[amajumder]

I came back from Garpanchkot Yesterday. It was really an experience to remember. Thanks to Sudipto da for his superb driving direction. I made one detour though. I came to Niyamatpur Police Post not via Niyamatpur T-junction but left the highway at the Indianoil petrol pump just before Asansol Engineering College and went straight for around 3 kms to hit old GT road just after crossing the railway underpass. There is a police post and in bad days could take some time. I didn't felt much pressure. It took me 5 mins to cross this more. I had to drive another 6-7 km to along old GT road to reach Niyamatpur police post. It was almost clear. Just took 2 mins stopage. Rest of the road was moderately good with maybe few hundreds of metres very bad, especially the road just turning right at Sarbari morh reminded me the commment of Sudipto da as "craters where elephants can hide".

Garpanchkot resort is an awesome place. Here are some pics of the tour.


The Resort.


Flowers in the Resorts's garden.


The Ruins of the Garh.


Thia is Adi Kalyaneswari Temple.


The panchratna mandir at the Gar.



The ruined Jorbangla mandir at Garh.


Terracotta sculptures still exists on the walls of the Panchratna Mandir.


Sunset at Panchet Dam.


Only other resort in the area few hundred meters away from the WBFDC resort, run by local people. Only having two rooms with only solar electricity. Costs around Rs. 250 per room. had this information from the local guide. Didn't visited there to describe the condition of the room.

[planet_rocker]

nice pics - Mr. Majumbar which car do you own?

do you have more pics?

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Great trip Majumdar (was it Anirban?). Did you go to Maithon? The pictures are really nice (though double posted and I hope mods will take care of that). Now when ABP steals pictures of GP Kot from the net they will have something better to steal from.
By the way, I think the private eco-resort that you saw originally belonged to a local guy who died in a road accident and had closed down after the sad incident. It's nice to see that it's back to business again.
Sudipto

[amajumder]

Yes, this is Anirban. We couldn't manage to go to Maithon as we got out of the resort a bit late and our planning didn't work out. Came back straight. I drive a Santro Xing XS (2004). I covered around 480 km roundtrip including sight seeing. The trip gave me around 11 kmpl mileage with 30% AC, around 80 km of bad road condition and highway (of a stretch of 160 km each side) speed of around 120 kmph most of the time. The panagarh stretch and Asansol stretch was slow. Near Durgapur one lane of the highway was closed due to maintenance. Around 10 km in all I had to slow down on the highway. I will try to upload more pics.

I think Garpanchkot is a nice centre based on which few excellent locations can be covered. We hadn't time. Else the local guide was insisting to go to Murardi natural dam which is at around 25 km from the Garh site. Also one can drive to Joychondi pahar and of course Maithon. Next time I will plan accordingly.

Few information I like to share about the resort which I believe would be helpful for the first timers. All the resort rooms are very good but Sal-Pial resort gives the best view of the hill. Kusum is nearest to the Dining Hall and if elderly people are going it takes no effort of climbing hill (not much though) to reach the resort. Cars can reach almost in the front of every resort. Food quality is moderate and don't expect multi-cuisine menu over there. Service is awesome. They call you independently to the dining room once your order is ready. And I didn't expect food would be that cheap in a location where you have no other option. Tea of excellent quality and quantity 1costs only Rs. 3 - in similar resorts elesewhere the cost would have been atleast Rs. 10. A plate of fish (2 pcs.) and rice (with dal, bhaji, sabji and chatni) costs just Rs. 50. Amenities in the rooms are so sensibly arranged with even a electric kettle for making tea on your own.

The surroundings reminded me of Mayavati Advaita Ashram (I am sure many of you have heard of the place). It was absolute silence and peace. I regret why didn't I plan my travel earlier to secure bookings for atleast 2 more days. I wonder - still there are so many almost unknown places (believe me - only 20% of my friends and family knew about this place before). I like to thank team-bhp for letting me know about this place. Thanks once again for such beutiful road direction (main credit to Sudipto da of course). I never felt that I am driving to a unknown location.

Please post me if you have idea of more such places that is at drivable distance and still untouched by madding crowd.

[Saurabh M]

Nice pics Anriban. Its good to see that GPKot is becoming popular gradually.

There is a road that takes you from the Panchet dam to the level of the lake. You can get fabulous sunset pics from there.

