[David Murx]

Hi. I read the post and was interested in doing a stretch of the GQ run. I just wanted to ask the route that would be travelled from Delhi to Mumbai. If it is via Ahmedabad-Vadodara then i'm very much in the game.

[downsouth]

@david

Sorry to disappoint you, but this is called off..atleast some of the guys who started this thread have done the GQ.

[David Murx]

Okay. That is bad to hear. I was excited about it. Never mind may be next time if such a GQ is planned i will see to it that i don't miss it again.

[arindamray]

Originally Posted by GSMINC

The next GQ drive is tentatively fixed on 4th April 2009.
Since hvkumar & gang did the GQ drive clockwise, we shall do it anticlockwise ie.,BLR-CHN-KLK-DEL-MUM-BLR.
Any one interested.
Hope we get better response this time

The start date/time from Bangalore has been decided as 10th April, 3:30 AM.

As pointed out earlier, it will be anticlockwise Banagalore-Chennai-Kolkata-Delhi-Mumbai-Bangalore. If the team size is 3 or less, the car will be Swift Diesel, otherwise Safari Dicor.

The plan is for 6 days, + 1 day buffer.

Day 1/April 10: Bangalore - Anakapalli
Day 2/April 11: Anakapalli - Kolkata
Day 3/April 12: Kolkata - Etawah
Day 4/April 13: Etawah - Chittaurgarh
Day 5/April 14: Chittaurgarh - Pune
Day 6/April 15: Pune - Bangalore

All: Please suggest if it is feasible or any alternate stoppages.

Please let us know if any body would like to meet en route. We would love to.

Mods: Please split if it is worth a separate thread.

[mjothi]

Wow, the next one. Great. Good luck guys.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by arindamray

The start date/time from Bangalore has been decided as 10th April, 3:30 AM.

As pointed out earlier, it will be anticlockwise Banagalore-Chennai-Kolkata-Delhi-Mumbai-Bangalore. If the team size is 3 or less, the car will be Swift Diesel, otherwise Safari Dicor.

The plan is for 6 days, + 1 day buffer.

Day 1/April 10: Bangalore - Anakapalli
Day 2/April 11: Anakapalli - Kolkata
Day 3/April 12: Kolkata - Etawah
Day 4/April 13: Etawah - Chittaurgarh
Day 5/April 14: Chittaurgarh - Pune
Day 6/April 15: Pune - Bangalore

All: Please suggest if it is feasible or any alternate stoppages.

Please let us know if any body would like to meet en route. We would love to.

Mods: Please split if it is worth a separate thread.

A few tips, if I may:

Day 1 is too aggressive, I think you must target Rajahmundry.
Day 2 could be Kharagpur
Day 3 reaching Etawah is quite a task, I would target Allahabad, and very aggressively Kanpur
Day 4 Chittorgarh is difficult, since you have to cross the mess that is Delhi, plus Agra-Delhi is very congested during day, I would target Jaipur
Day 5 Jaipur to Surat is definite, but Bombay would be challenging
Day 6 Surat/Bombay to Bangalore is doable

[arindamray]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

A few tips, if I may:

Day 1 is too aggressive, I think you must target Rajahmundry.
Day 2 could be Kharagpur
Day 3 reaching Etawah is quite a task, I would target Allahabad, and very aggressively Kanpur
Day 4 Chittorgarh is difficult, since you have to cross the mess that is Delhi, plus Agra-Delhi is very congested during day, I would target Jaipur
Day 5 Jaipur to Surat is definite, but Bombay would be challenging
Day 6 Surat/Bombay to Bangalore is doable

Thank you Sir. I have some incentive to reach Kolkata by 2nd night, so the first day is little aggressive.

If we do reach Kolkata on 2nd night, are the other days ok?
Basically instead of Kharagpur-Kanpur, we will be doing Kolkata - Etawah on day 3 and so on?

I have kept it little aggressive on 5 days, and less on the last day, so we can cover the shortfall in that day.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by arindamray

Thank you Sir. I have some incentive to reach Kolkata by 2nd night, so the first day is little aggressive.

