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-   -   Mount Abu - Ambaji - Gujarat : A CNG Trip (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/135447-mount-abu-ambaji-gujarat-cng-trip.html)

Hi Guys, Many Team-bhp members have already put a lot of information around Gujarat. In fact using this information itself, I had planned my trip. However, I thought its time for me to give back some of my information to Team-bhp.

This is my first post and I already know it is not going to be as good as those by others on the forum. But the idea is only to share information so that someone else can use it.

Firstly, one of the most important aspect of this trip was CNG. So that makes this thread a bit useful for those who want to go through this route on CNG. The emphasis in this thread is more on CNG and less on the trip. For the trip details I would attach the Excel sheet.

I must say that SDP really helped me plan my trip. A big thanks to him.
Below is the link to his travelogue.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ravelogue.html

Few differences between his trip and mine -
1. I covered Mount Abu whereas he did not.
2. He covered Somnath and Dwarka whereas I did not.
3. He traveled in his XUV while I traveled in Swift Dzire (CNG).

Now coming to the facts. Below was the basic plan (excel attachment to follow).
Mumbai - Vapi - Surat - Vadodara - Ahmedabad - Gandhinagar - Mehsana - Siddhpur - Palanpur - Ambaji - Mount Abu - Palanpur - Patan - Modhera - Adalaj - Ahmedabad - Vadodara - Surat - Vapi - Mumbai

I left from Mumbai at 4:30am and reached Dahisar Check Naka at 4:45am. I got CNG refilled there and left for the next check-point - Vapi. I reached Vapi (150 kms from Mumbai) at around 6:15 am. Got CNG refilled again.
CNG location - Leave the direct fly-over towards Gujarat when you see sign post for Daman to be on the left. When you are below the fly over, you would notice that Daman falls to the left. At that point, take a Right U-turn and go towards Mumbai (100m) and you would see the CNG pump there. After filling, you need to drive a bit in the wrong way to catch the highway again towards Gujarat.

Next stop for CNG was planned to be Surat. Many people kept telling that you would definitely find a CNG pump at Surat on the highway itself. Either it was my bad eyes or the pump aren't really on the highway.
so lets just say, when the trip meter reads 143 kms from Vapi, you would find a CNG pump on the left hand side. Landmark near it - A fast food corner besides it called "Burger Hut". If you don't see it, look out for "Hotel Sheetal" on the right. It is exactly opposite the pump. Again reach this point at around 8am.

Refilled CNG and left towards Vadodara, thinking that I would get it refilled again there. However, I noticed another CNG pump after around 50 kms. So did not take any chances and got it refilled there. It turned out to be the correct decision as Vadodara did not really have a CNG pump on the NH 8. I did not intend to go in the city as it would have wasted a lot of time, so thought of stretching the CNG to somehow make it to Ahmedabad.

Once I took the Express way between Vadodara and Ahmedabad, there was no looking back. A constant speed of 140km/h was easy to manage (that too safely - with other vehicles at least 1 km away from me and I could see them clearly on this Express Way, Sorry a Runway). Important point for people new to this area - If you do not plan to actually go to Ahmedabad, then make sure you look out for the sign on the left on the expressway for the Exit to Ring Road / Airport. If you miss it, you would need to travel within the city which is not a good idea.

Took a long Left U-turn and get on the Sardar Patel Ring Road. I was to go to Gandhinagar to meet my relatives. That was also supposed to be the end of driving for the day and I was to have a night halt there. So, the next concern was - whether the car will make it to the next CNG station. Yes it did. After two Toll booths on the Ring Road, there is a circle. You need to look for the sign board that says "Koba Circle". Once I reached the circle, I had to take a right to keep going towards Gandhinagar, but I took a left to get CNG refilled. Again, its around 200m on the left hand side.

Got CNG refilled, took a U-turn and started towards Gandhinagar. Passed through the Infocity and reached the relatives' place. According to the plan, I was to reach there by 3:30 pm. But I reached by 1pm, thanks to awesome Gujarat roads.

