Punjab to Hyderabad: Exploring the Kota-Bhopal Route

After Bhopal, road conditions worsen for a bit. There is a stretch of around 10-12 km which is under construction and even after that road quality is sub par with potholes.

BHPian rohitsharma359 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I travelled back from Punjab to Hyderabad this weekend. This time instead of taking the regular Hyd-Nagpur-Sagar-Jhansi-Agra-Del-Pb route I opted for the route via Kota and Bhopal.

Reason - I have already travelled 5-6 times on the regular route and a month back had horrible experience with bad roads and traffic. Therefore, thought of trying the alternative route.

Route update

Day 1

We started from Mansa (Pb.) at 4:40 in the morning and reached our stay at Sahrawada (after crossing Kota) at 5:00 PM.

Whole journey was smooth. Took Western Peripheral Expy and then Del-Mum Expressway. Instead of coming all the way to Sawai Madhopur, took exit at Lalsot and then proceeded till Kothun. From Kothun to Kota is again smooth sailing with 4 lanes roads and less traffic. This was done to avoid going through 2 lane roads and navigating through villages. Till the time Del-Mum highway is opened till Kota, I believe this is the best route to be taken.

After crossing Kota, encountered little bit traffic around Mukundara Hills.

Total distance covered by 890 Km and total driving time was around 10 hours. This should give a fair idea about the road conditions.

Day 2
From Sahrawada we started at 4:20 AM and was at Biora at 6:30 AM. Initial road is 4 lane but then it becomes 2 lane, however the road conditions are decent. I would suggest to cover this distance in either early morning or late night to avoid traffic.

Afterwards, reached Bhopal around 8 AM, had breakfast there in the city itself.

After Bhopal, road conditions worsen for a bit. There is a stretch of around 10-12 Kms which is under construction and even after that road quality is sub par with potholes. This goes around for 100 or so Kms I think. After that road becomes really good and you can cover the remaining distance quickly. We reached our hotel at Nagpur at 2:00 PM.

Thought of driving straight to Hyd, but with a pet dog along us decided to take rest.

Total distance covered was 640 KMs and total drive time would be around 8:30 hours.

Day 3

Nagpur to Hyderabad

I don’t think I have anything more to add here. This section has already been discussed in length.

We started around 4:30 and was at home in Gachibowli by 12:30

Total time travelled on the regular route (Sagar-Jhansi) including all the breaks was 36 hours while going and while coming back through this route it took as 30.5 hours. Considering the total distance travelled is even more in the Kota-Bhopal route, this route would be my go to route for time being till the roads are sorted in MP.

Maybe once the Hyd-Indore Expy is completed, that would become shortest route.

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