If we do reach Kolkata on 2nd night, are the other days ok?
Basically instead of Kharagpur-Kanpur, we will be doing Kolkata - Etawah on day 3 and so on?

I have kept it little aggressive on 5 days, and less on the last day, so we can cover the shortfall in that day.

Possible with some zestful driving, which means your driving day must begin at 3-4 am and end at 10-11 pm, with just one break in between for one long food session!

We did Bangalore-Madras-Anakapalli (3 am-1145 pm) (in reverse order)(1 halt for brunch at Mangalagiri and another 1-hour halt at Madras).

We did Anakapalli-Calcutta (5 am-10 pm) with 1 food halt at Bhubaneswar, and 15 minutes off at Bhalugaon.

We did Calcutta-Allahabad (7 am-10 pm) with just 1-hr halt for brunch, but with a late start, which means you could leave from Kanpur by 4 am to do the same distance.

We did Allahabad-Delhi-Behror (6 am - 10 pm), but we got clobbered by high density traffic in Agra-Delhi section, Delhi city traffic and some dense fog off Behror. Assuming that you are lucky with Delhi city traffic (not so lucky in Agra-Delhi section), you may chip off 2-3 hours at most.

2 cars, 5 persons is easier to manage than a larger group, and you can schedule your starts/stops better and maintain cruising speeds of 120 kmph.

Please remember that on day 1, you also have to tackle Madras city traffic en route NH5 up north.

Kolkata-Etawah is quite a task - while you will make good speed on Nh2 through Bengal (early in the morning), you may face traffic jams near Allahabd (which has no bypass and has narrow approach roads), besides some delays approaching Kanpur. I would be a little more conservative and think of Kanpur as the best possible place to halt that night.

[GSMINC]

The trip starts on 10th April 2009 at 3.30am. and yes as Arindamray mentioned it shall be anti-clockwise.
Me & Arindamray are the 2 guys ready as of now in a 8 month old Swift Diesel.
anybody willing to join, most welcome.
Counting on hvkumar, hrag & rest of the GQ team for advice & assistance enroute.

The idea is to do the trip in 6-7 days, so sightseeing ruled out unless any places of interest are bang on the highway.The schedule mentioned by arindamray is tentative & ofcourse subject to change, due to things/issues/problems beyond our control.

So, team-bhp highways gurus pls post your suggestions/advice/things to do/must carry items/precautions/warnings etc.

[akroy]

Arindam, Day1 till Anakapalle can be done if you start at 4AM. Only problem is to reach Naidupet faster. Recently I did till Tirupati in 4.5 hours, so I can assume that we can hit NH5 in 6 hours easily or may be even faster.

So Bangalore - Naidupet - 6 hours (I mean hitting NH5)
Naidupet - Vijayawada - 4 hours (one lunch break in between)
Vijayawada - Rajahmundry - 2.5 hours
Rajahmundry - Anakapalle - 2 hours (may be less)

If you start at 4AM (say KRpuram Bridge), I think you can reach Anakapalle before 9PM (considering all other delays).
Infact my suggession would be start in the evening (2PM to be precise on Day0), do a complete night drive to reach Vizag / Gopalpur in the morning (assuming there are 2 drivers). Or if you can do Kolkata in 31-32 hours (starting 2pm) with 2 drivers you can break off for a day rest in Kolkata (by doing this, Arindam can stay in his house as well).
Day3, you can start fresh from Kolkata.

Abhi

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by akroy

Arindam, Day1 till Anakapalle can be done if you start at 4AM. Only problem is to reach Naidupet faster. Recently I did till Tirupati in 4.5 hours, so I can assume that we can hit NH5 in 6 hours easily or may be even faster.

So Bangalore - Naidupet - 6 hours (I mean hitting NH5)
Naidupet - Vijayawada - 4 hours (one lunch break in between)

Abhi

Abhi, you are forgetting that the GQ drivers have to go via Madras, and not directly to Naidupet, and that will add 2 hours to the same dstination.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by GSMINC

The trip starts on 10th April 2009 at 3.30am. and yes as Arindamray mentioned it shall be anti-clockwise.


