[KishoreC]

I have been planning(dreaming) for long to make this trip, and now comes the time to gather all the intel.

The trip is planned to start on 14th Jan 2010.

Day 1 - Start 2 AM - Bangalore - Chennai - Nellore - Vijaywada - Vizag (alternate route Bangalore - Chittur - Tirupati - Nayadupeta - Nellore and onwards)

Day 2 - Start 5 AM - Vishakhapatnam - Bhubaneshwar - Cuttak - Balasore

Day 3 - Balasore - Kharagpur - Kolkata

This plan takes couple of requirements in consideration.

1. Reaching Kolkata early evening in stead of late night
2. Keeping extra time for bad roads in AP - Orissa and Orissa - Bengal borders.

What I'm missing is list of hotels on the way where we can stay. Guys, please recommend me places in Vizag and Balasore.

[hvkumar]

Apart from the OTDC Rambha which has been mentioned by Ravveendra, I have noticed the following on the highway itself:

- OTDC at Bhalugaon
- Hotel Dixit Resort at Bhadrak, 7 kms before the the town (south side)
- Hotel Suman at Balasore/Baleshwar, 5 kms before town

I have no idea about these hotels, they looked decent, so I jotted down coordinates in my log book.

[arindamray]

Originally Posted by KishoreC

I have been planning(dreaming) for long to make this trip, and now comes the time to gather all the intel.

The trip is planned to start on 14th Jan 2010.

Day 1 - Start 2 AM - Bangalore - Chennai - Nellore - Vijaywada - Vizag (alternate route Bangalore - Chittur - Tirupati - Nayadupeta - Nellore and onwards)

Day 2 - Start 5 AM - Vishakhapatnam - Bhubaneshwar - Cuttak - Balasore

Day 3 - Balasore - Kharagpur - Kolkata

This plan takes couple of requirements in consideration.

1. Reaching Kolkata early evening in stead of late night
2. Keeping extra time for bad roads in AP - Orissa and Orissa - Bengal borders.

What I'm missing is list of hotels on the way where we can stay. Guys, please recommend me places in Vizag and Balasore.

Alternate route on Day 1 is better - shorter with good surface, though two laner, will save 1 to 2 hours time.

If you are driving with nominal breaks, I guess Bangalore - Vizag should take about 15 hours. Similarly Vizag - Kolkata will also take around 15 hours. So if you do not have any sight seeing planned, you can do it on two days. Depending on what time you would like to reach Kolkata, you can adjust your starting from Vizag.

The orissa border (Ichchapuram) from Vizag will take around 3 hours, so if you want to avoid bad roads in dark, plan accordingly.

BTW, roads are fine in Orrisa Bengal border (if rain god has not played havoc).

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by akroy

I record my car's performance in every refill in an ..........

During the Kolkata trip it was AC throughout and at higher speeds. Still it return me an overall 18.5 kmpl which I thought was good.

Abhi

Abhi,

Just completed reading your thread, way to go and a great feat to have done it in an Alto. Congrats!!!

"Reliance A1 Plaza @ Yelamanchili" Are they still open and working, thought all of them have closed down???

Your mileage is pretty good, what more can you ask? At 18.5 with A/C on a high speed run is as good as it gets.

[akroy]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Abhi,

Just completed reading your thread, way to go and a great feat to have done it in an Alto. Congrats!!!

"Reliance A1 Plaza @ Yelamanchili" Are they still open and working, thought all of them have closed down???

Your mileage is pretty good, what more can you ask? At 18.5 with A/C on a high speed run is as good as it gets.

Ramky Sir, I thought you had read this thread before. I am surprised you have missed it.

yes, I think most A1 Plazas are closed or rebranded into some other name and running the show. When I did this trip in Oct2006, A1 plazas were pretty much functional (specially in AP) and some were also coming up.

Abhi

[akas_chauhan]

Hey AKroy, a well written detailed travelogue. Iused your direction, distance while i drove blore to jajpur road. It's pretty helpful.

This is my travelogue link. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-25-hours.html

[deb_majumdar]

Originally Posted by sundabs

Did the Kolkata-Puri-Kolkata during September 2009 and there was no improvement on the stretch between Balasore and Bhadrak. The 70 Kms stretch took me almost around 100 mins (Both directions). At some places , esp. around the small towns the road surface is really bad and caused some damage to the undercarriage of my Baleno.
The Border crossing into Orissa is a nightmare. I was stuck for almost 45 minutes in the midst of truck traffic which was reduced to a single lane. Of course could not convince the RTO officer at the Orissa Border that I am passing thru' Orissa (Maharashtra Plates) and had to cough up the Rs. 800/-.
The rest of the road is fantastic and was able to average around 85Kms per hour. however there is this strange phenomenon of driving 2 wheelers in Orissa, esp from Kharagpur byepass to Jaleswar. Cycles and motorcycles drive on the fast lane IN THE OPPOSITE Direction. So if you are overtaking you will need to be aware or BEWARE. Also on the way between Balasore and Jaleswar immediately after ROR bridge the enitre road has a pot hole and refilled with the dug out concrete. Can cause a lot of damage to the car at those speeds.
Another word of advise for those travelling with Kids, ladies and elders, Very few eating places on the highway between Chandihole and the Westbengal Border, unless you get off the highway into Balasore town. So plan your breaks (food and BIO) well. Stopped at this Water Cuckoo restaurant at Panikoili on the way to Puri. good Food and service. on the way back could only stop at 'Taj Bengal dhaba" at DeuliaChawk. (besides on IOCl Pump).
Hope this adds some value to this thread.

