[devnull]

So it was a boring Friday going on for me. Had opted to work from home and wife had a leave. And she decided to make good use of the leave by visiting a parlor leaving me to my state of boredom for hours. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally calls up to say that she’s done and that I can pick her up.

So I sluggishly get into my car (1 yr old Chevy Spark), give it a start and take off. And that’s when it happens – for the first time in the day, I feel charged up and my car keeps egging me to do more with her than just a casual ride in the neighborhood. And that’s when it struck me – why not have a dekko of the newly opened Outer Ring Road from Gachibowli to Shamshabad Airport. The timing looked perfect – ‘twas around 4:15 p.m. and that meant good sunset views. So I picked up my wife (looking all pretty ), told her the plan and sped off.

Joined ORR from Gachibowli Y junction. The road surface is awesome after that right till the airport. And the scenery changes drastically. Am telling you, you suddenly get the feeling you are driving in the US. Roads are wide and the best part is the scenery around – typical Hyderabad rocks all around. Unfortunately, it seems that they have split a lot of rocky mountains wide open to construct the ORR. But they do make for a some really interesting sights.

There is still a lot of construction activity going on and the road is far from safe, especially after daylight. There are lot of diversions and the two lanes 4 lanes merge into two suddenly at lots of points. No street lights, no dividers and some acute curves at some places. Because of the smooth surface and less traffic, vehicles tend to rip it and that’s where these curves and sudden merges can turn fatal. Saw one Swift lying there with the bonnet badly crumpled. And the last remaining sinews of a cow bang in the middle of the road.

Took me around 50 mins to reach Shamshabad Airport after I deviated from the route for a couple of kms after getting down from ORR. Again, the airport approach road was heaven and with the twilight setting, the airport looked brilliant. Took a few pics and headed back towards the city. This time the view was even better with the setting sun towards our left and there came this lake (not sure if this was Gandipet lake) in between which made it look even more beautiful. This time it took me around 40 mins to touch back on Gachibowli. This was just a sudden out of the burst ride. So wasn’t really keeping track of the distance nor the mileage. But was around 80 kms I guess from home and back.

Overall, a nice ride to take a break on lazy weekend if you are planning to keep it really short. There are some straight stretches where you can rip it off but be careful of some uneven leveling at some places which can get your vehicle flying . Also, I would strongly advice against taking this road in the night time unless it’s urgent. It’s totally barren around for the whole stretch and it’s gonna be risk with the cabs going berserk with the pedal.

‘Nuf said, I’ll put a few pics (taken from my mobile hence, bad quality)

[madhokritesh]

Looks like you had a great time .

[aaggoswami]

I dont know where we have so good roads in India.
Nice pictures of roads.
What really surprises me is why so little traffic on such good roads ?

[Rajesh Rawal]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

I dont know where we have so good roads in India.
Nice pictures of roads.
What really surprises me is why so little traffic on such good roads ?

Sir... Talking about good roads,I am sure you have ventured from vadodra to ahmedabad on the highway ,ain't that a beauty to drive on..( there are many,relating this one since you from vadodra)

The pics you see in this thread is of the new outer ring road which connects hyd city to the hyd airport

still major portion under construction ,might be the reason you see less traffic ( no street lights installed as yet),so after dark i kind of think twice using the ORR to travel to the airport..also since its a connectivity road to the aiport and not like a within city road where in traffic would be more evident.( in the time of recession not many people fly isnt it

But yes out and out we need such roads in our country ,the pity is we see car launches every 6-8 months but to ride those beauties on potholes is a nightmare..

[vnabhi]

Nice write up and pics, Devnull. I wanted to do this bit from the time the road was commissioned last month, but never got the time to do it.
If I'm not mistaken, the new ORR criss-crosses with the Chilkur Road from Golconda near Police Academy, right? I could see massive speed-breakers there last week.
I wanted to ask you if this new ORR crosses the Bangalore highway, and if so, is there a flyover at the junction?

[Rajesh Rawal]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Nice write up and pics, Devnull. I wanted to do this bit from the time the road was commissioned last month, but never got the time to do it.
If I'm not mistaken, the new ORR criss-crosses with the Chilkur Road from Golconda near Police Academy, right? I could see massive speed-breakers there last week.
I wanted to ask you if this new ORR crosses the Bangalore highway, and if so, is there a flyover at the junction?

Since devnull seems to be offline ,let me answer that for you.

ok so there is no direct flyover kind of thing from the mouth of the outer ring road when it touches the bangalore highway.

so incase you are going to the airport ,when the ORR ends you need to take a left and then go on the the flyover to connect on the airport road.

similarly when travelling to the city from the airport ,you will take a u turn on the bangalore highway and then come to the entrance of the ORR.

Did i confuse you

[zen91]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Nice write up and pics, Devnull. I wanted to do this bit from the time the road was commissioned last month, but never got the time to do it.
If I'm not mistaken, the new ORR criss-crosses with the Chilkur Road from Golconda near Police Academy, right? I could see massive speed-breakers there last week.
I wanted to ask you if this new ORR crosses the Bangalore highway, and if so, is there a flyover at the junction?

Yes Sir,the ORR meets the Bangalore highway and it ends there.

There is no flyover at this junction,however to proceed towards Bangalore you need to take a U turn at Shamshabad,which is not too far.

