I was able to cover 206 km on the Samruddhi Mahamarg in less than 2 hours. I think it is better built than the NE4 Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.

BHPian abhishekjoshi84 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Did the planned route on Friday. It was exactly a 15-hour drive, including 5-8 minute breaks every 2 hours.

Hyderabad (Kondapur) - NH161 - Nanded - Washim:

Completed about 394 KMs to a petrol pump before Malegaon Jahangir in about 5h 10m. The NH161 new stretch till MH-TS border is built really well and is mostly partial access-controlled. One can easily maintain speeds of 90-100 safely in the early morning hours. It does not pass through populated areas and all town passings are either via flyovers or bypasses. There are a couple of active speed cameras.

Degloor to Nanded is a mix of 2 lane with good surface but bad road leveling and a stretch of good (but old) 4 lane with speed breakers every 2-3 kms around village bus stops. One can maintain speeds of 40-50 on 2 lane stretch and 60-80 on 4 lane stretch. Nanded till Samruddhi Mahamarg is new 4 lane without many speed breakers, and 80-90 isa  comfortable speed in this stretch.

Samruddhi Mahamarg

I got on the expressway from Malegaon Jahangir and exited via exit 17 after Aurangabad to take the NH52 towards Dhule. Kept the car on cruise control at 117 for almost the entire stretch and needed to brake only a couple of times over the entire 206 kms. Was able to complete it in less than 1h 50 minutes. This expressway, in my experience, is better built than the NE4 Delhi-Mumbai expressway, with all the approach slabs on culverts/bridges fixed and no sudden jumps in road level. There was one accident on the other direction lanes at one place. Didn't want to stop on the expressway so not sure how serious it was.

Aurangabad - Kannad - Chalisgaon - Dhule:

Another good 4 lane. Was able to maintain 80-90 most of the stretch till a few kms from Dhule.

Till Dhule, I was doing good speeds and crossed Dhule around 2.10 PM.

Dhule - Sendhwa - Indore - Ujjain:

Truck traffic increased significantly as soon as I took a right to join the Agra-Bombay Highway on the outskirts of Dhule.

High traffic persisted throughout the route from Dhule until I crossed Indore to take the Kshipra-Ujjain bypass. Roads are mostly good 4 lanes, but one can drive mostly at 70-80 speeds with frequent braking because of heavy traffic. There are a few ghat sections (Khalghat, Ganpati Ghat etc.), which, although mostly straightened out, still slow the traffic down significantly because of struggling trucks.

One suggestion for anyone driving this route, for Ganpati Ghat, going from Sendhwa towards Indore, you can go on the wrong side of the 4 lane, as there is a new separate road for traffic coming from the Indore side. I did not realise it and continued on the left 2 lanes, getting stuck behind trucks while most cars crossed over to the right 2 lanes and would have saved significant time here.

Indore bypass has a couple of flyover works going on, traffic is high but mostly moving until one reaches before Kshipra village on Dewas road, where lanes were closed and I spent close to 20+ minutes crossing 1.5 kms.

Overall, smooth sailing for the first 750 kms till Dhule and then slower speeds for 320 kms from Dhule till Ujjain. Did make the journey in planned 15 hours, however, heavy traffic on the last stretch was also tiring for sure. Would I take the same route again? Not 100 % sure. However, the journey back is a different deal.

I have not decided yet which route I will take while going back. The Nagpur route overall will be more peaceful. However, I feel like the same Indore Dhule Aurangabad route might be somewhat better while going back, as I will be crossing Indore before 6 AM and traffic would be less.

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I write a mini travelogue soon although I am very poor at it. Anyways , it was long overdue posting here an update on the route taken from Mumbai to Tadoba and back and ofcourse the fantastic experience on Samruddhi Mahamarg.

