[masterChief007]

Pre Trip Story:

The plan to drive to Kolkata germinated a few weeks before the supposed trip was to start. Generally for a person to visit Kolkata during pujo he/she has to plan the trip at least 60 days in advance (as when the railway bookings open
- and close within minutes !). For me due to office work this was not possible as there was lot to be done, and I was unsure I can wrap up things in time.
So I had neither booked flight, nor did I get a train ticket.

Always had in mind that this time around it will be the car that will get me there, in case I plan to go to my village. Around 3-4 weeks to the trip, I realized that I may be able to go to my village, as the pending tasks started to get sorted in office. I started scanning the tbhp pages for the route options and conditions and the weather reports for the coastal roads from the IMD site and satellite water-vapour maps.

Since there were some reports of cyclone, I had devised an alternate route (longer) BLR-HYD-Nagpur-Sambalpur-Kolkata to avoid coastal disturbances.
The decision of the final route I left for the last day based on the condition, Thankfully the weather was fine and NH16 was the route I would be finally taking.

As I was doing all this planning one fine day while returning from my jogging in Lalbagh, an idiot hit my car from behind in a traffic stop. No damage was visible, so I let it go. Only later in night did I realize that the boot won't close
as there was a deformity due to the collision. The ford service center in Lalbagh took the car in and Royal Sundaram covered the work with me paying 3.5 K for the work. I also decided to get all the last few years damages fixed with a total of ~28K (including the 3.5k insurance work). I received my car 1 week before my planned start on 24th September.

For past few months in my long drives I used to get irritated by the road noise from the stock 6 year old MRF ZV2K 175/65 R14. So I had decided to move to 185/65 R14 Yokohama Earth-1, from Sai Iyengar in Indiranagar. They got the wheel sourced and fixed while I waited at the shop. The wheels were balanced and aligned, but next day again when out driving I realized that the steering wheel is a bit tilted towards left when I am driving straight, Sai Iyengar couldn't fix this issue, so when to Ford Bodyshop again and they too had to do wheel balancing and alignment again, which didnt fix the issue and then they had to reprogram the EPS to get it to satisfactory state.
This was on Friday, the day before my supposed trip. Since I didnt want to make a trip without properly testing the dynamics, I postponed my start to 25th Sept.

24th September was the day for groceries, like bread, butter, cheese, chocolates, cold drinks and various food items along with 10 litres of water. Came back home packed all stuff into my car packed my trip luggage (yes I pack my luggage on the last day !). Took all the luggage and put it in my car, filled up air and diesel. Then kept all my morning and driving essentials ready and headed to sleep.

Day 1 : 25th September: Bangalore - Rajahmundry (~14.5 hrs/ 797 kms)
I set the alarm for 3.45 am but didn't need it as I went to bed by 9 pm and woke up bang at 12.30 am. Tossing and turning till 2:30 am yielded only frustration so got up made some coffee and had midnight breakfast. Woke my mother up for the trip
and by 4:11 am was sitting in the car setting up the rendition of Mahisasur Mardini by Sri Birendra Krishna Bhadra. This used to be the first audio that I put up each day of my road trip I would play. Only after this would any rock music will get to be coming from the stereo
Start of the drive:


It was dark outside and being my first trip to Kolkata in car I was excited. I drove via the old madras road maintaining around 70 kph due to early morning darkness and reached the Chittoor - Tirupati
stretch at 7 am approx (Tripmeter : 169 Kms). Had a quick breakfast of some cold coffee and bread sandwich (which I packed from home), I started the wonderful drive on the Chittoor Tirupati highway. This was one of the best
roads I have ever driven on, be it the tarmac quality and also the scenic Tirupati hills running parallel to the road.

