[DrSumit]

My first thread.

I did not come across any thread on this route, and the eastern corridor was last discussed a few years back, so here I am armed with some answers! This route is an enjoyable, well-split drive that can be comfortably done in 3 days. The shorter Mumbai-Kolkata alternative via Raipur is not a very conducive choice unless you are out only for the drive. (That one's doable in 2 days however!)

This drive was covered under a variety of "conditions" and I will walk through my experience keeping these in mind:
1. Road conditions differed. Splendid mostly, except when you enter Maharashtra.
2. Company changed. The first leg (Kolkata-Vishakhapatnam) was with family. Vizag-Vijaywada-Hyderabad was alone. Hyderabad-Mumbai was with a set of friends.
3. Diurnal Variation. Drove most legs by day and did a short 350km leg by night.

I remember doing this route a year and a half back and all I can say is India’s definitely shining. At least the tarmac shone through. Roads were very motorable right through. Let me list down what was great across NH16/AH45, NH 65 and the Pune-Mumbai expressway:
1. Very good roads. Period. We drove through multiple states and for the first time I felt that road conditions are not the limiting factor for your travel speed/comfort and the like.
2. 95% of the way was at least 4 laned, which meant way lower driving stress. First, I did not have to consider oncoming traffic (except some local idiots that spice up your drive). Second, the era of truck-to-truck driving seemed history. Remember the earlier days when you overtook one truck, drove happily for a few seconds and lined up behind another, waiting for a “pass”? History.
3. This route is not a Dhaba hoppers’ delight. Nevertheless there are good eateries at well-spaced intervals.
4. Coffee in the Vizag-Solapur part of the highway is to die for.



First leg: Kolkata - Vishakapatnam: ~880 km




Google said it would take 15-16 hours for this stretch of close to 900 km. In my experience Google can be off by <2%. So we left Kolkata at 4:30am. It being summer, the sun was up half an hour into our drive. Exiting the city is a pain with trucks lined up in Santragachi, right after the second Howrah bridge.



Initially it seemed like the plan to exit Kolkata early boomeranged. However, once you hit NH16 towards Kharagpur, you’ll be greeted with blissful 6 lane driving. It’s perfect to stretch your engine a bit, set up some music and let the others in the car catch up on their sleep.



The one issue that I faced along the way to Kharagpur was the number of towns that have crept up on the highway. You could well see someone buying vegetables a few meters left of where you are treading at ~80 kmph. We reached Kharagpur in ~3hours and turned left to continue towards Bhubaneshwar. A word of caution: This left is approached from the right lane – sort of the crazy Delhi kinda turn. It can be counter-intuitive for people like me who orient their own compasses with the Sun!

The Kharagpur-Bhubaneshwar stretch was no different. We were greeted by a 4-laned highway right through, and no, you don’t have to cross over to the other side at any place. None of the tolls booths took unduly long either. I am not sure whether that’s a function of luck but traffic in general seems sorted. Moreover, there were quite a few cars doing the route – pretty family friendly in broad daylight if you ask me.



As soon as you enter Orissa, there are 2 things you would want to know:
1. There are a couple of joints that serve really good puri-bhaji.
2. Right through NH16 in Orissa, you’ll come across more cattle than you’ve seen in your life.

My path was crossed by cows, buffaloes, 1 dog and 2 monkeys. I am not sure whether the monkeys were in the Orissa or the Andhra Pradesh leg, but you get the point. Almost like a free Safari.

I am sure most of you are already aware of the change with truckers’ driving lanes. Earlier they would generally be on the left lane. Now they stick to the right lane. Given a decent shoulder that most of the highway had, I got sufficient room to maneuver between trucks on the right and two-wheelers on the left.

Bhubaneshwar offers multiple places for lunch. However, we stopped 2 hours later since we crossed Bhubaneshwar before 1pm and none of us were hungry. The place we stopped at was Babaji Dhaba, 2 hours from Bhubaneshwar. Remember the name, stop by, and then bless me!
The drive to Vizag hereon gets even better, with some hills from the Eastern Ghats thrown in.



Looks like a dream, right?

We reached Vizag at about 6:30 pm, which makes a total of 14 hours of day driving, with umpteen breaks for tea, breakfast and lunch. Getting into Vizag is a left knee nightmare if you are on a manual. (God bless you if you are Ford+manual+diesel or similar). While you are at Vizag, don’t miss out on a meal at Sri Sairam Parlour at Diamond Park.



Second leg: Vishakapatnam - Hyderabad: 620 km




The initial plan was very excel like with the second leg supposed to be covered a day later. But on the road, plans are meant to be changed, right? Once my parents took off for Kolkata, the trip was pretty much my effing wish! Moreover, some friends firmed up plans for a party at Vijaywada (of all places, yeah!). So the next day at about 5pm, we decided that we should meet at Vijaywada. This town is 350 fast kilometers from Vizag.

This leg was the most memorable one. This was a short and enjoyable night drive. I was alone and fresh – had pretty much done nothing the whole day except stuff myself. And then there was the promised trip at the end of this trip.



Driving out alone at sunset is surreal. Sounds like a track from Eagles and feels like bliss. Not a worry in the world, I set off towards Vijayawada. Considering that my last drive by night was in 2003, from Delhi to Lucknow, this was a stark contrast.