Yes, I experienced this opposite driving when I did Kolkata - Puri - Kolkata in March. That portion of the road is so fantastic that usually you can go at greater than 100-120 all the time, but there are sudden dangers. I even saw many trucks coming from the opposite direction on the fast lane and had to carefully shift myself to the left lane. These people do it because they don't want to drive a bit further and take a U-turn, but no idea how much risk they induce to themselves and others. No wonder so many people die in India everyday, and a significant fraction of that in the highways.

[samish_g]

Originally Posted by deb_majumdar

I even saw many trucks coming from the opposite direction on the fast lane and had to carefully shift myself to the left lane. These people do it because they don't want to drive a bit further and take a U-turn, but no idea how much risk they induce to themselves and others. No wonder so many people die in India everyday, and a significant fraction of that in the highways.

We have to be very careful in Indian Highways. We often see a lot of people taking shortcuts just to avoid a few hundred meters of travel thereby endangering not only themselves but others too in the process.

[sabret00the]

Sudipto da thanks a ton for digging out this thread. Abhijit da thanks a ton for the detailed travelogue. I'm planning a journey from CCU to BLR on my ALTO Lxi. This thread will most certainly help in this regard. I'll bother you on orkut too.

[ritwikdey28]

I have been dying to do a Pune --> HYD --> Vizag --> Kolkata --> Ranchi trip since last 2 years.

Kudos to u. Your thread would has put some fuel on my igniting desires.

[hjbrl]

[COLOR=black]I will be driving from Bangalore to Kolkata next week. I went through the description of the wonderful journey that AKRoy had. My only problem is that it was way back in 2006. I desperately want some recent updates about the road condition.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]I will be driving alone without any companion.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]So far the plan goes like this:[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]Day 1 (24th Feb) : Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Ambur - Chittoor - Tirupati - Nayudupeta - Nellore - Guntur - Vijayawada (715 kms)[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]Day 2 (25th Feb) : Vijayawada - Bhubaneshwar (775 kms)[/COLOR]

[COLOR=black]Day 3 (26th Feb) : Bhubaneshwar - Kolkata[/COLOR]
[FONT=Calibri][/FONT]
Now, the questions that I have:
1. How is the road condition? I heard from many people that once you enter Orissa, roads are pathetic. Is it true now also? What is the status of GQ in Orissa?
2. How safe is this route? Does any of these stretces fall under the Maoist regions? In that case also, is it a problem to drive during daytime?
3. Does anyone have any better route plan in mind?
4. Do I need to pay the 800/- that Orissa Police robs from people travelling throigh Orissa?
5. Just after Bhubaneshwar, Google Maps suggests a detour from Dhanmandal. The road again meets NH5 near Bhadrak. Why is it so? Can't we take the straight road instead. The attached image will help to understand the issue. Can't we take the green dotted line instead of the blue one that google suggests?

Answers to these will really help me a lot.

[hvkumar]

Orissa roads have since improved a lot. Status update from last weeks is as follows:

- 4 laning work from Bhadrak to Baleshwar (north of Bhubaneswar) has just been completed
- Road conditions in south Orissa - where 4 laning work is still on - is good, between AP border and Balugaon

Rest of roads in OR are 4-laned and in good condition.

NO safety issues on this route due to Maoist problem. Road safe day and night.

Problem areas - traffic jams at AP-OR border of Ichchapuram, OR-WB border of Jaleswar and slow-moving traffic on Bhubaneswar-Cuttack stretch.

NH5 branches off at Baleswar to go via Baripada to Kharagpur. You should continue straight onto NH60 (the 4 laned GQ) via Jaleswar to Kharagpur.

BTW, Google Maps on this stretch is wrong, and has not been updated after the 4-laned work was completed, around Jaleswar.

The practice of extorting of Rs 800 has stopped.

Please note Baleswar is also sometimes referred to as Balasore.

[sumitkalindi]

I would advice you to take the NH 60, and be cautious, as lots of diversions are there in this stretch, hear the Balasore area. Seems that work on the culverts are going on on the orissa side, it is better on the bengal side though.

[hjbrl]

Thanks HVK and Sumit for your valuable inputs.

Sumit, any reason you want me to avoid NH5 in that stretch? Though I am again referring to Google Maps, and HVK clearly mentioned that it is not updated, it says that taking NH5 will be more time efficient.

I am very new to this forum, and this will be my first really long drive. Just wanted to make sure I am prepared for it.

[hjbrl]

Also, a slight change in plan for the Bangalore-Chittoor stretch. I thought of going through Krishnagiri, but a fellow BHPian, Abhijeet (who happens to be my colleague) suggested the Kolar route. So I will be taking that instead.