[sadnabrina]

Hi all,
I am planning a drive to Vizag and back on my Polo 1.6 starting tomorrow. Planning to start very early aiming to reach Vizag by evening. Not sure if this can be done. During my last trip on this route - from Hyderabad to Kolkata via Vizag - it took me around 6 hours between Vizag and Bhubaneswar and another 6 hours to Kolkata from BBSR. That was back in 2007 and the stretch near Chilka was pretty bad. Hope some of the roads have improved now.

Any recent updates on this route from the T-BHP members would be helpful.

Will write a log after I am back.

[travelwriter]

Have a safe a great drive.
I have heard that Balasore - Bhadrak stretch is still bad. That might slow you down a bit. Otherwise, I havent heard anything awful. This, I am telling you as of September end.

[sadnabrina]

Thanks travelwriter. Looking forward to a great experience.

Originally Posted by travelwriter

Have a safe a great drive.
I have heard that Balasore - Bhadrak stretch is still bad. That might slow you down a bit. Otherwise, I havent heard anything awful. This, I am telling you as of September end.

[hvkumar]

Update on the roads from a drive 2 days ago:

Upto Baleshwar, roads are great.
But the WB-OR check post before Jaleshwar are terribly congested and witness huge traffic jams.
The 2-laned roads between Baleshwar and Bhadrak are in good condition.
South of Bhubaneswar, the roads are not great after Bhalugaon till the AP border town of Ichchapuram, but doable for any car.
Similarly, traffic jams can be expected in the OR side on the AP border.
Once you enter AP, roads are splendid.
Reaching Vizag the same day is a challenging drive which means an early morning start (by 4 am at least) and some zestful driving to reach Vizag by 9 pm.

[sadnabrina]

I am back from the trip. It was more or less a event free trip this time. Will try to write a somewhat detailed log by tomorrow.

Meanwhile here are the highlights -
1) Total distance travelled - 1819 KMs (one way was around 870 KMs)
2) Average FE - 14.5 KM/L
3) Started with a full tank - did a total of 3 refills round trip
4) No major events during the drive
5) Saw one bad accident - Dezire versus a Tractor somewhere near Sreekakulam - the tractor was split into 2 halves, Dezire was badly damaged on one of its side.
6) Averted a major one myself when a dark cow suddenly "appeared" in front of me (I was at 110 KM/H) just about 30-40 meters ahead, after dusk near Vizag. The ABS came into good use as I was able to slow down simultaneously swerving into the left lane (lucky there was no one on the left) without loss of control.
7) Kolkata to Vizag took us 14.5 hours, thanks to the dense fog in the morning till Kolaghat, an hour's diversion at the OR-AP border (due to humungous truck queue at the border) and the incomplete state of the GQ (NH 5) in Orissa.
8) Took a night's break at BBSR on our way back due to late start from Vizag. This time the total time (excluding the night halt) while returning was better at 13 hours of drive + breaks approx.

[Ram_NP]

Originally Posted by sadnabrina

an hour's diversion at the OR-AP border (due to humungous truck queue at the border)

Hi Sadnabrina,

I am also planning a trip to Vizag in the month of Feb. Will be interesting to know the detour you took in border of OR-AP.

Last October, I went to Bhubaneswar and it took me around 8 hours with one hour break in between.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Ram_NP

I am also planning a trip to Vizag in the month of Feb. Will be interesting to know the detour you took in border of OR-AP.

When you are coming from Calcutta, before reaching the check post, there is a petrol pump (IOC, I think). Near that, there is a road to the right which is the old NH60 (as marked in Google Maps today). Take that road (2 laned narrow) and it will lead you into Jaleswar town and rejoin the 4-laned "real" NH60 after the town.

Yesterday, there was no jam there in the WB-OR border checkpost.

[cityvic]

Predatorwheelz is also doing a kol-vizag trip via chandipur.

Sadnabrina pls post some pictures of the journey

[planet_rocker]

We had a mini Team BHP Meet at Chandipur, Odisa PW was to start from chandipur to Vizag the next morning.

I am sure he is having a ball of a time

@ Rohin can you upload the pic from my FB Album?

@ Anirban / PW - please upload some pictures

[sadnabrina]

@cityvic & planet_rocker - Sorry guys I don't have a single picture. Wife was not in a mood to snap and I was driving.

Originally Posted by cityvic

Predatorwheelz is also doing a kol-vizag trip via chandipur.

Sadnabrina pls post some pictures of the journey

Originally Posted by planet_rocker

We had a mini Team BHP Meet at Chandipur, Odisa PW was to start from chandipur to Vizag the next morning.

I am sure he is having a ball of a time

@ Rohin can you upload the pic from my FB Album?

@ Anirban / PW - please upload some pictures

[sadnabrina]

@hvkumar - The road you mentioned is at WB-OR border. I didn't face much traffic snarls there. The bottleneck I faced was at the OR-AP border. The detour we took was on the right just before the broder, through a narrow village road. There was a local (AP) Alto which guided us in. The road was in horribly poor state. It finally reached the Ichchapuram town and then on to a road called "Ichchapuram-NH5 Road" which took us back to the NH 5.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

When you are coming from Calcutta, before reaching the check post, there is a petrol pump (IOC, I think). Near that, there is a road to the right which is the old NH60 (as marked in Google Maps today). Take that road (2 laned narrow) and it will lead you into Jaleswar town and rejoin the 4-laned "real" NH60 after the town.

Yesterday, there was no jam there in the WB-OR border checkpost.

I was in touch with PW over phone through the journey.

Originally Posted by cityvic

Predatorwheelz is also doing a kol-vizag trip via chandipur.

Sadnabrina pls post some pictures of the journey

[planet_rocker]

Anirban - back to back posts are not allowed. Use Multi-quote instead. This will avoid mod attention

Glad that you guys had a great time take care.

[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by planet_rocker

We had a mini Team BHP Meet at Chandipur, Odisa PW was to start from chandipur to Vizag the next morning.

I am sure he is having a ball of a time

I (err, we) indeed had a ball of a time. 2300 kms over 6 days, and it included a mix of highway and hill driving. Wait for my exclusive travelogue thread.

Was great meeting planet and rocker at Chandipur.

Originally Posted by planet_rocker

@ Rohin can you upload the pic from my FB Album?

As you ordered sir, exclusively from your own Facebook album:

Originally Posted by planet_rocker

@ Anirban / PW - please upload some pictures

Don't plan to hijack Anirban's thread. My pics will come up in my own travelogue thread.

Originally Posted by sadnabrina

Wife was not in a mood to snap and I was driving.

Originally Posted by sadnabrina

I was in touch with PW over phone through the journey.

Yes we indeed were in touch. I took a lot of tips from Anirban on the night before the Chandipur-Vizag journey. Thanks a lot buddy!