BHPian vivek95 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Hello everyone. I did a Mumbai--Tadoba--Mumbai drive in the last week of February i. e 23rd Feb to 26th Feb 2025. It was a last minute plan and just 2 days prior, I had booked online for an evening Safari on 24th Feb 2025 (2pm to 6pm ) at Palasgaon entry gate that falls under Kolara buffer zone in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger reserve ( TATR ),Chandrapur district, Maharashtra. Tadoba forest or Tadoba--Andhari Vyaghra Prakalp was super fantastic and being our first wildlife safari, me and my parents thanked God for the wonderful sightings in a less popular buffer zone. Hope I write a mini travelogue soon although I am very poor at it. Anyways , it was long overdue posting here an update on the route taken from Mumbai to Tadoba and back and ofcourse the fantastic experience on Samruddhi Mahamarg.

1. Route within Mumbai metropolis --> Navi Mumbai - Thane - Bhiwandi :- Thane -- Bhiwandi is under widening to 12 lanes but road conditions were fairly okay as compared to last year. Few completed sections but half of the road is used for haphazard parking by trucks. Extremely heavy traffic even at midnight. Took 2 hours 45 mins from Navi Mumbai (Ulwe) to Bhiwandi.

2. Bhiwandi to Igatpuri ( Mumbai -- Nasik NH3) :- Has been resurfaced at some places. Overall it was decent, no potholes anywhere.

3. Samruddhi Mahamarg ( Igatpuri interchange to Nagpur end point ) :- 625 kms of pure bliss !! Had it not been for this Expressway, I would have never thought of doing Mumbai to Tadoba and back in 4 days with 2 overnight stays in between. This expressway is truly a game changer as repeatedly pointed out on this thread. This was my 3rd drive on Samruddhi Mahamarg - first one being in Jan 2023. End to end the expressway is awesome, not so smooth how Mumbai--Pune expressway was when it had newly opened in 2002, but Samruddhi Mahamarg is excellent too. There are now a good number of fuel stations ( mostly HP ) with attached small food joints and washrooms but they are not hygienic barring one or two. I am not sure if anytime sooner, larger and grand Food malls would come up on this Expressway like the ones we have on Mumbai--Pune expressway. Igatpuri--Sinnar--Shirdi--Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar--Jalna is the most scenic stretch. Mumbai--Igatpuri the final stretch would be surely scenic, eagerly waiting for its inauguration.

4. Nagpur--Jamb--Warora :(100 kms ) - Good 4 laned highway, some flyovers had freshly laid tarmac. Flyover at Butibori in Nagpur is closed for repairs, so there was heavy traffic on the service roads. Nagpur--Jamb is part of NH7 while further on its another decent 4 lane road that continues till Chandrapur.

5. Warora--Chimur (52 kms ) is a brand new 2 laned concrete road. One small patch is yet to be done, otherwise it is awesome.

6.Chimur--Palasgaon Safari gate (21 kms) :- Nice single lane forest road with very good surface.

7. Palasgaon--Chimur--Warora (63 kms ):- As described above

8. Warora -- Chandrapur (46 kms) :- Good 4 lane road.

9. Chandrapur--Moharli gate--Mudholi--Ghosri--Karegaon--Shegaon BK--Warora (78 kms ):- Lovely forest roads single lane good surface for most part except 5 kms of non-existent road in between ( is under construction ).

10. Warora--Jamb--Kandhali exit point (57 kms ):- Nice 4 laned road as described earlier

11. Kandhali village to Samruddhi Mahamarg entry at Sindi dry port Interchange (16 kms ) :- Brand new cement road 2 laned which has a total of about 5 kms road under construction but rest is fully done up.

12. Samruddhi Mahamarg on the way back to Mumbai :- Return was an all night drive and the night experience is another level - super safe, what reflectors, lane markings, well lit exits, interchanges !! I had said this earlier that one needs to drive both day and night on this Expressway to understand how truly world class it is ! I was covering 95 km per hour at night without having to worry one bit and mind you this is a consistent experience for the entire whopping 625 kms !!

To summarise, Mumbai--Samruddhi Mahamarg till Sindi dry port interchange--Kandhali village--Jamb--Warora is the current best route for Tadoba--Andhari Tiger reserve (TATR). From Warora onwards it depends on your entry gate. For the flagship Moharli gate, drive all the way to Chandrapur city and then head to Moharli gate. And yes, this ~850 kms can be comfortably done in 12-13 hours, all thanks to Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg.

