[warp_10]

Wow, a testament to the Tamil Nadu highways. Zero folks feel it's among the bad ones. (re-iterating the previous poll where most agreed that TN highways were the best).

Lighter note - Team-BHP-ians can handle questions how ever you twist it

[jkrishnakj]

It’s a no brainer for me. Had to vote Kerala, though, Maharashtra did cross my mind. But my experience of M’tra has been the Kolhapur/Mumbai/Shirdi/Nashik areas and it wasn’t as bad. Kerala would beat any highway to rank worst.

[JJ1991]

Voted for my home state kerala, not just the highways even normal roads are horrible. There is a running meme that if a new road is made kerala water authority/ bsnl will dig it the very next day( which is true to an extent). Unlike some other states you rarely find a cow or a villager going in a stroll but MVD mixed with rash driving bus drivers and autos will ruin it for all. I remeber getting fined for going at 54 kmph on a state highway and the reply from the MVD was very weird, a portion of the highway was under other roads category and the speed limit is 50 for like 200 metres.

[moralfibre]

There is a localisation and recency effect showing up on the poll results.

a) Most of team-bhpians are from KA. Mainly based out of Bangalore.

b) I don't think the poll results depict the actual state of highways.

Lastly, there needs to be a clarification in the poll. Highways are classified into: National Highways and State highways. The former is run by central agencies and the latter by state. I have driven extensively in KA, MH and Goa. This includes a very strong mix of national as well as state highways and KA >> MH. Far far ahead. There is a saying in Maharashtra bhpians circles, the moment you cross the state border, you realise that what we get are not highways or roads that are half as good as any other.

Related thread. (The Nightmare called Pune - Satara - Karad - Kolhapur Highway)

That said, Kerala looks to be winning this race of worst highways.

[RJ411]

From my personal experience it has to be Maharashtra. Long back in 2014 I had driven from Pune to Shirdi via Ahmednagar with Zoomcar rental - Ford Figo.

That stretch between Ahmednagar and Shirdi would give a tough fight to the craters in Moon. In between every 50 meters there were N number of potholes in all sizes.

I had driven in some of worst roads in Tamilnadu, but this stretch was a nightmare experience will never forget that.

I thought situation would have improved over the years, but judging by the polls here it seems not.

Thanks

[abhishek_hch]

I have driven extensively across BR, KA, KL, AP, TS, MH, MP & UP in the last 4-5 years.

KL has hands down the worst roads in the country and driving on them is most dangerous, due to both road & driving conditions. Contrary to popular perception, interior roads in my home state Bihar are currently in a much better shape than both KA & KL and driving on them is much safer than driving on double lane KL highways with state transport buses on a rampage!

[narayans80]

I will cut Kerala some slack. There is a lack of real estate and protests against everything, the 4-laning of NH-47 is a surprise given Kottayam, Alapuzha bypasses have taken a lifetime.

The worst without any competition is Maharashtra. It is not a poor state by any means, yet maintenance of existing important corridors is a complete mess. MPEW, Pune-Nasik, Nagar-Aurangabad, Kannad, Chalisgaon-Dhule. This list is endless. Till date Bombay or Pune don't even have a proper bypass.

[drift87]

Got to be Kerala for sure. Again, I agree with most of them- its not the quality of roads, but the width of State highways, the high density of vehicles per 1000 people ( close to 500). The national average would be in the range of 30-35 cars per 1000 people. Additionally, majority of the roads does not have lane dividers which results in suicidal overtaking mostly by the erratic bus drivers. Combining this with the generally temperamental people of the State is a recipe for disaster.

[MithunSathianat]

I cannot imagine anything else than my home state - Kerala. Especially north Kerala.
One would be shocked to see the national highway stretch from Vadakara - Mahe - Thalassery - Kannur - Payyanur.
The width of the road is hardly 'one lorry wide' in Mahe - Thalassery. One cannot imagine overtaking even a small hatch back in Mahe or Thalassery. The traffic is insane these days.
For covering a distance of approximately 300kms from Cochin to Payyanur, it takes me minimum 8 hours of driving time (excluding breaks) during day time.

