NH48 from Virar to Talasari is in bad shape. 9 hours for 200 kms.

What followed was a terrifying experience to say the least. More than 70% of the 100 Km road is under concretization. This patch is one of the heaviest in terms of truck traffic.

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I was out for a morning drive with family Mumbai to Hotel Ahura. We are fond of the morning drive, smooth drive and Bunmaska just makes it the best combination. Till now it was once a month affair for us. 

What followed was a terrifying experience to say the least. More than 70% of the 100Km road is under concretization. This patch is one of the heaviest in terms of truck traffic. 

To give you a glimpse of what went through here is the ODO reading.

200 km took us 9 hours!.

On the way realized there is traffic but not just traffic it’s a single lane left for down traffic with temporary dividers. As speed increased, I realized this isn’t safe or road worthy of driving even beyond 25kmph. I am a seasoned safe driver who rarely drives rash or speeds above 100. What scared the hell out of me were the road dividers (made from concrete square blocks and bamboo sticks). Many of these were broken and lying like broken toys on the road. By the looks of it looked like trucks would have just driven over them. And yes one of them did go under the car. I was praying and hoping none of the warning lights come up and luckily, they didn’t. Guessing the underbody cover saved the day. I am yet to take the car to the garage to check if there is any damage. We took a detour which took us additional 20km but lesser time which was through villages and road was better. 

Also see how the metal rods are just left in open of the unfinished road, if anyone had to move in towards these open rods then for sure will have totally destroyed tyre.

On the way back I was thinking if we should take a long detour and take the Nashik route. Google maps showed 2.5 hours on the way back so decided to take the same route. And my god the traffic was nothing less than driving survival video game. Of the three lanes we were in the middle lane with oncoming traffic on the other two lanes. To make things even worst some of the frustrated drivers were trying to overtake. I was Scared to the core to say the least. My nephew sitting next to me giggled and said this scene reminds him of the "India is not for beginners" meme floating around.

Then came the full halted traffic at Vasai under pass. Till now the only moving traffic was the one service road and here we were stuck for good 1 hour. I walked out to check how far are we, and found traffic cops halting traffic on purpose to clear the Vasai traffic and argued that two lanes above are meant for you guys why are you here now wait for your turn. Seems some VIP movement was also happening. There were some folks who had a flight to catch and were mostly going to miss it.

While a lot is being said and done in name of road safety but no one speaks about road safety while construction is going on.

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