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The roads were dead empty with very few cars, pickup trucks and 1-2 trucks here and there. The roads had diversions and there are manual boards with radiums which tell you when to cross over to the other side

BHPian humyum recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

So here is my update which all of you will love with a caveat. Do this only if you are comfortable trying something new which will be empty most of your way and at your own risk.

We went to Nashik this time since mom's chemos are on and we tried via the Samruddhi Mahamarg from Amne Interchange near Shangrila till before the Kasara Ghats start. People on the road told us that they do not allow people to travel on the Igatpuri tunnel at night and during the day too they sometimes allow and sometimes not, since we were travelling in the dark, did not want to take this chance.

I had seen a video by a Youtuber in which he had mentioned exactly the route to take to join the Samruddhi Mahamarg and from where to exit near Kasara.

Here is the video to be exact.

--> https://youtu.be/wangq2DzNwE?si=XMnqv2zpIA3qH3tp

We took a U turn ahead of the Amne Interchange which if you were coming from Nashik, you would join the Samruddhi Mahamarg for a brief moment take U and join back towards Bhiwandi, there you are supposed to take a left turn towards Samruddhi, we went ahead and took it. After a few diversions, we started towards Kasara. The roads were dead empty with very few cars, pickup trucks and 1-2 trucks here and there. The roads had diversions and there are manual boards with radiums which tell you when to cross over to the other side. On-coming traffic will be also driving on your side, so be careful. The road surface is quite bumpy and I can't imagine myself doing continuous 120 here but its way smoother than the Mumbai-Pune expressway, we were in our Crysta

We reached Kasara left turn which is an off road route which is quite bad for 500-600 meters which then takes you out on the normal highway from the backroad of a Dhaba called Mishra Dhaba, on the road towards Mumbai. This turn to exit Samruddhi at Kasara comes a few hundred meters after the 3rd tunnel. After you get on the old Nashik Highway, you have to go ahead for 1 km before taking a U turn and join back towards Nashik on the Normal Highway. The Kasara Ghats towards Nashik are newly laid and you will not find a single pothole on the entire ghat section. Amazing.

Took us 3 hours to reach Nashik on a Sunday, left at 6 o clock from Ghatkopar and reached Nashik at 9 o clock.

We took the same road via Samruddhi too from the same point we exited it and landed up near Shangrila in like 35-40 minutes from Kasara. Google Maps thinks you are driving on a dark land and constantly tries to re-route.

Both the trips happened in the night as we were Mumbai in the evening and left Nashik in the evening too while coming back, but in hindsight, I would not do this road in the night in the current not-opened state as there are diversions which if not careful can catch you off guard. The tunnels have barricades which with radium boards which you have to zig-zag through. Also, on-coming tarffic for most of this road is on your side, but should not be a problem during the day.

As of yesterday, few people use this route with villagers using their bikes and scooters to travel upto some points in between. If your car breaks down here, there is no help at all, so keep that in mind.

All in all, a good adventure if you ask me.

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Engineering marvel and can get you to Nagpur and from Nagpur in little time.

BHPian ambivalent_98 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Just drove on Samruddhi Mahamarg last week -

Pros-
1) Engineering marvel and can get you to Nagpur and from Nagpur in little time.
2) Amazing sights along the way.
3) Effective stray cattle protection and holding well so far. Didn't see a single dead dog or other roadkill.

Cons -
1) Surface at places does pose a challenge to tyres. At higher speeds it takes quite a toll on the tyres.
2) Lots of tyre fragments lying all along the highway as re-tread truck tyres peel off.
3) Zero Safety Patrol vehicles of any type.
4) LArge patches of road without mobile connectivity.
5) Emptiness of road and generally just sitting idle controlling the steering wheel makes the mind wander and makes one feels drowsy / sleepy.
6) Very few fuel stops on the way and very very poor cafeteria / eateries enroute. No branded chain restaurants at all. They will see a decent traffic considering the number of users on the E-way.
7) New drivers with newer cars tend to drive fast causing tyres bursts or punctures. Saw lots of those enroute.
8) Poor driving etiquette causes lots of incidents and the higher the speed the more severe it gets.