[DriveOnceMore]

I think this poll result will reflect state wise distribution of active users as most of us are likely to vote for our home state highways as the worst ones.
We complain the most about what we have.
Also logically, we travel more on highways within our state than outside.

For the fun, Mods can compare the stats

[Tokengrip]

While i agree that Kerala is terrible, my vote here still goes to Maharastra just based on the fact that the GDP of this state is much higher than Kerala and will probably rank among the top 5 if not the top 3 in this country.
Based on this the roads here are just terrible. Have done some long drives to interior Maharastra and it just gets worse and worse.
PS- saying this as a long time citizen of Karnataka who moved to Maharastra about 7 years ago.

[TheVegabond]

When it comes to worst highways, Kerala does not have any competition.

I stayed in Trivandrum for 3 years from 2008 to 2011, then went back a couple of times between 2012-2018. During all of my my long stays and short visits, I travelled extensively throughout the state.

While I loved the natural beauty and some amazing people Kerala has to offer, I hated the roads which do not deserve to be called highways. As many posts have already highlighted, the so called highways are mostly 2 lane narrow roads owned by unruly KSRTC buses and Autorickshaws.

I do not want to sound political, but, the complex union system is notorious for blocking a lot of development work. All they want is an excuse to stop work and call Hartals (Strikes) whenever they want.

[RijuC]

Originally Posted by DriveOnceMore

I think this poll result will reflect state wise distribution of active users as most of us are likely to vote for our home state highways as the worst ones.
We complain the most about what we have.

True, I have voted for Haryana.

The earlier comments on KMP, Eastern peripheral, NH2 indicate what pathetic highway conditions we have in Haryana. We pay the toll just to drive through the worst broken patches of roads. And it's a nightmare to drive through the unruly fellow drivers.

Also, the approach roads/ highways, perhaps the state highways in Haryana are in pretty bad condition. The road from my place to Badli to join KMP has more than 50 nos. Of speed breakers. During my last trip from HP I thought I would count. And after crossing 50 I got exhausted

Also, it's no wonder that MH is the runner up. I used to frequently travel the Jalgaon-Aurangabad road in 2017-2020. The entire 160 km strech was dug up on both sides and locals say this is in same condition for past 7 years+. During my last trip just before COVID regime, there was some improvements in some patches. Hope MH highway conditions improve at the earliest.

Regarding WB, I absolutely agree with the point mentioned earlier. The WB police puts barricades in every 1-2 km interval in the wonderful new highways and you can't drive properly. There would be unnecessary congestion created by these barricades all over west bengal. Be it a normal city road or highways/ expressways you have to slowdown or stop at the barricades.

UP's one of the problem is vehicles and two wheelers will be coming from opposite side. And there would be lots of unregulated cross cross traffic where highways cut through cities.

[sarav100]

Why don’t we have the option of Jammu and Kashmir in the poll options list ? I wanted to vote for it simply because the section of road between Chenani tunnel at Patnitop and JLN tunnel at Qazigund is as bad as a highway could get. The worst part is that this is the only viable option connecting entire Kashmir valley.

Voted for Haryana as that is 2nd worst with highways and traffic discipline. Delhi - Ambala road has gotten worse in the last 5-6 years and has expensive tolls despite being under construction and in bad state.

KMP expressway also known as EPE has potholes of the size that can easily gobble whole 14 inch wheel of hatchbacks. This is especially apparent when the same road ends and joins WPE in Uttar Pradesh - that is in much better condition although that also has its fair share of bumps at concrete sections above underpasses.

[Slipstream11]

My vote - Odisha

On my recent (early Feb 2022) travel from Pune to Kolkata, i entered Odisha to reach BBSR, continued to Cuttack and then to Balasore and finally reached Kharagpur to head towards Kolkata.

The entire stretch is a mess with roads being constructed. While that is fine but then these constructions have been going on for months now. I encountered the same bad stretch when I took the same route (Pune - Kolkata) in mid-August 21.

The conditions have just deteriorated.