Just after Chittoor on the Tirupati Expressway:




As usual day is followed by night, and so are excellent roads are followed by really bad roads.There was
a particular WB registered truck which was mashing its accelerator and 2-3 times observed that it was barelling towards the oncoming traffic, trusting the oncoming vehicles
to chicken out and give way. My policy on seeing such driving is to either slow down or speed up so that I dont share roads with such maniacs. Here I sped up and finally was able to get out
of the Tirupati-Naidupeta stretch and heaved a sigh of relief. 10:25 am, As soon as I ended up in the NH-16 I filled up on diesel again and used the clean enough washroom. The ladies washroom was also decent as
used by my mother. This was an Indian oil petrol bunk. Another alternative could have been the A5 hotel (but it being on the other side of the highway I skipped it) (Trip meter:323 km)

After getting into NH16 at IOCL petrol bunk:


After this the road was good, but being a 4 lane highway meant dodging trucks throughout till Nellore, Now the roads opened up and the driving was relaxed, so took the next break near Musunur toll at around 12:24 pm.
This break was just to wash my face and do a little walk around to check the tires, and do a sleep check so that I dont feel drowsy. 2-3 mins stop helped get the focus back and

At Musunur Toll:


The next stop was made before Guntur at 2:55 pm (Tripmeter: 582 Kms). Now mercury was creeping up again so had to take a cool down thums up again along with some chips. Since we were having some food or other throughout was not feeling hungry for lunch. Drive in the next stretch was average, we had some good roads mixed with some congestion but nothing that bothered me too much.

Some snaps on the way to Guntur/Vijayvada:



After this we directly stopped at Rajahmundry, via the infamous kovuru bridge. The whole town was dusty and there was too much haze due to this dust. Anyhow somehow managed to reach the hotel Manjeera Sarovar by 7pm. The hotel was excellent, however came to know that the swimming pool is not yet operational. One night stay cost around 3.5k. (Tripmeter: 797km)

To be continued ...

[masterChief007]

Contd ...

Day 2 : 26th September: Rajahmundry - BBSR (~11.5 hrs/ 646 kms)
Started the day early again at 5am from Rajahmundry, filled up diesel from the IOCL bunk next to the hotel, and started the day 2 of the road trip.

Early Start:


Encountered excellent roads and quite scenic route on the way to Vizag. I took a quick bio break on way to Vizag.

Bio Stop:


Entered Vizag at around 9 am, and then the ordeal of crossing the city started. There is a long stretch of NH-16 going through numerous traffic lights, which made life miserable. Sometimes I was wondering that am I going to office or on a road trip ! Took around an hour to escape the city and then I frantically searched for a CCD stop. Finally found a ccd after Vizag, and got down to the service road for some coffee and light food.(Tripmeter:1029 kms)

CCD after Vizag:


Next part of the journey was smooth till AP border, Took another small pit stop around Ichchapuram to ward off sleep at 1:22 pm (Tripmeter: 1199 kms), also I was having ankle pain on the right foot due to wearing the running shoe and keeping the
accelerator pedal pressed for long hours. The running shoes being flexible cause a lot of fatigue if driving long. So had to get down and walk it off a bit.

Relaxing the foot, and the eyes:






Being forewarned of the Odisha roads and the infamous cows by TBHP forums, I dropped my speed to 60 kph to avoid them. I also shifted to the middle lane just to be a bit more safer. This part of the trip was even more painful than the Tirupati-Naidupeta stretch. As you never know that a cow may pop up like a horror video game character to ruin your day. This constant vigil takes a toll and even though I was passing through some excellent sceneries near the Chillika, I was unable to relax and appreciate as I needed to keep a sharp eye on the road.
Somehow I managed to reach BBSR without hurting any cows by 5:30 pm (Tripmeter : 1443 kms) and checked into Ginger BBSR. The rooms are quite small, but I needed good wifi for a couple of days of WFH.

Next 2-3 days I spent in Ginger hotel doing office work. Night time after office I explored local cuisine and some shopping. I visited Dalma restaurant, but felt that its not worth the ratings. It was an average experience there however Chenna poda and Jhilli were good. So next day visited Nexus mall and had dinner in their food court. Also got an ankle support leather shoe, which was good as it alleviated the ankle pain due to the running shoe.

Day 3 : 29th September: BBSR - Kolkata (~9hrs/ 459 kms)
29th September: BBSR - Kolkata
Today was the day when the first leg would be completed, but since the distance to drive was pretty less I had a relaxed start after the breakfast at Ginger BBSR. Crossed the beautiful Mahanadi bridge which till now I have crossed only via train.

Passed cuttack and the road conditions improved a bit than the last day. I didnt take much breaks except to fill diesel, and drove into WB. After entering WB there were still cows but thankfully they were tied on the median, so not much scope for them to streak across the highway and hit the traffic. Soon however bad under construction road with diversions and improper speed breakers started and this ordeal kept on going till I reached Kharagpur. Kharagpur onwards the roads were excellent with speed limits of 100 kph.
But trying those speeds once or twice I came face to face with traffic barricades in middle of the road and decided to stick to 80 kph and not get swayed by those inviting 100 kph speed limits. I reached Kolkata outskirts by around 3:00 pm and reached destination by 4 pm. Didn't take any photos as I was focused on finishing the trip ASAP, didnt take much breaks either.(Tripmeter:1902 km)


This concluded my first ever journey to Kolkata in car. Hopefully once the in-progress stretches of Tirupati-Naidupeta and the sections in Odisha and WB are completed, would like to do this drive again.

[r24x7]

Originally Posted by masterChief007

I started the wonderful drive on the Chittoor Tirupati highway. This was one of the best
roads I have ever driven on, be it the tarmac quality and also the scenic Tirupati hills running parallel to the road...

This stretch of road was very recently completed* ( There is still a 1-2 KM patch left where apprarently it looks like few landlords / house owners refused to give in for highway).

The road tarmac is indeed the smoothest I've ever seen as well , So is the highest toll charge. They now seem to charge around 105/- for the ~60 KM stretch.

Also , beware of the speed interceptors at around noon time.

Very nice to see a travelogue with an Aspire on it. The Figo Aspires ( espescially TDCIs) have become a rare species now. PS - I own one too.

[Garud]

Great to read stories of such like drives. I had a couple of questions though:
1. Did you pre plan and book the hotels on the way?
2. No traffic stops and such?

[masterChief007]

Originally Posted by r24x7

Also , beware of the speed interceptors at around noon time.

Very nice to see a travelogue with an Aspire on it. The Figo Aspires ( espescially TDCIs) have become a rare species now. PS - I own one too.

I am very happy with the Aspire, it is a wonderful car good for highways and good for cities as well. The dynamics make it a nice FTD car, glad to have made this choice

Hi Garud,
1. I had a rough idea of the hotels I would be going to in NH16, booking was on the day of approach. It depended on my ability to reach a destination mostly. E.g first day it could have been Vijaywada as first halt (so booked Rajahmundry hotel only when I was sure that I can make it there), Also on my 2nd day instead of BBSR I could have opted for Gopalpur too if I felt tired. Thus booked Ginger just before entering BBSR.

2. Didn't get what you meant by traffic stops, but yes I did take breaks in-between whenever felt sleepy or wanted to stretch my legs a bit (generally these were around 2hrs - 3hrs of driving). Stops will be max for 3-4 minutes unless I am stopping for eating.

[src]

Originally Posted by masterChief007

Contd ...


This concluded my first ever journey to Kolkata in car. Hopefully once the in-progress stretches of Tirupati-Naidupeta and the sections in Odisha and WB are completed, would like to do this drive again.

masterChief,
Have also recently done BLR CCU in August through this stretch and could relate lot of things.
Even our timings were also in order only cars are different

But returned through Sambalpur Raipur Nagpur Hyderabad in September.
This is a much better route option and roads are pretty good too.
Only hurdle is few kms in Bangriposi Keonjhar and MH border towards AP.
Even with more distance it is doable in 2 days.

[masterChief007]

Originally Posted by src

masterChief,

But returned through Sambalpur Raipur Nagpur Hyderabad in September.
This is a much better route option and roads are pretty good too.

This was my backup route too if weather would have been bad on the coast, but since it was manageable I took the same route back. Now that you have mentioned that the condition is good, in the next run I may explore this route !