For first time travellers -
1) Drive slowly and less than or equal to 100 kph if your car goes that far , but this is a safe speed and it is not a race track.
2) Carry plenty of food and water as the food facilities are pathetic.
3) Make it a point to pause for a few minutes after an hour of driving. This has to be done as there is nothing else to keep your mind distracted. Not a single advertisement board of any sort.
4) Keep spare tyre prepped and ready in case you encounter a puncture.
5) Finally, tank up before you get on the E-way as you will end up on a sticky situation since petrol stations are places approx 100 kms apart.
Good luck and have a safe drive.

Here's what BHPian somersault had to add to the conversation:

Drove on the Samruddhi Highway on 7th from Mumbai to Nagpur and on 10th from Nagpur to Mumbai. My observations of the highway.

Good things -
1. Reduces the time considerably. Straight line drive. So lesser fatigue to the mind to check for other vehicles.
2. Can drive with Cruise control for the complete journey. I used cruise with 118 KMPH setting.
3. Road surface is generally good. Tires need to be big and with high ratings to drive safely.

Things to watch -
1. Road kills at night and the dead animals on the road
2. Highway Hypnosis. Specially with cruise control. Take a compulsory break every 2 hours to reduce fatigue.
3. Risky for single person journey from the point of highway fatigue.
4. Saw many vehicles with punctures and people replacing tires on the shoulder. This is definitely a tire maintenance issue.

Things to consider for planning -
1. Plan the petrol pumps visits. Make the tank full at Padgha or Igatpuri when driving from Mumbai to Nagpur. Make another tank full at around Jalna and then another one around Buti Bori. For return, full tank at Sindi next to Nagpur then around Aurangabad area and then in Kasara / Shahapur.
2. No proper food malls but now small BP or IOC branded snacks/chai shops are coming up at the petrol pumps. You can get Misal Pav, Pav bhaji, lassi, chaas etc at those places.
3. At 3 petrol pumps air compressors were not working. Please carry your own portable air compressor. Since the network on the highway is limited, carry your own air inflator for tubeless tires.
4. Google maps behaves erratically due to network issues. It is best to download map before the start of the journey.

Notes -
Saw just one accident on the way. Otherwise safe and peaceful journey. Saw couple of police vans at the medians with speed guns measuring speeds.

Summary - Overall a great way to travel if your car and tires can support.

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Some construction is still happening between Bhandara and Bhilai which slows one down considerably due to bad condition of the diverted roads.

BHPian streetfighter recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I did another trip (third trip from Mumbai to Odisha) from 7th to 18th Dec 2024 with family in my C5 Aircross. Overall, the drive was a pleasant experience as most of the road constructions, especially around Raipur city, are completed. Some construction is still happening between Bhandara and Bhilai which slows one down considerably due to bad condition of the diverted roads. Inside Odisha, the Sambalpur to Angul stretch road-work has also been mostly completed, which makes journey smooth.

Day 1: Mumbai to Bhandara - 820 kms, approx 12 hours

On the Samruddhi Expressway

Halted here in the evening for a break, at Haldirams Bhandara. Checked the hotel above and found it to be decent, so stayed here for the night.

Day2: Bhandara to Angul - 650 kms - 13 hrs

Singhoda Temple. During the drive, I do take small stops in between just to stretch, snack and click pictures.

River Mahanadi

The secret admirer

In my earlier post I had mentioned about Odisha's own coffee variant, the Koraput Coffee, named after the place it comes from. During my visits, I make it a point to get my quota

Another noteworthy place I visited was the "Mission Shakti Bazar. This is an initiative by the Govt of Odisha to empower women and encourage the sale of local produces, art and culture. They have a great collection from foodgrains, to spices, coffee, honey, handmade soaps, art and handicrafts, clothes and many more. Must visit if you are in Bhubaneswar.

