Chennai. Highways are acceptably good, State roads are also ok, traffic density manageable. Traffic in Hyd is a very different game, though. Overall, not the best, but far from the worst.
4. KA : Regular visits to Bangalore, but have driven from Goa to Mangalore to Udupi, apart from certain trips to Dharmasthala, etc. More patchwork than AP, but in other aspects, remarkably similar. Bangalore traffic is the worst I've driven in.
5. Goa : Drove through thrice, over a space of 15 years. Certainly a breeze to drive across, even if the backroads seem narrow. Not the best, certainly nowhere near the worst. I'm ignoring the weekend traffic that goes crazy, because I've driven on weekdays and it seems to be a different place compared to weekends.
6. MH : Local drives in Bombay (long back), drove from GJ to Nasik to Pune to Goa in 2016. Also, drove a free times through the Nirmal-Nagpur-Pench stretch. Patchwork on top of patchwork!! Roads that can otherwise be great are ruined just by the poor surface, much more so on the coastal side than the central highways. But most people seemed to drive sensibly, roads are generally wide. Overall, falls somewhere in the middle.
7. GJ : Entered from RJ, exited near Surat, going towards Saputara. Drove only once, only on the NH. The Ahmedabad-Baroda expressway was fantastic, if very boring. Rest of it was also uneventful, encountered the most disciplined driving in my 15~16 years of driving/riding. But as soon as I hit the narrow back roads, that good impression dissipated, they seemed almost uncared for. Overall, very far from being called bad.
8. RJ : Lived in Jaipur for 6 months, drove across the state multiple times. Excellent highways, wide and straight. Seriously fast. But other roads are not as good, with poor surface (wavy, rough) and uncharacteristically narrow in places, especially rural ones. Overall, just as good as GJ.
9. TS : Not very different from AP, by and large.
10. MP : Only drove the Nagpur-Pench-UP stretch a few times, all in the last 11 months. The NH is great, but too little experience to rate the whole state. Doesn't seem too bad on the whole, especially when compared to its northern neighbour, UP.
11. HR : Lived for 3 years in this region, 2013 to 2016. Horrible roads, uncouth folks, uncivilised and dangerous driving, zero value for life, frequent roadworks but with no palpable result. Traffic jams on NH8 & NH1, for no ostensible reason! Certainly a good contender for the worst roads award. One trick I used liberally was to go close to a HR51/HR55 registered taxi and honk. They never let you overtake, they'll accelerate. I make that fellow my pilot and let him do the hardwork of braking and accelerating, I just follow through, while honking at him once in a while. (Bad? Maybe. But when in Rome...)
12. PB : Drove Delhi-Amritsar-Pathankot twice, through Hisar to Ludhiana section twice, apart from cutting through the state on other tours. Far better than HR, but not comparable to RJ. (Maybe the lip-smackingly good food makes it better. I know it shouldn't really be a parameter while judging a road... But while on a drive, the food makes a huge difference!) Overall, somewhere above the middle.
13. HP : Visited multiple places there, went to Leh via Kashmir and returned via Manali. Topography poses various limits, but the roads are quite poor if viewed in isolation (the scenery is not a parameter, but if it was, I'd rate Himachali roads as the best. The combo of views, curves, food, climate makes it unparalleled). Within the parameters of this evaluation, somewhere near the bottom, but with its valid reasons, it deserves to be excused.
14. JK : Drove there only once, in 2014, went Pathankot-JK-Leh-Manali. Drive of a lifetime, but within the parameters of this poll, with my limited experience, they were nothing short of extraordinary. Despite all the constraints, the BRO has achieved magic (& does so repeatedly!). Far from the worst, but in pure road terms, can't be the best.
15. UK : Visited multiple places there, major tourist spots and off beat locations over several trips. Given the natural constraints, quite a commendable job!! Far from the worst, very far indeed.
16. BR : Very limited experience, circa 2017, but had low expectations to begin with. Suffice to say, Bihar driving experience meet my low expectations. Only saving grace seemed to be slightly lower traffic density.
17. No driving experience in the places I've not mentioned, so can't judge. I'd excuse the North Eastern States considering the limited political & financial love they've received, plus the immense natural challenges posed by topography and weather.

I'm not done yet.

18. UP (Uttar Pradesh, formally. Ulta-Pradesh, in my books) : Drove from Faridabad/Gurgaon/Dharuhera/Delhi to Agra via all possible routes, so many times that I've lost count. Experience started in 2013, with very high frequency (2~3 times a month), but continues till date, with low frequency of once in 6 months or so. Drove the MP-Agra-Delhi route thrice, in last 11 months, even as recently as Aug-2021. Drove across the state while visiting Nepal, in 2014. Unforgettably bad experience, especially on the concrete sections were road direction and the "lay" of the concrete are not the same!

