Pune to Bangalore in my BMW 525d: Trying out the NH50 route

Overall, it was 40 km more than the usual route but we covered it in around 12 hours.

BHPian determinus recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

In the past 3 months, have taken the Bangalore-Pune-Bangalore a few times, twice in December through NH48 (Kolhapur-Hubli-Chitradurga) and back. On the 20th, last Thursday attempted via NH50 (Solapur-Bijapur-Hospete-Chitradurga), as the last drive up from Bangalore was a real pain. Till Hubli it was great, but then it became a very long tiring one. It was in a Jeep Compass.

This week's drive was in the 525d, and wanted a better-paved road given its low GC. Looked up this thread for the latest updates. Google Maps was not giving NH48 even as an option. Decided to try NH50.

We started around 4:15AM. Google said the ETA was 19:40 (imagine on Bangalore city roads at that time). We decided to avoid stops to save time.

Bijapur took about 5 hours, ETA was now 6:30. A short bio-break later, we stopped at Chitradurga for lunch around 1:30, ETA said 5:40, but we could cut it down till Neelamangala. Turned to Hebbal at Peenya around 4:15.

Overall it was 40km more than the usual route, but we covered it in ~12 hours. Roads had just 2-3 deviations (before Solapur).

NH48 was very good most of the time. The biggest problem was the lack of food places. There was nothing on the way till Chitradurga. We were trying the route the first time, hence didn't want to take any detour to explore.

But overall, this is the route to take if you need a peaceful drive.

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