I also visited the Dhauli Shanti Stupa

Visit to Sun Temple Konark

Visit to nearby Chandrabhaga Beach

The Jagannath Temple, Puri. The authorities have made great efforts and beautified the temple corridor with excellent facilities. But once inside the temple, it is utter chaos with crowd not managed well. Once inside the temple for darshan, it is a mad rush with absolutely no rules or queue. I hope the temple administration will do something about this to prevent a stampede like situation.

Nandankanan Zoo, Bhubaneswar. They have a good collection of animals, birds and reptiles, do visit if you have kids.

Parting shot from the return journey.

While entering the Samruddhi Expressway, I was flagged down by some traffic policemen. They did the customary driving licence and RC check (I guess they were also checking if I had any traffic fines pending on me). The policemen than asked if I had Nitrogen filled in the tyres, I answered in the negative. He suggested I should use Nitrogen for better safety. Then he suggested I drive within speed limit, take small breaks every 100-150 kms and that there are fuel stations on the way. This was a good advice and good initiative.

See ya all again in the next trip

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Instead of speeding on this otherwise beautiful road, enjoy the road and scenary around and make an enjoyable drive without getting fatigue and getting sleepy.

BHPian parsh recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Just drove back from Nagpur to Mumai via Pune on Sat 30 November 2024.

Started 6:30 AM from Nagpur home.
Reached Pune home around 4:30 PM.
Reached Mumbai home around 8:30 PM.

Total of 870 kms travel in 14 hours with about 2 hours for breaks in between.

Pune Expressway was like all of Pune was driving to Mumbai. But traffic was consistent and very less of speeding except for a few Beemers, Mercs and some other cars. Good to see the effect of the Speed Cam framework placed across the width of the road along the whole length.

Decent Fuel Pumps have started by now on either side but check locations and plan filling as per your travel. I generally plan IOC pumps and they are now enough on both sides.

There are small food joints at Fuel Pumps, like Maha Chai and some others serving Samosas, wada paav, maggies, Idli/Dosa, Pizza etc. We had Fuel fill and tummy fill with Samosas at Waifal IOC immediately after Waifal Samruddhi Entry Toll from Nagpur.

Lunched late at Aakash Misal House at RajguruNagar around 3 PM. Didn't appreciate much the taste this time. I would vouch for Sadhana Misal at Nashik much better than this both for ambience and taste. However, if on this stretch, this is one of best places for food stop not just for misal, but you get all other food.

The Samruddhi road quality is deteriorating from the early days when first section to Shirdi was started. There are various uneven patches, bridge patches uneven, bridge joiners being re-reparied and a few big concrete patches being repaired and having small diversions.

The Places and Directions board frames across width of the road have been put up at numerous places. These frames are build to host Speed Cameras. Some frames have been installed with Speed Cameras from Nagpur side. Rest of the Speed Cam installation work is in progress. There are also a few Speed Cam Flashers on the central dividers on singular poles.

Instead of speeding on this otherwise beautiful road, enjoy the road and scenary around and make an enjoyable drive without getting fatigue and getting sleepy. Even at 120 kph max limit, you can easily do decent distances in decent timelines and keep safe as well.

Just some additional info if not known about Shirdi Darshan on way.
The facility I am telling is operating since long but quite a few people do not know as I found out.
While going from Mumbai-Pune-Nagpur we took stop at Shirdi.
If you are accompanied by senior citizen or differently abled person or even normally abled person with temporary disablement, you can directly head to Gate No 3.
Drive though the small lane going towards Gate No 3 Parking marked on GMaps and park there with nominal charges of Rs 50. Don't get caught by the shop agents there who will fool you to get prasad from them and parking will be free.

Get to Gate No. 3 security at about 100 meters and ask for a Wheelchair.
Deposit 1 Aadhar/ID card there. Take wheelchair and wheel your person to Gate No 3 and get direct entry at the foot of Sai Baba in middle lane through ramps.
1 Person is allowed free as an accompaniment to the person being wheeled. You do have to wheel your own person. Even without a Wheelchair, a senior citizen with 1 accompaniment will be directly allowed this VVVIP route.

We parked at 10:45 AM and were out by 11:15 AM after Darshan.