The only place that can make Haryana driving experience seem better, is UP. Road surface is as good/bad as HR, but the traffic is even crazier. Cows everywhere (God forbid you touch them, you'll just be butchered mercilessly), Splendors in the middle of the NH doing 40kmph (don't bother honking, he won't move), unpredictable and unscientific speedbreakers ON the highway, not on the roads joining the highway (this much more prevalent on state highways than NHs). Tractors getting on and off the highway as they please, driving in the opposite direction, in the overtaking lane (actually, wherever they please). And when you enter the cities, Brownian motion would seem more organised. Funnily, my HR registered Alto used to get more respect than UP registered white Fortuners! (Rowdy reputation of HR drivers certainly helped me sometimes). The cops "elevate" this driving experience even more, in unimaginable ways. (A Kanpur SI wouldn't believe that someone would stop at a petrol station to use the restroom. We were interrogated for 30mins until we showed our company ID cards and assured him that in our home state, we used restrooms).

Overall, I'd rate UP as the worst. But my disclaimer here is:
1. My KL experience is limited compared to UP & HR experience.
2. I have no experience of the NorthEast.

So, that's my ~1.5lakh km driving experience summarised

I voted, for Ulta-Pradesh.
KSTejaswi is offline   (7) Thanks
Old 19th February 2022, 20:16   #167
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 1,311
Thanked: 5,235 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Looks like the TBHP poll has made to the main stream media in Kerala

https://keralakaumudi.com/news/news....hways-in-india
poloman is online now   (6) Thanks
Old 19th February 2022, 21:36   #168
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 3,530
Thanked: 5,476 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Quote:
Originally Posted by poloman View Post
Looks like the TBHP poll has made to the main stream media in Kerala
I was myself planning to flag this thread to a few acquaintances in journalist circles :-)
binand is online now  
Old 19th February 2022, 22:06   #169
Team-BHP Support
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Mumbai
Posts: 17,689
Thanked: 76,306 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Not easy to vote in this poll.

When it comes to poor driver behaviour, Kerala might top the list. I also agree that it has the worst roads among the southern states. But otherwise, I don't have much to complain about the Malabar state's roads.

Over the years, I've driven a lot in just about every state in India. Many roads in the North East are far worse. Some other roads that I remember were absolutely terrible were in Chattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, UP and MP. I am talking dirt tracks designated as national highways.

Since Covid started, I have driven in just 4 states - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Among these, I would rate Maharashtra as the worst, mainly due to the road surfacing. Tamil Nadu and Telangana roads are the best.
Aditya is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 19th February 2022, 23:30   #170
Newbie
 
Join Date: Sep 2021
Location: Noida
Posts: 19
Thanked: 73 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

I am shocked to see so less votes for West Bengal. Probably people are having very less highway experience of WB as most of the times google maps will force you to transit through neighbouring Jharkhand state and you miss the beauty of moon crater grade highways. I couldn't vote in this poll but my vote would have definitely gone to WB hands down. Highways of West Bengal don't belong to this era.
Abhishek.ckt is offline   (5) Thanks
Old 20th February 2022, 00:46   #171
BHPian
 
nexus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Pune
Posts: 47
Thanked: 166 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Voted for Maharashtra. I live in Pune. Roads leading to Karnataka are in bad shape. Roads leading to Marathwada and Vidarbha are bad too. What hurts more is tolls. Compared to that other states have better roads and less tolls.
nexus is offline  
Old 20th February 2022, 01:50   #172
Newbie
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: Kolkata
Posts: 5
Thanked: 11 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Quote:
Originally Posted by haldar_siliguri View Post
Whoever hasn’t voted for WB is living in an ignorant fools paradise.
Why is no one talking about West Bengal, I have travelled in over 15states extensively, covering all 4 corners of India. Hence, the worst highways I encountered were in West Bengal and some parts of mizoram. Rounds all over south india on an average are way better than the roads in North east.
g2m7 is offline   (5) Thanks
Old 20th February 2022, 08:44   #173
Distinguished - BHPian
 
naveen.raju's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Cochin
Posts: 4,823
Thanked: 8,850 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Like many stated, we don't have highways here. National highway is a joke that runs along city center with no flyovers and numerous signals.

Cochin - Trivandrum, one of busiest roads connecting the financial capital with the state capital is 2 laned and till recently it was passing right through the center of 2 major cities along the route (Alleppey and Kollam).

Not to mention NH-66 .

But have to say that the road surfaces are pretty good. I recently drove to few hill stations and must say, it was awesome to say the least, much better than the ones in TN (I crossed into TN here and roads were bad there).

