[MileCruncher]

I moved to Hyderabad from Delhi last August but had to wait till September 1st week to bring my Fiat Uno from Delhi. Delhi to Hyderabad is slightly more than 1600 kms by the shortest route which is the under construction North - South Link. The route is Delhi - Agra - Gwalior - Jhansi - Lalitpur - Sagar - Lakhnadon - Seoni - Nagpur - Hyderabad. The other route option available to me was Delhi - Jaipur - Mumbai - Pune - Hyderabad which is about 300 Kms longer. I decided to take the North - South link and expected to cover the distance in 2 - 2 1/2 days. Having travelled previously on the route upto Jhansi, I expected to do decent time but that was a mistake.

Day 1:

Started from Delhi on Sunday at 6 am and was able to do decent time on the NH-2. The drive was pretty uneventful through the good NH2 till Agra.

Drove through Agra through the mad traffic, got lost in the city because of the GPS trying to take the shortest route to make me reach NH3. Took me about 1 hour to cross Agra and start on my way to Gwalior. Again got lost in Gwalior coutesy GPS to find the road to Jhansi. This was when the roads started becoming bad. Gwalior - Jhansi which is about 100 kms took me about 3 hrs. Reached Jhansi at around 5pm and took a break to fill up. Started from Jhansi towards Lalitpur (100KM) at 6 pm as it was getting dark. I had planned about doing 800 kms each day, but all hopes of it vanished seeing the state of the roads. Took me through the dark and treacherous roads about 4and 1/2 hours to reach Lalitpur.
Day2:
Started early at 5am as I wanted to cover as much miles as possible and still keep to my schedule of 2.5 days, but all that planning was to soon go out of the window. The road started to get really bad with most of the stretch absolutely no semblace of roads. By Morning 8 i had covered only 60 Kms.

The roads were so bad that something got stuck on one of my brake pads and Front left outer pad got worn out totally. Since Nagpur was still 130 odd kms from the place where the breakdown happened, I got some some local jugad done and carried on to halt at Seoni at 10 pm. Final tally 16 hrs of driving 360 kms covered.
Day 3 :
Started outearly at 6am as I needed to go slow and still reach by 9 at the serviec station with whom my wife had already booked an appointment. Did some good speed and I was at Nagpur by 7.30 and parked at the serviec station. Kudos to Gandhi Cars - TATA Dealers at Nagpur on attending to my car on priority inspite of the day being Ganesh Chaturthi. Brake pads changed i was out on the road at 11.30 p.m. Nagpur to Hyderabad which is about 450 kms is generally a good stretch but due to just concluded rains, the roads were a mess. But over all good drive and I was in Hyderabad on the 3rd day at 11.30 p.m.

All -in-all exciting but tiresome and frustrating journey because of the condition of the arterial roads in our country.
Hope some is listening

[MileCruncher]

Picasa Web Albums - Anirudha - Delhi - Hyder...
I have uploaded the pictures taken during the trip

[IndianNomad]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Picasa Web Albums - Anirudha - Delhi - Hyder...
I have uploaded the pictures taken during the trip

These pictures really speaks how bad the roads are.

[hvkumar]

Yes, this is one of the reasons why I have been repeatedly advising the Bangalore/Hyderabad folks to use the Bombay route to get to Delhi. The North-South route is really bad and best avoided till the NS corridor is completed. I have personally driven on this route as follows: Day 1: Panipat-Sagar, Day 2: Sagar-Nagpur-Hyderabad, and it was a real rough drive.

[DKG]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

The North-South route is really bad and best avoided till the NS corridor is completed.

I had done this in 2001 and there were practically no roads north of Nagpur. What a pity this stretch still remains in a pathetic state.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by DKG

I had done this in 2001 and there were practically no roads north of Nagpur. What a pity this stretch still remains in a pathetic state.

Roads in MP are almost a non existing thing. I did the Delhi to Khajuraho in 2004. After Jhansi the NH76 was single lane for the entire 180 kms to Khajuraho. In order to overtake, one has to get your car half off the day and the vehicle in front will also do the same. Crossing vehicles coming from the other side also same situation.

On the other hand Bhopal - Indore is supposed to be amazing road.

[Rajesh Rawal]

After seeing the pictures i guess the route via rajasthan-mumbai-pune-hyderabad would have been ideal.

Nevertheless welcome to hyd buddy! there are lot of active hyd tbhp junta here.

keep a look out on the team bhp meet section to know when is the next hyd meet.


see you around!

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by Rajesh Rawal

keep a look out on the team bhp meet section to know when is the next hyd meet.


see you around!