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Google maps behaves erratically due to network issues. It is best to download map before the start of the journey.

BHPian somersault recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Drove on the Samruddhi Highway on 7th from Mumbai to Nagpur and on 10th from Nagpur to Mumbai. My observations of the highway.

Good things -
1. Reduces the time considerably. Straight line drive. So lesser fatigue to the mind to check for other vehicles.
2. Can drive with Cruise control for the complete journey. I used cruise with 118 KMPL setting.
3. Road surface is generally good. Tires need to be big and with high ratings to drive safely.

Things to watch -
1. Road kills at night and the dead animals on the road
2. Highway Hypnosis. Specially with cruise control. Take a compulsory break every 2 hours to reduce fatigue.
3. Risky for single person journey from the point of highway fatigue.
4. Saw many vehicles with punctures and people replacing tires on the shoulder. This is definitely a tire maintenance issue.

Things to consider for planning -
1. Plan the petrol pumps visits. Make the tank full at Padgha or Igatpuri when driving from Mumbai to Nagpur. Make another tank full at around Jalna and then another one around Buti Bori. For return, full tank at Sindi next to Nagpur then around Aurangabad area and then in Kasara / Shahapur.
2. No proper food malls but now small BP or IOC branded snacks/chai shops are coming up at the petrol pumps. You can get Misal Pav, Pav bhaji, lassi, chaas etc at those places.
3. At 3 petrol pumps air compressors were not working. Please carry your own portable air compressor. Since the network on the highway is limited, carry your own air inflator for tubeless tires.
4. Google maps behaves erratically due to network issues. It is best to download map before the start of the journey.

Notes -
Saw just one accident on the way. Otherwise safe and peaceful journey. Saw couple of police vans at the medians with speed guns measuring speeds.

Summary - Overall a great way to travel if your car and tires can support.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

The speed limit for cars on the Samruddhi Mahamarg is 120 km/h and it is possible to maintain the same comfortably.

BHPian Mgdoodler recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Blue Rocket had plans for 2023, which 2023 decided were not to come to fruition. On charts was to travel to Khar Dung La and Kanyakumari sometime between June and Sept 2023 but due to some personal circumstances all long-distance plans were abandoned. Or so we thought.

Thanks to my cousin, who was marrying the love of his life in her city in Dec 2023. Invitations were issued and the plan initially was to make a quick visit to Kolkata for a couple of days for the event itself which then turned into a week’s solo drive to Kolkata and back… and in the end, turned into a 15-day holiday with Blue Rocket travelling through 6 states and the rest of my family flew to Kolkata for wedding festivities.

As per my usual practise Blue Rocket was serviced and a checkup done 15 days before my travel and I drove it for a couple of short excursions around Mumbai.

Plan was to take the Mumbai – Nagpur – Sambhalpur – Keonjhar – Kolkata route through central India while going and return via Konark - Vishakhapatnam - Chhattisgarh - Hyderabad - Mumbai. This was my first time driving any of these routes and my first time meeting the Bay of Bengal. As with most of my long-distance drives, this was just Blue and me all the way. FYI Blue Rocket is a petrol, manual i-turbo Altroz.

Day 1- 1/12/2023 Friday

This was a day I was looking forward to the most, the opportunity to drive on the Samruddhi Mahamarg. I have already driven on the Trans Haryana and enjoyed it and was looking forward to a similar experience.

Left home at 6:45 am - much later than the planned 5:30 am, but I was ok with it as there was a mild fog and starting later allowed better visibility. Travelled across Mumbai via the SCLR and eastern express highway leaving the city behind at Thane, but not the traffic, roads were jammed due to diversions and the first couple of hours were tedious. First stop was to fill fuel at Padgha. Tank filled and the drive started towards Kasara ghat which I would be driving on for the first time and it was a good drive. Stopped for a quick breakfast at 10:30 at a restaurant after Ghoti Bhudruk at 150 kms from Mumbai and 7 kms before Bharvir entry into the Mahamarg.