As for driving manners - Yes, we have some of the worst drivers (Buses) and most of the "bad drivers" in the dashcam have these 2 superstars. But I have experienced this everywhere too. In KA, you have the taxis and autos and in TN you have some bus operators and up in the north, it was a total chaos in Delhi and Lucknow.

My uncle (residing in another state) used to say "My car is full of dents but yours's is spotless. Shows how well people drive when compared to the ones here".

A bit OT, but yes voted for Kerala - Which State has the worst Highways in India?
naveen.raju is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 20th February 2022, 10:27   #174
Distinguished - BHPian
 
Hayek's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Bombay
Posts: 1,899
Thanked: 15,286 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

I have personally driven sizeable distances only in MH, KA, GA and TN. But I have travelled often enough in hired cars in KL, AP, HP and to Darjeeling in WB. Of the lot, the roads in the hills leading to Darjeeling were the worst I have experienced. Among hills roads in India, the road to Simla is fantastic, even the Masinagudi stretch to Ooty / Coonoor is great, and Coonoor to Mettupalayam even better, my wife went to Uttarkashi et al and says those roads were good too - so it’s not just about hills. But I guess judging WB roads based on the hills alone may not be fair - and so I picked KL. Someone once said KL is actually a long coastal city - stretching from Calicut to Trivandrum. If you assume this is a city and the roads are urban roads, perhaps they are not so bad. But they are not fit to be called highways. Why, even Bombay has the Eastern Freeway which is far superior to KL roads.

MH of course gives KL a good fight - and if one considers the fact that MH is much less densely populated, one should penalise it considerably. But they at least are doing something to improve connectivity - the Mumbai Nagpur Expressway seems to be great, the Mumbai Poona Expressway will improve once the Khandala bypass is ready, and even the much maligned Poona Satara stretch is better than what it was a few years ago. Have not been to KL in 3 years but will be there in April - so let’s see if they have been doing something to improve.

Last edited by Hayek : 20th February 2022 at 10:28.
Hayek is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 20th February 2022, 13:09   #175
BHPian
 
meetarin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Kolkata
Posts: 122
Thanked: 525 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

I have not driven as extensively as many distinguished members in teambhp did. I voted for my home state, WB. Here’s my observations from my drives/rides across different states.

1. WB - Where are the highways? The reason I don’t want to hit the highways often is the driveability or the lack thereof. The ones offering some little comfort is NH2 and NH16 but who puts those unmarked guard rails every 2 kms in their same mind? NH117 - is that even a highway? It doesn’t even deserve to be a state highway. NH 34 - A long highway which has extreme bad to good stretches. Roller coaster!
Then comes the great highway NH10 which connects Siliguri to Sikkim. Oh I pity the state of this highway! Lastly, uncouth law makers and their sidekicks always up for that extra buck makes things worse.

2. Odisha - I have driven only through NH16 during my last ride from Bangalore to Kolkata and holy s***, I don’t want to do that again! Bad roads, diversions, wrong side drives, humans/cattles peeping suddenly on the highway; you won’t feel sleepy ever.
3. AP/Telengana - Again, experience limited to NH16 but I found the roads to be great and wide barring few stretches here and there
4. Karnataka - Lived quite few years of my life here in Bangalore and the highways leaving the state or within are great to drive. Everyone knows about Bangalore-Hyderabad highway and even the highway towards Hassan and Chikmagalur is amazing.
5. Sikkim - Covered north Sikkim in 2011, the highway was pretty bad back then. Not sure about now. East Sikkim is a mix right now but a lot of focus is on improving the infra as I saw in Dec 2021.
6. Jharkhand - I found a lot of construction going on last year and expect the roads to be amazing soon. I would rate it average form my experience in Jan 2021
7. Bihar - Okayish highway leading to UP. Uncouth people.
8. UP - Limited driving experience on the way to Delhi from Kolkata. Good driving pleasure, could maintain great momentum. Some tolls will try to dupe you, some will stall you with long queues of trucks, rest is good. ALE is amazing!
9. Haryana - Didn’t drive a lot but stayed in Gurgaon for a couple of years. The only drive I did was from Gurgaon-Hissar back in 2016 and the roads were capable of maintaining 140 kmph. Don’t know now, but surely uncouth lawmakers and common men who would threaten to beat you up or just beat you up.
10. Rajasthan - Bliss! Should I say more? Covered the whole Rajasthan circuit last year and found very less bad stretches
11. Himachal - My favourite. The terrain has its own challenges but I like the roads. And mind you, I’m not considering the scenery when I say this.
12. Gujarat - Amazing highways. Ahmedabad-Surat-Bhuj-Kutch is a delight to ride. Even the highway leading to Mandvi is super!