My first observation was the absence of cows and locals. This made the drive supremely rewarding. A lot has been written about the difference between night and day drives, and I will veer off from that. Let’s however list the objective facts:
1. Road conditions remained fantastic.
2. No cattle and very few men loitering about. On the flipside, you had trucks (expected) and fast buses (remember how well-connected this route is?)
3. No fatigue or stress.
4. Dinner at a dhaba 1 hour after Rajahmundry was lip-smacking.
5. The route doesn’t pass through areas of expected unrest or inordinate lawlessness.

These factors made the drive considerably safe. I found the Volvo buses a good option to follow. However, soon I caught up with a pilot car doing good sane speeds. In a few minutes I realized it was a convoy of 5 cars for some MLA. The rising importance of Vijayawada dawned upon me, and how!
I reached Vijaywada at around midnight. The next thing I remember is next day’s lunch at 3pm.

A long sleep and a morning later, we settled down for lunch at Barbeque Nation. Yes, Vijaywada boasts of everything now, but the midnight eateries open till 2am (was it because of Ramadaan?) beats “everything”.

The next day, at about 4pm, I started out for Hyderabad. The drive from Vijayawada to Hyderabad is a combination of all factors that can go right. The distance and duration are perfect. Roads are svelte. Coffee on the way is fantastic. No cattle. No locals crossing the street/ driving the wrong way/ etc. Everyone moves at a speed that hits the sweet spot for you – to follow or to overtake.
Even before you’ve left Vijaywada completely, the roads beckon.





Third leg: Hyderabad – Mumbai: ~890 km




Things get a bit interesting – maybe even nostalgic if your first highway memories are from the 80s/90s. In a nutshell, Hyderabad to Mumbai can be comfortably done in a day. NH65 continues to enthrall you but wait till you cover some distance.

This stretch is approximately the same distance (close to 900 km) as Kolkata - Vizag, and will take about 15 hours as well. However, this average speed is largely due to the Pune-Mumbai expressway where you build up speed. Hence, if you time this last stretch with traffic (e.g. the evening before a long weekend), it may not be a great idea.

I left with a couple of friends at about 5:30 am. From a previous experience on this route 2 years back I recalled that we had sufficient time, especially since the last few hours is the Pune-Mumbai expressway. To me that leg is like a drive around Mumbai – known territory, safe, and predictably motorable. So we left.

This stretch starts off as a terrific one, till you run out of Telengana and Karnataka. At the Karnataka – Maharashtra border you are greeted with the following:
1. Broken tarmac – this is so all the way till Solapur. That translates to a painstaking 4 hours. Remember I was in a Fiat Linea with the 14 inchers. The combination of that Rambo suspension, (relatively) high profile tires, and soft seats means you can pretty much throw any road (sometimes no road) at it and the car takes it with aplomb. Yet we were forced to dial down to an average speed of 50 kmph.
2. As a result of 1, you would be driving truck to truck. Overtake 1, meander around potholes, stretch to 4th gear, and there’s another truck ahead. Drop to 3rd. Repeat. Over. And. Over. Again.
3. To add to 1, most of this section is 2-laned with no divider to separate oncoming traffic.
4. 4-laning is being developed for this stretch. However, this is WIP. That means you are in situation 3 most of the time. Not to mention the numerous crossovers.

However, IMHO this stretch makes the drive in entirety more enjoyable. Let’s say for most of us this is 100 km of nostalgia in a 2500 km trip. There is thsi random fort dotting the side (apologies but these monuments don't interest me too much, so I didn't collect the name on the way).



Come Solapur and again your car becomes the limiting factor to your pace. As if to make up for the first few hours, you have 4-laned or 6-laned driving pleasure for the rest of the day. In fact you have 3 lanes to drive on, all the way till Chembur (read doorstep)!



There are eateries galore from Solapur to Pune. Since we reached Pune in the late afternoon, we stopped at Burger King (the authentic Pune one!) for our lunch. A word of caution – you cut through Pune in the late afternoon. So be prepared to tackle some office traffic in case things get delayed. It can be irksome and I am not sure whether there’s a bypass to the city.

Pune – Mumbai expressway is the dessert to the meal, if I may. If you’ve driven it, you’d know what I mean. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? It’s a must on any BHPian’s bucket list!

We reached Mumbai at about 6:30 pm. My car and I were doing fine at the end of the trip which reinforces the fact that summer is no deterrent to a long drive and neither is this route.

For me, one of the most interesting reads on Team BHP is the “Smaller Yet Significant Things” bit. I’d like to end with a few opinions of my own:
1. Summer does not equal lesser enjoyment – your car would anyway be air-conditioned for the most part. For the times you get off for breaks, trust me, you’d not feel hot under a tree shade for 15 minutes. A shade out in the countryside is truly different from tree-shades in cities!
2. I wouldn’t do monsoons though! Monsoons are best reserved for known territory (Pune/ Lonavla and the like).
3. Night driving is better, but only if you consider the “drive” part of it. You’d need to put in a lot of thought into the length of the drive, your condition of physical/mental rest, passenger safety, route traffic, car capabilities, mobile connectivity, people in the state you know (in case you are seriously stuck), etc.
4. Weekday or weekend has no impact on most highway traffic. A Friday evening move from Pune to Mumbai may be a bad idea, but that’s not so for more distant destinations.
5. Trivago TV ads helped me save on hotels. That boy sure hammered the brand in with those cheesy ads and I’m happy he did. It balanced the Linea 1.4L petrol’s FE – a 13 for the trip.

So that was my exhilarating experience! For this thread, I drew mostly on my learning. I shall be glad to answer questions you may have.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!