Will definitely like to hook up on one of these upcoming meets and show off my steeds

[architect]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Roads in MP are almost a non existing thing. I did the Delhi to Khajuraho in 2004. After Jhansi the NH76 was single lane for the entire 180 kms to Khajuraho. In order to overtake, one has to get your car half off the day and the vehicle in front will also do the same. Crossing vehicles coming from the other side also same situation.

On the other hand Bhopal - Indore is supposed to be amazing road.

As of today, Jhansi-Khajuraho is in much better shape than Gwalior-Jhansi (especially around and after Datia). While the former is narrower and the latter is wider, the widening work going on slows you down more than getting off the road.

I did Jhansi-Khajuraho (180kms) in 3.5 hours in the afternoon and 2.5 hours in the morning, averaging over 72 kph in the latter, thanks to the decrease in oncoming traffic.

[mobike008]

Bringing the car down south seems like a good opportunity for a long haul ride. Nice to read through your travelogue, but why aren't they accompanied with pictures?

Welcome to Hyderabad TBHP and look forward to meeting you this evening.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Bringing the car down south seems like a good opportunity for a long haul ride. Nice to read through your travelogue, but why aren't they accompanied with pictures?

Here are the pictures. Have not been able to embed them in the post somehow.

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Picasa Web Albums - Anirudha - Delhi - Hyder...
I have uploaded the pictures taken during the trip

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Roads in MP are almost a non existing thing. I did the Delhi to Khajuraho in 2004. After Jhansi the NH76 was single lane for the entire 180 kms to Khajuraho. In order to overtake, one has to get your car half off the day and the vehicle in front will also do the same. Crossing vehicles coming from the other side also same situation.

On the other hand Bhopal - Indore is supposed to be amazing road.

I did Khajuraho-Chattrapur stretch, 47 kms, 40 mts in Nov 2008 on my way back to Sagar -Bhopal, same condition as mile cruncher explained, road widening is going on.

From Bhopal-Indore, 45 kms, 4 track work is almost finished with switch backs, you can do good speeds, till Dewas road is single track with heavy truck traffic, we took 90 mts to do (end of 4 track - Astha-Sankoch-Devas BP) 115 kms with a little aggressive driving, from Dewas its a lovely 4 track toll road till Indore.

--Ramky
----------

[btirthankar]

[quote=MileCruncher;1154457] the shortest route which is the under construction North - South Link. The route is Delhi - Agra - Gwalior - Jhansi - Lalitpur - Sagar - Lakhnadon - Seoni - Nagpur - Hyderabad.

Drove through Agra through the mad traffic, got lost in the city because of the GPS trying to take the shortest route to make me reach NH3. Took me about 1 hour to cross Agra and start on my way to Gwalior. Again got lost in Gwalior coutesy GPS to find the road to Jhansi. This was when the roads started becoming bad. Gwalior - Jhansi which is about 100 kms took me about 3 hrs. Reached Jhansi at around 5pm and took a break to fill up. Started from Jhansi towards Lalitpur (100KM) at 6 pm as it was getting dark. I had planned about doing 800 kms each day, but all hopes of it vanished seeing the state of the roads. Took me through the dark and treacherous roads about 4and 1/2 hours to reach Lalitpur.
Day2:
Started early at 5am as I wanted to cover as much miles as possible and still keep to my schedule of 2.5 days, but all that planning was to soon go out of the window. The road started to get really bad with most of the stretch absolutely no semblace of roads. By Morning 8 i had covered only 60 Kms.

The roads were so bad that something got stuck on one of my brake pads and Front left outer pad got worn out totally. /quote]

I had done this route exactly a year ago but HYD-DEL
Do check the videos: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...es-8-days.html

Even in my case the brake system failed before Nagpur and I drove all night like that (brakes worked lightly only at pedal dead end) only to wait till dawn at Narasinghpur when I got my wife to press the pedal and I bled the system.

I really wish if you can post pictures of the Barman Ghat at Narmada River Bridge.

And do you remember this desolate stretch? Thats the most eerie place I have ever driven to, (not a single human within sight for 100 kms) and wonder how it would have been at night.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by btirthankar

I really wish if you can post pictures of the Barman Ghat at Narmada River Bridge.

And do you remember this desolate stretch? Thats the most eerie place I have ever driven to, (not a single human within sight for 100 kms) and wonder how it would have been at night.

The main Narmada Bridge after Sagar is there on the album. Link is there earlier in the post. I only know how I managed heavy rains and bad roads on that stretch. Most of interior MP where the NH 26 goes through, there is no Mobile Network and hardly any human being. It is truly a Middle of Nowhere if one's car breaks down.
Last night when I met with other BHPians at the get together, your topic came up as we share last names. Heard about your escapade related to Kerala

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Last night when I met with other BHPians at the get together, your topic came up as we share last names. Heard about your escapade related to Kerala

Ahh! So finally one Basu meets the another Basu. The only commonality i see is both love to crunch on miles.