[evilminstrel]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

[b][url="https://goo.gl/maps/xUy6WmMbEaWZ9Wnu8"]

BTW, what is the date of travel for your Delhi-Kolkata trip?

Tomorrow, starting as early as possible from Faridabad. And am leaving for Ranchi, my hometown! Next year in June am gonna have Kolkata trip. Am testing waters this time as for the first time am gonna drive with my family, particularly my three-year-old this long. I am curious how she reacts to daddy's usual trips to Ranchi

OTOH, I wouldn't venture into the Sultanpur-Jaunpur-Benaras section in the night, but would happily do so between Kanpur and Benaras on the NH19.

Maybe I should pass Allahabad to Varanasi section at night so that with some certainty, I don't face jams. Or maybe early morning, like starting at 5ish from Allahabad may also avoid jams. Accordingly, I need to have a halt at Allahabad so that I start early the next day and cross Varanasi before 10 AM. Does that make sense to you?

I've taken my Ciaz on the NH19, and I understand your statement about not having "the privilege of crossing dividers"!

I have travelled this route multiple times, but every time by my Linea which offers me good confidence in bad road conditions or in cases of jams when a little offroading is required. This is the first time I am taking City. City when stuck in jam, makes you helpless - no solutions and am gonna be with my family and that is making me pretty nervous about this trip.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by evilminstrel

Tomorrow, starting as early as possible from Faridabad.
... and that is making me pretty nervous about this trip.

How did the trip go? Please update.

[evilminstrel]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

How did the trip go? Please update.

Pretty nice. Took Delhi Lucknow Pratapgarh Jaunpur Varanasi route. Till Jaunpur roads are good. Post Jaunpur, to Varanasi roads are being constructed. Diversion and potholes for 40 Kms may be. Overall not bad at all.
Roads did not give me worry but the weird construction of my hotel parking did. Got two heavy underbelly blows while getting in. Parking was in basement with 45 degree steep slope. Got it (probably rear underbelly) while getting in and out.
Plus two to three underbelly scrape in my village Speed beakers. Kind of sad with this treatment of my car. I hope atleast Speed breakers would not have done much damage as car was literally creeping in effort to overcome it while getting scraped.
What harm would a speed breaker scrape would do anyways, if happened during overcoming these mindless ill designed Speed breaker?

[Sail]

Safely completed my summer trip Gurgaon-Kolkata-Gurgaon.

Every time this tour/drive teaches me something.

Last Dec-Jan, our trip was hammered by heavy truck traffic at Handia-Varanasi-DOS sector due to Kumbh Mela.

This time trip from Gurugram to Kolkata was a bliss, no issues at all, both days I achieved a record time arrival.

On the way back, noted some bad roads near Sasaram area. To my utter surprise, NH-19 East bound lane from Handia to Varanasi is closed now for the month of “Shravan” as pilgrims walking/carrying water from Allahabad to Varanasi. Both way traffic is now passing via West bound lane only. Experienced travellers of this route will know what that means. I was lucky, as departed Varanasi at 0445 in the morning and narrowly escaped with a 45 min delay only (traffic jams).

Took JEW-Palwal-NH-19-WPE route at the end, road condition not at all good from JEW to Palwal (specially in rain), will not suggest this route to anyone.

Brdgs
Sail

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by Sail

Took JEW-Palwal-NH-19-WPE route at the end, road condition not at all good from JEW to Palwal (specially in rain), will not suggest this route to anyone.

Brdgs
Sail

Just a query, why did you not take the KMP from Gurgaon to Palwal? I just did a trip to Gurgaon and took KMP both ways. The KMP is great and saves the headache of negotiating the Noida and Delhi traffic.

[Sail]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

Just a query, why did you not take the KMP from Gurgaon to Palwal?

In fact, I took KMP.
Western Peripheral Expressway is part of KMP. To & from Gurgaon, I prefer to join via Sohna, due to less distance.

Problem is in JEW – Palwal sector (poor road condition combined with local traffic).

Few months back I heard Govt is planning a connection between JEW and Eastern Peripheral Expressway. Don't know any status though. Surely that will reduce travel time a lot.


Sail.

[Spanbis]

Hi all,
Anyone on Delhi - Kolkata road trip now? How is the fog situation? Planning for 28-Dec from Delhi to Varanasi in a single day.

[BoneCollector]

Bad news for NH2 users. A pillar on a bridge over Karmasha river in Kaimur district has got damaged and traffic has been halted. Details here Link .

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

Bad news for NH2 users. A pillar on a bridge over Karmasha river in Kaimur district has got damaged and traffic has been halted. Details here Link .

Attachment 1950122

Attachment 1950123

Very important information. Thanks for sharing. This is at the UP-Bihar border, on the NH19. Closure of road for even 12 hours would lead to a massive tailback on both sides. The alternate (old highway) bridge is in decrepit condition, and trucks may not be allowed to use it. Though LMVs can get across, the truck logjam would be very likely to block access. Here's the point on GMap: https://goo.gl/maps/xsxbSew5phFLhGWs6.

Alternate routes:
1. https://goo.gl/maps/1UPunGajZPenFiw88 via Robertsganj and connecting back at Aurangabad (BR)

2. https://goo.gl/maps/U4uXt4jKNGymc5nk6 via Robertsganj, Daltonganj & Ranchi.

3. https://goo.gl/maps/iijTkxi1m5HUHK7A9 via Ghazipur & Buxar.

All 3 routes will add about 80-100 km of detour.