[ggaurab]

Thanks for this info.

could you give me the telephone No. of the resort. Do they have any booking office in Kolkata?

Have you Visited Burudi Dam near Ghatshila? try visiting it during this season. You can drop me the telephone no's on my mail ggaurab@gmail.com

[novice_alto]

The resort is WBFDC property and bookings can be made from their kolkata office near Hind Cinema. 6A Raja Subodh Mullick Square

you can go to West Bengal Forest Development Corporation and check online booking status, room availability etc. I dont know about spot booking. Both times I visited the place, bookings were done from this office only.

They have many such resorts throughout West Bengal.

Cheers

[DriveTrain]

Originally Posted by novice_alto

The resort is WBFDC property and bookings can be made from their kolkata office near Hind Cinema. 6A Raja Subodh Mullick Square

you can go to West Bengal Forest Development Corporation and check online booking status, room availability etc. I dont know about spot booking. Both times I visited the place, bookings were done from this office only.

They have many such resorts throughout West Bengal.

Cheers

Spot booking is not allowed , you have to book in advance. The booking slip is your Room booking + Forest Gate pass combined together.

After you have checked availability status on the Net , it is not necessary to go to the WBFDC Hind Cinema Office. They have booking counters in other areas of Kolkata as well , please check their website. One such is the WBFDC counter at BD Market in Salt Lake.

[Hemadri]

A few amendments to the direction for Garpanchakote from Kolkata. Returned after a stay at the WBFDC resort on 3.4.14

The toll booth that is referred to is not in use and owing to the golden quad project the direction need to be amended somewhat.

This starts on NH2 after you reach the abandoned toll plaza.

NH2 Abandoned toll booth straight to Asansol Chowringhee crossing 7.2 Km
Turn left at crossing go straight to Niyamatpur crossing.
You will go under railway overpass after 2.1 Km. Niyamatpur crossing is 0.5 Km after that.
At Niyamatpur crossing turn left proceed straight then turn right after 0.4 Km
Proceed staright you will pass through congested Lithuria bazaar road cross old GT road after 0.9 Km then pass Disergarh PO after 5.7 Km
Then from Mid Bridge crossing Damodar straight to Sarbari more 4.4 Km
Turn right at Sarbari more then staright to Puapara crossing 5.7 Km. You will cross a disused railway track after 2.8 Km
Puapara more turn left for WBDFC resort.
Go straight pass Panchet Residency to left after 0.7 Km
On to WBDFC after 0.8 Km turn into driveway on left.
If you go straight to the right after 100 m or so is the budget Polash bithi Eco resort.

Roads are good all the way and also to the sight seeing spots around the resort. Some gentle off roading if you want to visit the deeper sections of the Gar ruins. Other wise even a Maruti 800 would do the trip with ease.

[Sommos]

Thanks Anirban for sharing all the information.

During my childhood days (at Durgapur) I have been to Panchet and Maithon on several occasions mainly for picnic, but I never knew about this location or the resort.

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by Hemadri

Roads are good all the way and also to the sight seeing spots around the resort. Some gentle off roading if you want to visit the deeper sections of the Gar ruins. Other wise even a Maruti 800 would do the trip with ease.

Hi,
Just to narrate a funny incident, I remember that a couple of years earlier I once saw this board somewhere near the Garpanchkot hill, by the side of a narrow road. The board said that there was some form of danger there and I went out to investigate what is this danger all about.

Only after I have driven some two hundred meters or so on that road I had to turn back hastily, because of extremely bad road. May be next time I shall drive a 4WD/AWD there and shall find out myself the reason behind such a danger.

[Hemadri]

I am sure many of the roads going into the hills are 4WD territory, however the road that leads to the Gar ruins are easily motorable. We were on a K 10 Alto and ventured deeper leaving the ruins behind, on roads that could be tackled by our small vehicle. Yes the roads were definitely off road but not very bad. We had to turn back after about 30 minutes because it was getting dark and the area was totally unknown to us.

We most probably missed the marker, asking motorists not to venture after 7pm. If we had seen it we would have turned back immediately!!!

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

May be next time I shall drive a 4WD/AWD there and shall find out myself the reason behind such a danger.

Possibly leopards. Also some venomous snakes that get active after sun down.