The next morning left for Mehsana on the state highway. Near Adalaj, there was a CNG pump on the left. Actually, it was not even needed since there are many CNG pumps in Mehsana. Got CNG refilled on the highway within Mehsana City.

Next CNG stop - Siddhpur. Got CNG refilled on the highway. I missed a Cut on the highway to the right side to go to Bindu Sarovar and other temples in Siddhpur. Not a big issue, took a U-turn from the next circle and came back.

Post Siddhpur, the next CNG stop was Palanpur. There is a fly over under construction. You need to take a right after crossing the railway line and there it is.
After refilling, I knew that this is the last point where I would get CNG. So, Palanpur to Ambaji to Mount Abu - Everything has to be driven in Petrol once CNG was empty. Post Palanpur, just followed the sign boards and reached Ambaji before I realized. approximately 80kms. That means a lot of CNG left. After taking some rest and visiting temples, took a night halt.

Next morning, again went for Ambaji darshan and other places nearby ( details in the excel) and left for Mount Abu. I reached Abu Road and passed through Abu Road City. Pathetic roads within the city. Point to be noted - I was still running on CNG. Once the slopes started, I switched to Petrol although I could continue in CNG. Reason - Petrol would give the required power and CNG efficiency would have been low. I would rather save it while driving down the slope when I come back and on the highway later on to get a better overall fuel efficiency.

So, Mount Abu in Petrol was 2 days including Guru Shikhar. On the way back, I had enquired if I could somehow bypass the pathetic Abu Road City traffic and the narrow roads. To my surprise, I realized that I could. In exchange for a few extra kms, right after getting down from Mount Abu's climb, there is a left (geographically speaking, go towards Rajasthan and not Gujarat) which connects the highway directly. So after the slope, take a left and reach the check post just before the highway. I took the right below the fly over and headed towards Gujarat (Palanpur).

Since I had saved CNG for the longer, smoother run, I still had it and used it on the highway and "almost" reached Palapur. Refilled CNG at the same pump in Palanpur and headed towards Patan - Rani ki Vav.

If you plan to have lunch, the restaurant "CrossRoads" is really good. Awesome homemade type Chapatis and less-oil subzi feels heaven when you are on a trip.

So Patan - Modhera (Sun Temple) - Mehsana. Refilled CNG at the pump opposite to the one I filled the first time. This time, towards Gandhinagar.

Now, after refilling, next stops - Adalaj ni Vav - Ahmedabad. Night halt at the hotel.

Next Morning, refilled CNG in Ahmedabad and a one day plan in Ahmedabad. Dinner at the Super-Awesome "Patang Hotel". 5 stars to it! Night halt again at the hotel.

Next morning, refilled CNG again and left for Mumbai via Ring Road - Vadodara - refilling CNG at stations on the left side itself. Not a problem at all. One Important advice, if you get a CNG station and you have covered more than 50 kms, make sure you still top it up. In case the next in the line is not working, you would be safe.

Reached Vapi by 3pm. Distance/speed-wise, this was an awesome achievement. Make sure you have lunch at restaurant at the corner of the same crossroad where I took the U-Turn the first day to refill CNG. It is probably called "CrossRoad Hotel". You would be shocked that for Rs. 99/- you get 2 subzi, rotis, dal, rice, papad, thandi chhaas and Gulab Jamun. Unbelievable!

Post Lunch and CNG refilling at the same pump as the first day, headed straight to Dahisar Check Naka. Crossed it and refilled CNG again on the left side and then headed for home.

So this was my first attempt to a long drive. The longest before this was Daman - A total of 350 kms. This one however, was a total of 2000 kms. And I realized that I was not even tired driving!

Lastly, I am very sorry for the poor quality of this thread. I am a complete newbie to writing. Hope this helps to at least one person!

Thank You Team-BHP and all the members for their valuable contribution.