So, team-bhp highways gurus pls post your suggestions/advice/things to do/must carry items/precautions/warnings etc.

Happy to help anytime. You will miss seeing me by a day since I am driving from Bombay to Calcutta on Apr 9 evening to reach Sambalpur on 10th night, cross Calcutta on 11th morning en route the North East.

[maheshmenon]

As of now I am game, again just wanted to confirm that the dates are firm as of now???

BTW regarding the Kolkata - Orissa GQ : It took me almost 19 hrs of driving (with one stop for about 1hr at Bhubaneshwar) to get between Vizag - Jamshedpur. There is a lot of work going on by the NHAI on the Orissa stretch. So advisable to keep a little leeway in the plans to cater for un foreseen delays.

Keep posted
Mahesh

[arindamray]

Mahesh, wow, will be good to have you. yes the dates are firm.

Will you join from Chennai?

[arindamray]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Possible with some zestful driving, which means your driving day must begin at 3-4 am and end at 10-11 pm, with just one break in between for one long food session!

We did Bangalore-Madras-Anakapalli (3 am-1145 pm) (in reverse order)(1 halt for brunch at Mangalagiri and another 1-hour halt at Madras).

We did Anakapalli-Calcutta (5 am-10 pm) with 1 food halt at Bhubaneswar, and 15 minutes off at Bhalugaon.

We did Calcutta-Allahabad (7 am-10 pm) with just 1-hr halt for brunch, but with a late start, which means you could leave from Kanpur by 4 am to do the same distance.

We did Allahabad-Delhi-Behror (6 am - 10 pm), but we got clobbered by high density traffic in Agra-Delhi section, Delhi city traffic and some dense fog off Behror. Assuming that you are lucky with Delhi city traffic (not so lucky in Agra-Delhi section), you may chip off 2-3 hours at most.

2 cars, 5 persons is easier to manage than a larger group, and you can schedule your starts/stops better and maintain cruising speeds of 120 kmph.

Please remember that on day 1, you also have to tackle Madras city traffic en route NH5 up north.

Kolkata-Etawah is quite a task - while you will make good speed on Nh2 through Bengal (early in the morning), you may face traffic jams near Allahabd (which has no bypass and has narrow approach roads), besides some delays approaching Kanpur. I would be a little more conservative and think of Kanpur as the best possible place to halt that night.

Thanks again, for the detailed guidance.

As of now, it's only one car which may work positively for covering the distances.

Originally Posted by akroy

Arindam, Day1 till Anakapalle can be done if you start at 4AM. Only problem is to reach Naidupet faster. Recently I did till Tirupati in 4.5 hours, so I can assume that we can hit NH5 in 6 hours easily or may be even faster.

So Bangalore - Naidupet - 6 hours (I mean hitting NH5)
Naidupet - Vijayawada - 4 hours (one lunch break in between)
Vijayawada - Rajahmundry - 2.5 hours
Rajahmundry - Anakapalle - 2 hours (may be less)

If you start at 4AM (say KRpuram Bridge), I think you can reach Anakapalle before 9PM (considering all other delays).
Infact my suggession would be start in the evening (2PM to be precise on Day0), do a complete night drive to reach Vizag / Gopalpur in the morning (assuming there are 2 drivers). Or if you can do Kolkata in 31-32 hours (starting 2pm) with 2 drivers you can break off for a day rest in Kolkata (by doing this, Arindam can stay in his house as well).
Day3, you can start fresh from Kolkata.

Abhi

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Abhi, you are forgetting that the GQ drivers have to go via Madras, and not directly to Naidupet, and that will add 2 hours to the same dstination.

Abhi: How could you forget it is GQ Run, and not shortest route to Kolkata!!!

But am really tempted with the option of getting a day in Kolkata

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Happy to help anytime. You will miss seeing me by a day since I am driving from Bombay to Calcutta on Apr 9 evening to reach Sambalpur on 10th night, cross Calcutta on 11th morning en route the North East.

Bad luck for us!
But who will we turn to for the directions, if you are driving