Been to other states as well, but didn’t drive myself. So I will reserve my comments for later.
meetarin is offline  
Old 20th February 2022, 14:02   #176
BHPian
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Noida
Posts: 32
Thanked: 34 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Haryana. Posting again.
Because I was thinking if I had been over critical over giving the prestigious GT road the worst rating.

But I was not. I did a Delhi to Chandigarh-Delhi driving trip last Friday to Saturday and got frustrated, infuriated, despondent, angry at least 10 times each way. It took me 6 hours and change each way.
And with this topic of team-bhp still fresh in my mind, I tried to assess if the near future has anything better in store for us. The answer is NO. 5 lanes will still suddenly converge into 3 suddenly AFTER all the "widening and improvement" work will end. What kind of future planning is that!
I also happened to do the Manesar to Noida using EPE and the Haryana section is so full of potholes!! The road is cemented only for the UP stretch after we cross over the Yamuna.

Road Engineering really needs a major lookover for most highways. Mindless widening or flyover construction is not going to ease the flow of traffic or ease of driving unless planned well and in harmony with the whole stretch of road.
While on one hand, we are seeing manufacturers like Mahindra bringing lane driving and sensing features even in XUV 700, the road signage, marking, and planning is not just there in almost all the stretches!!
caramit is offline  
Old 20th February 2022, 15:13   #177
BHPian
 
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: WB66
Posts: 52
Thanked: 133 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Just 2 years ago, all the state and national highways in my state, West Bengal were single lane, except only the NH2 or the Durgapur expressway which had been a 4 lane road always and a few stretches of NH27.

Now the number has increased to ~3.75 (NH2 + portions of NH34 (renamed to NH12) + Dankuni Mogra Highway + portions of NH27). On all the remaining roads I curse myself for not having a turbocharged car while overtaking oversized vehicles.

The land is an issue here. So no new highway projects:

https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...ition-7757887/

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/12541136.cms

https://www.business-standard.com/ar...1501056_1.html
RoadAtlas is offline  
Old 21st February 2022, 16:45   #178
BHPian
 
AJITHAAA's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 215
Thanked: 543 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Voted KL, Having driven more in the 4 southern states KL is the worst. Roads though narrow is generally in good condition but the attitude of the road users are appalling. Like I commented earlier 2 wheelers are out to die and >4 wheelers are out to kill.
AJITHAAA is offline  
Old 23rd February 2022, 12:09   #179
BHPian
 
H0RSEPOWER's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Toronto/Clcutta
Posts: 167
Thanked: 620 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

As I have not travelled extensively in Kerala (the state mentioned most frequently in the earlier comments), I would not compare it with my home state West Bengal. But I would say, people mentioned that the roads are bad because of having single carriageway roads. Here in a lot of places, even if the single carriageway roads are having better road surface & traffic, we would consider them to be good roads!
Yes, there are some really very good roads like parts of NH16, NH19, NH27 which passes through our state. But most of the other roads including both national & state highways are in pathetic condition.
I would just give an example, (and I’m not even telling about the rural areas or some of the hilly terrains of Darjeeling) a distance of 100 kilometres from the state capital Kolkata to Krishnanagar takes around 4 hours on a regular day with normal traffic conditions. And the entire route traverse completely through a national highway(NH12, earlier called as NH34) which is indeed the shortest land distance connecting north eastern part of India to Kolkata!
Attached Thumbnails
Which State has the worst Highways in India?-c811bc0960864de592f3f8b3bdcd46d3.jpeg  

H0RSEPOWER is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 23rd February 2022, 12:20   #180
Senior - BHPian
 
clevermax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Tvm/Amsterdam
Posts: 2,086
Thanked: 2,628 Times
Re: Which State has the worst Highways in India?

Quote:
Originally Posted by poloman View Post
Looks like the TBHP poll has made to the main stream media in Kerala
https://keralakaumudi.com/news/news....hways-in-india
So happy to see that this poll is receiving some media attention in Kerala

Quote:
Originally Posted by naveen.raju View Post
But have to say that the road surfaces are pretty good. I recently drove to few hill stations and must say, it was awesome to say the least, much better than the ones in TN (I crossed into TN here and roads were bad there).
Road conditions are generally good. As you said, a drive to a hill station would be a heavenly driving experience. But when we consider the plight of the highways here - having a good road condition is pretty useless because one cannot even achieve an average speed of 40kmph during daytime through highways like NH-66.

One cannot simply use the so-called 'highways' as highways. We can only drive through them as if we are driving within the city.
clevermax is offline   (2) Thanks
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks