[paragsachania]

Expressways, then and now:

Road infrastructure in India has been improving at tremendous pace making it absolutely effortless to commute. Pune-Mumbai expressway that started nearly 2 decades back was truly world-class, fully concretized, with lots of tunnels and viaducts and ahead of times and there is absolutely no denial about it. The Baroda-Ahmedabad expressway set an example on how arrow straight roads can be with the smoothest tarmac back then. Delhi-Agra expressway was the next trend setter from the last decade in terms of length and then we have had many more from the state of Uttar Pradesh alone which made it as the number 1 state with maximum length of access controlled expressways.

The last few years have created a buzz, mainly around greenfield and super long expressways (above 500 km) promising reduced commute times and average speeds of 100 kmph and beyond. While Delhi-Mumbai expressway is witnessing rapid progress which we look forward to drive soon after it opens up, the new kid on the block is the recently opened section between Nagpur and Shirdi spanning 520 km that is part of Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg.

This one that connects Nagpur and Mumbai once fully ready will be India’s first longest and “operational” expressway with a length of 701 km. Crossing 24 districts across Maharashtra, the expressway is developed by MSRDC literally connecting central India (Nagpur) to the commercial capital (Mumbai).

Planning for the drive:

While this project witnessed steady progress, especially for the Nagpur-Shirdi section, the official opening kept getting delayed multiple times. In the year 2022 itself, August 15th had become the popular hearsay for inauguration that made few of us plan a drive soon. However, due to inordinate delays, we could see it officially open only in the month of December 2022. There wasn’t much of a need to plan this drive as the route was pretty straightforward. However, we did have our own set of priorities

• Cover maximum distance of the expressway under natural light
• Avoid doing Hyderabad – Bangalore on a weekend, especially Kurnool to Ananthapur
• Ease of reaching home after entering city outskirts versus driving from one end of the city to another during the day
• How to split driving groups on the last leg so that few can settle for a 3 day plan while rest can manage this in 2 days

Dates and Planning:

The usual suspects got into some action to plan this drive in December last year, with a plan to drive in January after the year-end holiday traffic reduces on the highway so we have a peaceful drive. In our own friends circle, we published a poll and the most popular choice was Jan 20-21-22 of 2023 for the travel. Initially, we were 9 cars with 12 members that eventually got reduced to 4 cars and 6 members a week before the drive. Arun_josie and Speedsatya had to drop out due to unavoidable exigencies. We certainly missed you all big time.

The plan was to drive on 20th (Friday) and return on 21st (Saturday). However, Day 1 involved 1100 km of non-stop driving and Day 2 involved 1500 km of non-stop driving. Hence, in order to accommodate those who cannot drive late nights or at a stretch, they would be given an option to stay for the night either at Sholapur or Vijayapura on return so that can drive anywhere between 500-600 km on Day 3. So here is how the 2 and 3 day plan looked:

2-day Plan:

• Day 01 - Bangalore Nagpur – 1100 km (0300 hrs to 1730 hrs)
• Day 02 Leg 1 – Nagpur to Shirdi via Samruddhi Expressway – 540 km (0500 hrs to 1000 hrs)
• Day 02 Leg 2 – Shirdi to Bangalore via Samruddhi Expressway (for 75 km) Aurangabad Sholapur Vijayapura Hospet Chitradurga – 1600 Km (1100 hrs to 0030 hrs)

3-day Plan:

• Day 01 - Bangalore Nagpur – 1100 km (0300 hrs to 1730 hrs)
• Day 02 Leg 1 – Nagpur to Shirdi via Samruddhi Expressway – 540 km (0500 hrs to 1000 hrs)
• Day 02 Leg 2:

  Option 1 – Shirdi to Sholapur – 330 km (1100 hrs to 1600 hrs) – Night halt
  Option 2 – Shirdi to Vijayapura – 430 km (1100 hrs to 1700 hrs) – Night halt

• Day 03:

  Option 1 – Drive Sholapur to Bangalore for 8-9 hours
  Option 2 – Drive Vijayapura to Bangalore for 7-8 hours

• On Day 2, the convoy will drive together from Nagpur
• Post lunch on Day 2, when we are closer to Sholapur, members can take a call to halt either at Sholapur or Vijayapura
• Others who have endurance to drive beyond can continue all the way to Bangalore

Everything was planned and it worked out precisely:

• We have been driving together since almost 8 years now and we all are fanatics when it comes to super early morning starts, as early as 3:00am and there are a lot of advantages in doing the same and till date, everyone has been extremely diligent about adhering to time
• Every break was planned including refuel so all we had to do was to load the next location on maps and reach there, one after another
• The route planning didn’t rely on maps alone but more on common sense and experience of traveling, hence appropriate via points were shared instead of final destinations, that aided immensely in terms of taking the right entry or exits, efficient routing by traveling on faster sections, easily accessible fuel stations and hotels
• Our stay at Nagpur was at the outskirts before entering the main city that ensured we took less than 15 minutes to hit the entry point for Samruddhi Expressway on day 2
• Based on rough estimate, we all decided to load our Fastag wallets with at least 5000 INR (total toll being 4000+)
• Since we were not driving with families, Dhabas were our preferred choice for food for quicker service and piping hot food, and Nagpur Hyderabad has aplenty of these “authentic” Punjabi and Rajasthani Dhabas

3 Cars from Bangalore and 1 from Puttur:

We were all set and here was the convoy, rather a small group and the members who eventually made it:

• Bhpian Prasanna_indaje & BHPian bdn317 in his Fortuner
• Bhpian _chikku in his Kia Sonet
• Myself along with my dad in my Ertiga
• Midhun in his Jeep Compass

Among the 4 cars that had Bangalore as origin, the Fortuner was to start from Puttur, at least 5 hours west of Bangalore. Hence, this car started a day early on 19th (Thursday) and stopped for the night at Kurnool while rest of the 3 cars would drive early on 20th January morning and merge with the Fortuner at Kurnool. From Kurnool onward, we would all drive together throughout the entire trip, except that during return too the Fortuner would fork out at Chitradurga for Puttur again while rest of us will reach Bangalore via Tumkur.

[paragsachania]

Day 0 - Puttur to Kurnool

prasanna_indaje and bdn317 started from Kurnool on 19th January with a target of stopping for the night either at Kurnool or Hyderabad. With a 6:30am start, they made it to Kurnool by evening taking the Charmadi Belur Chitradurga Ananthapur road to Kurnool.

[paragsachania]

The route taken, driving time and breaks taken:

Day 1 – Bangalore (KIAL toll) – Ananthapur – Kurnool – Hyderabad – Adilabad – Nizambad – Nagpur (Butibori) ~1100 km

• Planned start from KIAL toll – 0300 (planned) | 0310 (actual)
• Planned end at Nagpur Hotel – 1730 (planned) | 1715 (actual)
• Total journey time – 14h & 5 minutes

Breaks taken:

• Merging with the duo in the Fortuner at Kurnool, meeting and greeting – 05 minutes
• Breakfast at Food Pyramid – 45 minutes
• Refuelling at Medchal, outskirts after Hyderabad exit – 15 minutes
• Lunch at Rajasthani Dhaba – 45 minutes
• Tea break at Daroda toll plaza – 15 minutes
• Total break time – 2 hours and 5 minutes
• Total driving time – 12 hours

Day 2 – Nagpur (Butibori) – Samdruddhi Mahamarg – Aurangabad – Sholapur – Vijayapura – Hospet – Chitradurga – Tumkur – Bangalore ~ 1450 km

• Planned start from Mayur – 0500 (planned) | 0515 (actual)
• Planned end (Bangalore) – 0030 (planned) | 0030 (actual)
• Total journey time – 19h & 30 minutes

Breaks taken:

• Dhule bypass exit at Aurangabad – 10 minutes
• Breakfast at Aurangabad – 1 hour and 20 minutes
• Refuelling at Aurangabad outskirts – 10 minutes
• Evening tea at Vijayapura toll booth – 30 minutes
• Dinner before Chitradurga – 60 minutes
• Total break time – 3 hours and 10 minutes
• Total driving time – 16 hours & 20 minutes

[paragsachania]

Driving Bangalore to Nagpur on Day 1

Day 1 | Rendezvous point at KIAL toll till Kurnool | 330 km | 03:05am - 06:50am

While the 2 cars (Sonet and Compass) reached on time, I reached around 5 minutes late owing to a road closure right outside our apartment that resulted in a detour and hence additional time. We quickly met and started the journey. The drive from KIAL toll till Kurnool was nothing to write about due to the fact that this section is marred with quite some speed-breakers of all sizes. Keeping our speeds in check, maintaining adequate distance between cars and carefully signalling the presence of speedbreakers ahead was the highlight of this section. To add to this, despite of driving cross country many times, truckers of AP/TS are perhaps the worst behaved when it comes to randomly changing lanes without any intentions. Driving under the dark helped a lot to let the vehicles ahead know about our intent to overtake oven make our presence felt.

By leaving from KIAL toll at 0305am, we were at the end of Kurnool bypass at 0650am. 45 minutes prior to our arrival ETA, we contacted the Fortuner duo and they reached the spot and were waiting for us.

Day 1 | Kurnool to breakfast point (Food Pyramid) |110 km | 06:55am – 0745am

Now that we were full house, we continue our drive to the next destination, Food Pyramid (food court), ~110 km before Hyderabad Ring Road. The road conditions improved primarily because the speed-breakers vanished and there were bearable painted rumble stripes. We reach here at 0745am and start back by 0830 after a sumptuous breakfast and a much need break to stretch our legs.

Day 1 | Breakfast point (Food Pyramid) to first refueling point at Medchal (outskirts of Hyderabad) | 187 km | 08:30am – 10:45am

Now that we satisfied our hunger, it was time to do the same for our cars. As per plan, every car had a decent range of at least 600-700 km and hence we were to stop at BPCL COCO at Medchal, at the outskirts of Hyderabad, after exiting the outer ring road and getting onto the NH leading to Nagpur. Due to the fact that it was still a weekday morning (Friday), traffic density started to build up Jadcherla onwards, including the toll booth to enter Hyderabad outer ring road. We entered Hyderabad Ring road around 0945am. From here on, for the next 75 km, we pretty much locked our speeds to 100 kmph and lucky were those who had cruise control.

The Hyderabad Ring road still remains one the best infrastructure projects ever seen for a large city, beautifully designed, futuristic and well mannered traffic. This is one ring road that one must travel to know the definition of ring road. No wonder, my dad who actually joined me on this drive was bowled over and started capturing the images since this was the first time he travelled on this side of the country with me although I have driven here on multiple occasions.

Soon after we got off the ring road, we were greeted by a traffic jam due to some roadwork. The traffic here started to build up quite intensely owing to morning hours but thankfully few traffic cops realised this and started to allow cars from the other side of the carriageway that was shut northbound.

All the cars fuelled up a tankful each, despite of Diesel costing near 11 INR more than Karnataka:

We took about 15 minutes to refuel along with a bio break, loaded the next destination (lunch) that was 2.5 hours away and started to drive ahead.

Day 1 | Refueling point at Medchal (outskirts of Hyderabad) to lunch stop | 175 km | 11:00am – 01:00pm

Drive beyond Medchal to lunch point was pleasant with mostly empty roads and traffic density declining further. The road conditions too become very favourable to maintain decent pace and get good average speeds without having to really drive fast. This is typically how a super early start helps for such long trips. We reached the Dhaba at 1pm, spend around 45 minutes before continuing our journey to our final destination, with may be a tea break towards the end to stretch our legs.

Day 1 | Lunch stop to Daroda toll plaza for a short tea break | 203 km | 01:45pm – 04:05pm

Nothing special about this place but the last few kms had patchy roads restricting our speeds to 70-90 kmph due to uneven surface. The roads were getting better but we thought it was a good time to stop for some Tea and then drive the last leg to destination which was a mere 65 km away.

And when you are on a highway, how can you resist no clicking these monsters that keep the highways alive!

Day 1 | Daroda toll plaza to Hotel Mayur, Butibori | 65 km | 04:20pm – 5:10pm

The last of the drive was uneventful and traffic though getting busier wasn’t too irritating. We all reached our final destination for day 01, at the outskirts of Nagpur as planned by driving around 1060 km from 03:00 am to 05:00 pm.

And for sure the entire drive on day 1 turned up very efficient in terms of timing and breaks at regular intervals. The plan to was to retire early for the night, wake up at 04:00 am next day, start at 05:00 am and hit the expressway by 05:15/05:30am. Also, it was important for all the cars to fill up their tanks to brim due to the limited options to refuel on the entire expressway. It would have been a risk too if even one of these stations on the expressway ran out of stock for whatever reasons. So everyone refilled as per plan from a fuel station right opposite to the Hotel, 250 meters away.

My car consumed 25 liters from the last fuel at Medchal, after clocking 450 km returning a healthy FE of 18 kmpl. Diesel costed a little over 5 INR more than my home state of Karnataka.

[paragsachania]

Driving Nagpur to Bangalore via Samruddhi & Aurangabad on Day 2

Day 2 | Hotel Mayur, Butibori to Samruddhi Mahamarg entrance | 18 km | 05:15am to 05:30am

We were ready as planned but there were some delays in checking out. However, we were still running as per schedule. The very first thing we all did after loading our cars was to clean the windscreens and mirrors. The road leading to the entry-point of the Samruddhi expressway was very easy. We drove on the NS corridor till the Nagpur Ring road interchange and then drove the next 5 km to hit the roundabout where the expressway starts. This 5 km stretch from the ring road interchange till the roundabout is still work in progress with only one side of the carriageway that is open. There is a proper signage where one needs to fork out from the NS corridor to get towards Samruddhi.

The scenes soon after we entered the Samruddhi corridor itself was fascinating as expected. For a country like India, to witness such marvellous infrastructure projects every few years is elating and truly an awesome experience. Such expressways immensely bring down travel time and make longer trips absolutely stress-free. This highway is a significant milestone especially for the state of Maharashtra where road connectivity between Nagpur and western cities of Mumbai/Pune was always a challenge in terms of time taken. It will now not only help the commute between Mumbai and Nagpur but there are a lot of travellers from Madhya Pradesh and Chatttisgarh to Pune and Mumbai too who will realise immense benefits due to this expressway.

Day 2 | Samruddhi Mahamarg entrance to Takli exit (Aurangabad Dhule Highway) | 440 km | 05:30am to 09:30am |

One phrase that can describe this road is “fantastically boring” in general– While you may love the fact that you are able to cruise effortlessly, the absence of much private traffic (trucks were aplenty) and hardly an action makes it a very dull affair, especially if you are someone who doesn’t connect every moment of your driving with the roads. There are few who see driving as just an activity to reach point B from Point A and there are few like us who appreciate that every drive has something to learn and take way and improve. If you belong to the former category, you will get bored in under 30 minutes and this will perhaps be the sole reason for highway hypnosis on this road.

Drive till Shirdi or exit at Aurangabad?

We were 4 cars and we thoroughly enjoyed driving on this 400+ km of road, at times changing our positions and letting each other pass and also holding onto good speeds for longer distances as well. We took just one pit stop halfway through to take a strategic decision. Our initial plan was to drive the entire 510 km stretch of Nagpur to Shirdi, take the same expressway back towards Aurangabad and then exit onto NH52 at Aurangabad to drive towards Sholapur, Vijayapura and then Bangalore. However, we also had few in the group who were apprehensive whether they would like to take a night halt on day 2 to continue back for Bangalore on day 3. By exiting at Aurangabad instead of driving all the way to Shirdi would have meant cutting short the expressway experience by 75 km each way (since we had to return back on the same road till Aurangabad anyway).

[paragsachania]

Driving Nagpur to Bangalore via Samruddhi & Aurangabad on Day 2

Day 2 | Takli exit (Aurangabad Dhule Highway) to sister’s place| 440 km | 09:40am to 10:10am |

This would have reduced the overall distance for day 2 by 150 km, helped us gain at least 2.5 hours because we had a breakfast and refuelling break planned at the Shirdi interchange. This may also allow us to reach Bangalore earlier too. At the same time, I had my sister at Aurangabad who insisted that she gets to host us authentic Misal Pav breakfast. The boys agreed collectively and hence we decided to exit the expressway at Aurangabad itself.

Day 2 | Breakfast | 10:10am to 11:30am |

With my sister’s home needing a 10 minute detour from the Aurangabad bypass, we ended up spending 1.5 hours at her place, relishing some lovely Misal Pav and Ginger tea for breakfast and overall adding up to 2 hours due to this visit. This meant that we left from Aurangabad city at 11:30am and we were yet to stop for refuelling.

The only pic we managed to capture just before leaving. Unfortunately, we couldn’t capture the food pics!

Day 2 | Aurangabad to IOCL Station for refuel | 30 km | 11:30am to 12:00pm |

Interestingly, by now we realised that even if we had done Shirdi and returned back after refuelling and breakfast, as per our plan we would be hitting the Aurangabad bypass at 12 noon. Since we stopped over at Aurangabad at my sister’s place and left after a super longish break, we were at the outskirts of Aurangabad for refuelling at 12 noon. Hence, all that time gain we perceived was lost for that breakfast but it was worth the visit because we ended up skipping lunch on this day. Ahead of Aurangabad, we all refuelled at an IOCL station so that this tank would nearly take us to Bangalore and whatever we need as next refill would only be 10-15 litres!

Day 2 | IOCL Station to Vijayapura toll booth | 425 km | 12:10pm to 4:45pm |

When we left from Aurangabad, we all were very sure that we will either stop very late for lunch or may as well give that a skip since we all had pretty “heavy” breakfast/brunch. None of us really called each other to check on whether we want to stop for lunch. Hence we all stopped at Vijayapura toll booth, after the end of Vijayapura bypass. My sister had packed us quite a lot of Samosas and Kachoris and all we had to do was to buy tea and have those samosas and kachoris. It was a perfect plan and everyone absolutely loved it. This break at the toll booth was a relaxed one and we ended up spending 30 minutes easily before our next stop for dinner.

Day 2 | Vijayapura toll booth to Dinner (Hotel Anand Vihar) | 269 km | 5:15pm to 8:30pm |

Since the Fortuner would be forking out at Chitradurga bypass, we planned to stop for dinner before hitting the bypass so we can bid adieu the duo and continue towards Bangalore. The Fortuner still had 330 km to go for Puttur while Bangalore folks had 250 km.

Google would regularly tell us that we were earlier than predicted during the entire course of the journey.

Day 2 | Dinner (Hotel Anand Vihar) to Bangalore | 250 km | 9:20pm to 12:30am |

This was the last leg of the journey and we 3 cars refuelled after Chitradurga for the last 170 km. The Fortuner refuelled a tank before hitting the Chitradurga bypass. We all reached home in between 1230 and 1245 depending on the destination.

The final trip meter reading after the round-trip! Something that this workhorse will not shy away from doing even after clocking over 2+ lac km on the Odo.

[paragsachania]

Summary of the driving experience:

• The drive was one the best in recent past where everyone thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it
• An early start of 0300am from the rendezvous point always helps, and it did this time too
• Each one of us ended up driving a total distance of 2500-2600 km in 2 days with the Fortuner adding another 160km at least
• Due to well-planned pit-stops, the fatigue levels on both day 1 and day 2 were well controlled
• On day 2, everyone of us drove at least 1450 km in a single shot and this was perhaps the first time for most of them
• We had a senior citizen, my dad aged 70 years manage this trip without a wink mainly because he always enjoys such road trips and has been my companion for drives lasting over 1700 km in one go too
• During the entire journey, all 4 cars mostly were together unless one of us ended up waiting more at a toll booth due to Fastag issues, we were all maintaining pretty decent average speeds
• Each of the cars maintained a very healthy average speed, drove in perfect rhythm that it never felt that we were too slow or very fast at any given point
• Despite of entering Maharashtra from Hyderabad side and driving back towards Vijayapura, this was one drive where cops in Maharashtra didn’t flag us down for document checking