[sumannandy]

Originally Posted by src

masterChief,
Have also recently done BLR CCU in August through this stretch and could relate lot of things.
Even our timings were also in order only cars are different

But returned through Sambalpur Raipur Nagpur Hyderabad in September.
This is a much better route option and roads are pretty good too.
Only hurdle is few kms in Bangriposi Keonjhar and MH border towards AP.
Even with more distance it is doable in 2 days.

Could you please let us know the road condition and status (4 lane) for this route. Also a little bit more details about stops you had taken.

Vizag bypass was partially ready few months back. Not sure of the current condition.

[Samfromindia]

Nice updates on your Bangalore - Kolkata drive. It always feels special to drive Kolkata during Puja isn't it ? The last one I did was back on 2019. I always prefer a single long drive instead of giving halts to save time & money unless with family. Here are excerpts of the post I made in the route queries thread along with some pics of the journey along the way.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ml#post4706588 (Bangalore - Kolkata : Route Queries)

I did an epic 7000KM Pune - Bangalore - Kolkata drive few months back during Puja. Here was my itinerary:

26 September 9PM : Start from Pune. Need to take detour as Mumbai BLR route was closed due to floods.
27 September 10AM : Reached Bangalore

--Stayed for a week in Bangalore

5th October 1:30PM: Start from Bangalore (Not the best time, but this was totally unplanned )
6th October 8:30PM: First halt at BBSR.
7th October Morning: Leave for Kolkata after breakfast.
7th October 4:15PM : Reach Kolkata

--Stay in Kolkata for 3 nights

10th October 8:30AM : Leave for Bangalore
10th October 9:00PM : Dinner at Vizag
--Slept for a couple of hours in petrol pump inside car at 3AM
11th October 11:40AM : Lunch at Nellore
11th October 7:00PM : Reached Bangalore

--Stayed for a night
12th Morning : Start from Bangalore
12th Night : Reach Pune

I traveled alone in my Ecosport so didn't need to do multiple halts which is required while with family.

Some motivation before the drive !




First food stop on way to Kolkata


Night halt at BBSR + Meeting up with friends


Finally reached Mamata land


On way back to Bangalore, lunch stop at Nellore

[masterChief007]

Originally Posted by Samfromindia

It always feels special to drive Kolkata during Puja isn't it ?

That's true, but the return journey also causes a dip in mood too, until next time !

[Sidban85]

Any plans this year? I am in Hyderabad and evaluating, while I have airtickets booked.

[hyper-VTEC]

I did this solo in April this year. Stopped at Vizag for the night and continued to Calcutta the next day. Awesome drive with another TBHian (in his car) the whole way. Roads few kms before touching NH16 were in bad shape and quite a number of diversions in Orissa. Otherwise it was a fun experience all the way and back. Planned another one in December
around Christmas.

[masterChief007]

Originally Posted by Sidban85

Any plans this year? I am in Hyderabad and evaluating, while I have airtickets booked.

yes this year too I am planning the drive. next year I might ride in my new ktm/Himalayan/650

Originally Posted by hyper-VTEC

I did this solo in April this year. Stopped at Vizag for the night and continued to Calcutta the next day. Awesome drive with another TBHian (in his car) the whole way. Roads few kms before touching NH16 were in bad shape and quite a number of diversions in Orissa. Otherwise it was a fun experience all the way and back. Planned another one in December
around Christmas.

roads in Orissa are a pain specially the cattles jumping suddenly into the highway. so I dip my speed in this stretch.

[hyper-VTEC]

Originally Posted by masterChief007

roads in Orissa are a pain specially the cattles jumping suddenly into the highway. so I dip my speed in this stretch.

Agree! And speed cameras as well. Also the road conditions in Orissa doesn't allow for smooth high speed cruising like in AP

[masterChief007]

saw a lot of nhai activity closing down one lane on each side and causing slow moving traffic both in AP and OD. Quite a bit of the earlier under construction activity has been completed so the drive was quiet pleasant compared to last year. Will update the thread once back.