We'd be very curious to know the cost of fuel for this 2,000 kms CNG trip. Go on, make us petrol & diesel car owners green with envy :D

Thank you for sharing.

Hello Dipak,

Welcome to T-BHP & congrats on completing the Gujrat & Ambaji trip sucessfully.

But we would like you to give more details of the trip like toll expenses, fuel (CNG) cost, etc. I believe the price of CNG is approx Rs. 57 in Gujarat which means as compared to Maharasthra, there is not much savings while driving on CNG in Gujarat a compared to Diesel Cars.

Further have you also managed to click some photographs? If yes, it will be a very good idea to share the photographs of your trip here.

Thanks,

Hi GTO
The cost of cng being 57/60 in gujrat, the savings aren't much compared to diesel cars but makes a huge difference when Compared to Petrol.
I didn't pay attention to the exact amounts, but when I refilled at dahisar and drove to vapi, it was 2rs/km and post that when cng costed 60 the car ran at 3rs/km.
So 1600 × 3 = 4800 - gujarat cng driving
300 × 2 = 600 - mumbai vapi driving
100 × 6 = 600 - mount abu petrol driving
Total = 4800 + 600 + 600 + 1000 (toll) = 7000
Effectively, including some petrol driving I would say that 3.5rs/km is not bad.
A diesel would have done equally well, may be better. But when I bought my car I didn't have the extra 1lac for the diesel.


Hi Jignesh
Well, I was on a family trip. So I didnt bother much about the toll. But it would be fair to say the toll was around 500 one way. So 1k of toll in total. Of this, do you wanna know which one I felt was a waste? The 30 + 30 at dahisar. All tolls after that and especially those in gujarat were well deserved. I'm thinking of shifting from Mumbai to Gandhinagar. A car lover would love the roads there.

This was my first long drive so didn't want to exert myself on the bad roads of Somnath. SDP had mentioned in his travelogue that the roads are bad. Also he was on a diesel that too XUV!
So Somnath is next on the cards by hiring an suv from ahmedabad or Gandhinagar.

Deepak,
Good log, quite different with the focus on CNG. clap:

Thanks for the mention of my GJ thread. :thumbs up

Where are the photos buddy?

Regards
SDP

Sirji, You are the primary reason for the trip. Again, your log was the primary reason I did not focus much on the trip and the entertainment but on the CNG. Since you had already covered it all. Adalaj, Rani ni vav, Kankaria Lake - All these were included in the plan only because of you.
Ambaji and Mount Abu were the main points to be covered from Parent's perspective.

Regarding CNG, with all due respect to everyone on tbhp, I felt some shortage of CNG information. So, thought of covering that up thinking that might help others.

I was generally driving so no pics while on the way / driving.
Here is the FB link to the pics: It is accessible to even those who do not have an FB Account.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...1&l=0e1de7d740

Very good snaps, Dipak! Loved the Modhera Sun temple one! Its truly desktop material. What camera do you use? Filters? CPL?

Good to see snaps of the Sidhpur temple and the vintage car museum. We missed that in our trip.

Thanks for sharing!

Sorry Sir, I missed the question earlier. I am not a pro at photography. I use the basic 5MP camera of my cell phone Xperia Neo.

However, I did correct the pictures a bit for Brightness and Contrast later on.
By the way, I would be keeping a check for your travelogues so that I can learn something from it and may be plan a similar journey again the next time.

As of now, the next long(er) trip is going to be Mumbai - Udaipur - Indore - Mumbai.:)

Nice post Dipak. Did you get any traffic on the new Narmada Bridge? or did you take the alternative route via the old golden bridge through ankleshwar over narmada river?

Hello,

While going towards Ahmedabad from Mumbai, it is always suggested to take the Golden gate bridge over Narmada river.

Traffic jams over Narmada bridge are a normal feature on the NH8 & truckers are used to wait couple of hours there.

Thanks,