Summary of the driving on the Samruddhi Mahamarg:

• The road has excellent banking though it has very less curves, the banking ensures your car mostly stays in the lane even on these curves
• Exits and interchanges are incredibly well designed, at par with international standards
• The quality of roads due to concrete is above average to excellent but most of us will crave for asphalt
• The expansion joints on overbridges and culverts for now appear to be well engineered; may have to wait and watch how they fare in long run
• The road quality changes as you are closing into Aurangabad, perhaps to do with the consortium who build this section
• Maintaining 120 kmph is bliss and effortless. One can easily average 100-110 kmph end to end without a break
• We spotted 3 accident sites, of which one was fresh and without involvement of any other vehicle, indicating that how highway hypnosis or sleeping at the wheel may be one of the reasons for it
• The expressway lacks facilities and whatever exist as of today are very limited, and hence one really needs to plan their pit stops if driving with family
• Trucks rule this road and they were perhaps the biggest benefiters of this expressway; nights does witness good bus traffic
• Lane indiscipline was very much a trait exhibited by many cars who would stick to the overtaking lane all the times
• The expressway has one diversion, well-marked and wide enough for cars to overtake a truck
• The toll paid was 775 INR for a distance of 450 km of expressway, the highest by far in one transaction for car for most of us

Summary on the road conditions:

• Bangalore to Kurnool is marred by regular speed-breakers of all sizes and this keeps you more than vigilant especially when driving under darkness
• Hyderabad to Adilabad was bliss as always, smoothest surface and reduced traffic
• The section of roads between Adilabad and Pandarkawada was patchy with zero potholes, patchwork ensuring you don’t get to cross 80-90 most of the times
• Aurangabad to Sholapur section has witnessed an increase in traffic now, not the same runway to drive; road conditions remain good to excellent
• Sholapur bypass though complete is quite bumpy
• Vijayapura to Hospet is good, however, regular placement of jumbo sized speed-breakers are dangerous for first timers
• Truck traffic indiscipline – Bangalore to Hyderabad will rank 1st on this circuit, followed by Vijayapura to Hospet
• In the end, there is never a journey return to Bangalore without ranting on Tumkur Nelamangala stretch, a section where all the car drives run into terrible behavioural issues and lack of discipline, manners or courtesy

[Gannu_1]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[arun_josie]

As usual a very detailed report of the drive with some nice pics of cars, trucks and roads! Unfortunately, I had to pull out of this drive at the last minute.

The Samruddhi Mahamarg expressway looks excellent, and I will plan to cover this sometime later.

The second day drive of 1450 Km is epic! This may not be a big thing for you as you do drives longer than this frequently. But, to do this in a group especially when others have never done such longish drive is great. You definitely planned the stops/breaks and implemented it very nicely.

[abirnale]

Amazing drive Parag and gang! Thanks for highlighting some of the risks on these highways - especially boring part of the drive and highway hypnosis. This thread is great in a way that it doesn’t just harp about the infra but also points out the risks, do’s and don’ts. Thanks for noting these all down nicely - this is one drive I would love to do with a little more relaxed stops en-route (Nagpur-Mumbai should be real non-stop though with full ADAS in action )

Thanks again for this lovely, and informative write-up.

[prasanna_indaje]

Thanks for the precise planning and execution.

Some highlights and observations from my end :

1. Rajasthani dabhas are awesome. Especially 'sev-tamatar' sabji and the oven fresh rotis.

2. Fortuner crossed 10000 kms in less that 4 months of ownership.

3. Fastag readers in some toll booths are cranky !

4. 1300 - 1500 kms in less than 24 hours in India is a reality

5. Saw EV charging stations coming up in some petrol bunks.

6. Be observant of monkeys and dogs on the expressway.

[bullitt1]

Epic drive to say the least, particularly the distance covered on day 2. I had the exact same 3 day planned from 26-28 last week, but had to cancel due to some unexpected family issue, hope to do this in future. Thanks for the summary as well.