For those travelling directly from Delhi to Kolkata (or vice versa), it would make sense to use the YEW, ALH, NH27 & NH20 via Gorakhpur & Patna: https://goo.gl/maps/drfi1D2bMaZLHNex9. This will add about 120 km but will probably shorten driving time.

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Very important information. Thanks for sharing. This is at the UP-Bihar border, on the NH19. Closure of road for even 12 hours would lead to a massive tailback on both sides. The alternate (old highway) bridge is in decrepit condition, and trucks may not be allowed to use it. Though LMVs can get across, the truck logjam would be very likely to block access. Here's the point on GMap.

There already a huge tail back extending all the way till Mohania and Sasaram on one side and upto Mughalsarai on other.

For those travelling directly from Delhi to Kolkata (or vice versa), it would make sense to use the YEW, ALH, NH27 & NH20 via Gorakhpur & Patna. This will add about 120 km but will probably shorten driving time.

Yes. It may increase the distance but time taken should be less if there is no jam on MG Setu. Via MG Setu, one saves crossing the whole of Patna traffic. Another option would be to cross over to Patna using JP Setu.

Originally Posted by Spanbis

Hi all,
Anyone on Delhi - Kolkata road trip now? How is the fog situation? Planning for 28-Dec from Delhi to Varanasi in a single day.

Hi, saw your post just now. Have you got stuck by any chance?

[Spanbis]

Thanks SS & BoneCollector,
The above information is really, really helpful !!! .... And just in time.
While we have already started for Kolkata today (28th Dec noon) from Noida, and the whole idea was to just enjoy the drive and the cold weather, we decided to do this in 3 days instead of 2. Also, we are in no hurry to reach Kolkata this time. So we decided to go slow and take a night halt in Raibareli. (Pretty foggy here tonight).
We will start tomorrow from here (Raibareli) and will take the road to Daltonganj. Plan to halt there for the night. Not the conventional route though, but we are happy to NOT keep Sasaram on our route as we had a bitter experience this January while coming back from Kolkata. Had got stuck in a 8 hour jam just before and after Dehri-on-Sone between trucks (the date also coincided with a 'Bharat bandh' day).

Thanks again.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Spanbis

We... will take the road to Daltonganj.

Will be grateful for road updates from Robertsganj to Daltonganj and the rest of the way to Kolkata. Had travelled on that road many years ago, when there was no bridge across the Sone river, and a fair weather road existed to cross the river.

[BoneCollector]

This is the route chart as advised by the administration. I couldn't find any English news clipping.

[Vipin Kumar]

Originally Posted by Spanbis

While we have already started for Kolkata today (28th Dec noon) from Noida, and the whole idea was to just enjoy the drive and the cold weather, we decided to do this in 3 days instead of 2. Also, we are in no hurry to reach Kolkata this time. So we decided to go slow and take a night halt in Raibareli. (Pretty foggy here tonight).
We will start tomorrow from here (Raibareli) and will take the road to Daltonganj. Plan to halt there for the night.

So how was the Raibareli - Daltonganj section? Please update us. Did you join Aurangabad on NH2 after traversing through Daltonganj? Do we have good roads in these places?

[SS-Traveller]

March 1-2, 2020. A sudden decision to go to Kolkata led to my 43rd one-way trip on the NH19 in either direction. Spent a few hours planning to avoid NH19 to a large extent, routing through Lucknow - Gorakhpur - Muzaffarpur - Barauni - Bhagalpur - Dumka - Asansol - Kolkata. This was because of the multiple reports of traffic jams and roadworks in Eastern UP, Bihar and Jharkhand. Called and bothered Sheel for road updates. But GMap kept insisting that the shortest route in terms of time would be Delhi - Lucknow - Raebareli - Handia - Benaras - (continue on NH19).

Now, JKDS and his mother were travelling in their Bolero LX 4wd, and did not want to drive overnight especially through "uncharted territory" as he put it. So I decided to go with them to Kolkata for a quick surprise trip, since my wife had already gone there 10 days previously!

Left Delhi at 3 pm on 1st March, and we were passing through Lucknow at 10 pm. An hour and a couple of miserable traffic jams later, we were on our way to Raebareli. Till here, the roads were excellent.

The stretch of road connecting Raebareli to the Allahabad Bypass is not too badly surfaced, but is an undivided road where every vehicle comes equipped with only high beams without dipper switches, accompanied by an assortment of auxiliary lamps from spot lights to LED bars that are impossible to switch off at night.

115km of NH19 from Handia to Mughalsarai and almost to the UP-Bihar border was dispatched in 3 hours. About 60km of the stretch is good, the rest is through narrow diversions, often with bad surfacing. The bridge at the border is now functional, and we did not face any jams throughout this stretch.

Our next big jam was at the Sasaram toll gate, where trucks and tractor-trailers carrying sand were all over the road, with everyone trying to travel the wrong way. Half an hour and some muscling through with the Bolero saw us cross the Sone bridge, which was empty. A stop before Aurangabad at the Reliance Midway Dhaba is becoming a routine for us lately.









Between Barhi and Gobindpur in Jharkhand, new roadworks are in progress now, and the diversions are narrow with bad road surfacing. Take a look:















After Gobindpur, the run to Kolkata was quite smooth, and a quick impromptu meet with Samba and his father was very welcome.



Times recorded:
Delhi to Lucknow = 7 hours
Delhi to UP-Bihar border = 14.5 hours
Delhi to Shaktigarh = 24.5 hours

Top speed achieved = 95 kmph.