[devnull]

Originally Posted by Rajesh Rawal

Since devnull seems to be offline ,let me answer that for you.

ok so there is no direct flyover kind of thing from the mouth of the outer ring road when it touches the bangalore highway.

so incase you are going to the airport ,when the ORR ends you need to take a left and then go on the the flyover to connect on the airport road.

similarly when travelling to the city from the airport ,you will take a u turn on the bangalore highway and then come to the entrance of the ORR.

Did i confuse you

Right said Rajesh. One more question I had - On reaching the airport, I noticed that the signboard said that the road continued towards Srisailam. So would ORR-airport route be the ideal route to make the exit from Hyderabad while heading towards Srisailam, especially when you are starting from Hitec city?

[fazalaliadil]

Originally Posted by devnull

Right said Rajesh. One more question I had - On reaching the airport, I noticed that the signboard said that the road continued towards Srisailam. So would ORR-airport route be the ideal route to make the exit from Hyderabad while heading towards Srisailam, especially when you are starting from Hitec city?

Definitely it is a good idea to proceed to Srisailam via this route if you are starting from Hitech area, though longer in distance it will be shorter on time and less stressful, as the wide road and traffic are contrary to the older more travelled route.

[Rajesh Rawal]

Originally Posted by devnull

Right said Rajesh. One more question I had - On reaching the airport, I noticed that the signboard said that the road continued towards Srisailam. So would ORR-airport route be the ideal route to make the exit from Hyderabad while heading towards Srisailam, especially when you are starting from Hitec city?

Although i have never been to srisailam ,so cannot comment ,but that road which you talking about ends a little ahead of the airport and merges into some state highway..(maybe the actual road which leads to srisailam)

the new novotel (airport) is on that road...

[huntrz]

What a coincidence. I too explored ORR for the first time on friday. Went to airport to see my friend off. Initial plan was to drop him at the aeroexpress bus stop. but when i reached the Gachibowli Y junction at 5.30 pm I was too tempted to explore the road and went ahead to drop him to the airport itself. yes the road is awesme and perfect for a leisurely drive. It divides the L&T infocity into two. Those who would have bought flats in the L&T Infocity would literally be sitting on a gold mine now .

[vnabhi]

That enticing road has taken its toll yesterday. My pal was returning from some resort in the afternoon, and he spotted an Endy that had crashed head on to the side of a bus, and they were pulling 3 dead-bodies out of it. May their souls rest in peace.

I believe the Endeavour was half its original size, so you can well nigh imagine the speed of the vehicle at impact. So drive safe, guys.

[zen91]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

That enticing road has taken its toll yesterday. My pal was returning from some resort in the afternoon, and he spotted an Endy that had crashed head on to the side of a bus, and they were pulling 3 dead-bodies out of it. May their souls rest in peace.

I believe the Endeavour was half its original size, so you can well nigh imagine the speed of the vehicle at impact. So drive safe, guys.

This is very bad news and may their souls rest in peace.

Yes!!the temptation to drive fast on this road is very high,however it is also very unsafe as the entire stretch is yet to be completed.

You would get get a lot of diversions(sometimes very narrow),uneven road surface,unmarked crossings and lack of road dividers.

Need to be cautious while travelling on this road.

[watashi75]

I see this road daily while going to office. Yesterday there was no current in the afternoon and we suddenly decided to go for a drive to the airport.

Like other guys have mentioned, there are construction activities going on at many sections and diversions crop up quite suddenly. Some of the curve sections are quite acute. If you are a conscious driver who follow lane discipline, be aware that the lanes have a tendency to merge without notice or just lead to nowhere. I even saw people and dogs crossing the road at a few sections.

This road is certainly not ready to be ripped yet, unless you really want to RIP.

For going towards airport, once you reach NH7 you have to proceed left towards Hyderabad where the up ramp is located.

While returning we took the NH7-Mehdipatnam-Tank Bund route to Begumpet.

@devnull, the airport road meets the Srisailam highway after sometime. It is a good option for avoiding the traffic from IRR to Srisailam but the IRR isn't so bad either.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by watashi75

For going towards airport, once you reach NH7 you have to proceed left towards Hyderabad where the up ramp is located.

While returning we took the NH7-Mehdipatnam-Tank Bund route to Begumpet.

Since curiosity was getting the better of me, I too explored the ORR all the way to Shamshabad on Jan 4th. I too went via Gachibowli and returned via Mehdipatnam.

As some of you have already mentioned, the ORR has sudden lane merges that are a deterrent to fast driving. I recall a couple of places where you need to merge with the oncoming traffic (4 lane becomes 2 lane), but this happens exactly at the apex of an upward slope. So the danger is that the opposite direction guys who are ripping their cars may crash into you as they have no clue about this sudden road merger. So be careful guys.

For those of you who are interested in distances, below is an approximate measure:-

1. Gachibowli Jn to NH7---27 Kms
2. NH7 to Shamshabad--- 6 kms
3. Gachibowli Jn to cross-roads leading to Gandipet--7 kms
4. Gachibowli Jn to AP Acacy X road to Chilkur---12.5 kms

Time taken from Raj Bhawan road to Shamshabad via Gachibowli and ORR--55 minutes for 46 kms (pl note it was a Sunday)

Time taken from Shamshabad to Raj Bhawan Road via Mehdipatnam--45 mins for 34 kms.