[jkrishnakj]

Excellent stuff Parag and gang. Just recently, we had our fellow BHPian DrAD from Bangalore driving to experience this highway and now, you 4 cars. Loved reading this. I’m guessing Parag’s father is still cherishing the GQ drive in the WagonR, this trip must be ranking a close second in his mind.

My trip to Shirdi is long pending and I’m sure I’ll get to plan a drive in this highway sometime soon.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

The Samruddhi Mahamarg expressway looks excellent, and I will plan to cover this sometime later.

We shall plan again Arun. I am particularly interested during monsoons as the surroundings will give that green look around the shade of gray concrete which would be lovely!

The second day drive of 1450 Km is epic! This may not be a big thing for you as you do drives longer than this frequently. But, to do this in a group especially when others have never done such longish drive is great. You definitely planned the stops/breaks and implemented it very nicely.

True Arun. One of the reasons we managed to do it in single shot on second day was because we were only 4 cars and then none of them really even hinted that they want to stop for the day and drive on the 3rd day to destination.

Like you mention, the planning really helped and then the adequate breaks we took at the right time was crucial as well.

Originally Posted by abirnale

Thanks for highlighting some of the risks on these highways - especially boring part of the drive and highway hypnosis. This thread is great in a way that it doesn’t just harp about the infra but also points out the risks, do’s and don’ts.

Thank you Avinash. Reference to these risks and caution was very much necessary because we passed 3 accident sites as mentioned. We also encountered few cars driving at 120 kmph but absolutely clueless about sticking to a lane or even giving way to overtake and often confused. We saw too many of them either too casual or too carried away or perhaps too tired too! Opening up of good facilities is the need of the hour so drivers can plan and decide to stop for a break or two.

Thanks for noting these all down nicely - this is one drive I would love to do with a little more relaxed stops en-route (Nagpur-Mumbai should be real non-stop though with full ADAS in action )

Absolutely! It is undoubtedly ADAS territory. At least the lanes are marked very sensibly including exits and merging that ADAS will behave as expected. But let me tell you that even the drivers of 2 cars that had cruise control were absolutely bored as they neither had to modulate the throttle nor had to provide regular steering inputs. It is this reason why all 4 of us would shift our places, take a shot to drive a little faster and settle back at usual cruising speeds. We did this at least 8-10 times on the entire 470 km expressway and this kept us entertained and occupied too .

Originally Posted by prasanna_indaje

6. Be observant of monkeys and dogs on the expressway.

Thanks Prasanna, especially for bringing the monkeys and animal problem prevalent on our highways. We did encounter quite a few of them not just on the expressway but even beyond Adilabad towards Nagpur as well. Full size Indian langurs crossing the roads can result in devastating accidents too.

Originally Posted by bullitt1

I had the exact same 3 day planned from 26-28 last week, but had to cancel due to some unexpected family issue, hope to do this in future. Thanks for the summary as well.

Hope you are able to do this soon!

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

I’m guessing Parag’s father is still cherishing the GQ drive in the WagonR, this trip must be ranking a close second in his mind.

To be honest, this was just like any other drive for him though he did take turns and was shotgun in the Fortuner and Compass during return till Vijayapura. His longest by far has been 27 hours from Rajkot to Bangalore, which is a lot busier corridor by standards and often gets boring and irritating. But even during this drive (twice now) he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. As for this drive on Samruddhi, I was very sure that he will be part of the drive as we both kept watching the videos and drone shots of this road on the TV. At times, my nephew at Aurangabad would also share videos from the construction days when he would go riding his cycle on this stretch that would tempt us too!

He has been great companion during most of my drives because he doesn't travel just like a co-passenger but immensely helpful during the entire trip for various reasons. He experiences the journey as a passenger just like the way we do as drivers.

My trip to Shirdi is long pending and I’m sure I’ll get to plan a drive in this highway sometime soon.

I hope you get to do that soon. If you take the Aurangabad route (which I insist), you will get to drive 75+75 km during your onward and return too.

[RaviKBobba]

Good to know that such long drives are possible now. Thanks to such expressways but we also require planned wayside amenities with all standards & facilities located in regular intervals.

Is it possible to do a Hyderabad - Shirdi on this expressway ?