The mahamarg is wide, well planned and mostly a comfortable drive. Speed Limit for cars is 120 Kmph and it is possible to maintain the same comfortably. Heavy vehicles are few and keep to the middle and left lane. It was a pleasure to drive on this route. I stopped at approximately halfway at around 3 pm for a fuel refill and bio break. I also stopped at about 1.5hrs of driving on the mahamarg for a quick photo session with Blue being the model. As you can see the weather was lovely with blue skies and fluffy white clouds – a perfect winter day for a drive and the road is practically empty.

Road surface could be better and more functional rest stops are required. Hopefully, these requirements will be fulfilled soon.

It was later in the day after 4:30 pm and as we neared Nagpur, I encountered some truck traffic in the fast/overtake lane and middle lane at the same time blocking the road. But it was not for long.

Crossed Waifal toll naka at 5:30 PM, having covered 600 kms in approx. 6 hours with a 20 min break.

Winter and travel towards the east meant that the sun set earlier and it was already dark as we exited the Expressway and made our way to the night stay – Hotel Pride near the airport metro.

Reached and checked in at 6:30 pm. Covering 814 kms in little less than 12 hours.

The day had not ended though. After a quick catch-up with work, I headed towards the nearest Haldirams at Ajni Square. Travelled by metro for 4 stops and exited just outside Haldirams. My last meal had been a protein bar along with a yoghurt smoothie at 3 pm and now I feasted on Dahi Puri and hot Rajma Chawal.

Dinner done I took the metro back to my hotel and turned in for an early night.

Continue reading about Mgdoodler's road trip for BHPian comments, insights and more information.

The road was noisy and the expansion joints were bumpy. I was doing 100 km/h as anything above was making me very uncomfortable.

BHPian HighRevving recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The car is now a little over 2 years old and clocked 42,000+ KMs. The last service due was just before 40,000 KMs, so it got covered in the BSI+ package that was valid for 3yrs/40,000 KMs.

Navnit is now KUN, but for all practical purposes, the SA and the team remain the same. When the car had run 39,500+ KMs, the service was due in about 800 KMs. Thankfully, KUN did not create any fuss by adding the due mileage to my odo and claiming that the service is actually due at 40,300 KMs (for example) and not before 40,000 KMs. That saved me some money and created a lot of goodwill for the folks at KUN.

In the meanwhile, I had the stock wheels on the car, which I had left in storage for some time, as I waited for BBS to supply two wheels. The ETA for the wheels was 120 - 150 days and I was not letting the car sit idle for so long, especially when I had the stock wheels with me.

One of the drives that we did was with a couple of vRS-es and the car looks quite Plain Jane.

Some drone shots from the drive:

In the meanwhile, I got my BBS wheels and had them installed before the Team-BHP drive, which I only joined for the onward drive. The pictures of which, have been shared by Dr. AD in that meet-up thread.

Samruddhi Mahamarg:

Over the long weekend of Gandhi Jayanthi, we decided to take one of the vRS-es and my car to Samruddhi Mahamarg. We were running a tight schedule but I decided to start a day earlier and reach Aurangabad on Friday. The car was doing well and it started looking like I always intended it to, with the BBS wheels. Reached Aurangabad in the evening, it was all good.

The next day was a rest day for me and by evening, the vRS had joined in.

Saturday morning, we left for Shiradi and started the full stretch of Samruddhi Mahamarg drive. The expressway surface is quite average, considering that it is white-topped. I was doing very average speeds of about 100KM/hr as anything above was making me very uncomfortable. The road was noisy, the expansion joints bumpy. In one of the expansion joints, however, the most unpredictable of punctures happened.

Exited to the nearest town and found a puncture shop. As usual, he could not separate the tyre from the wheel without the right equipment, so he had to plug in a couple of puncture strips.

Again, this is another example of how you cannot be overly careful with your wheels and tyres after a particular size, especially with RFTs.

Returned to Bangalore, only to replace the tyre with a new one.

I am leaving you with some pictures from the Samruddhi drive.

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Once the team reached there, they assured us of complete safety and I must say they were extremely polite people

BHPian nexus recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Sharing an incident which I think is important for everyone to be aware of. This post is on behalf of my BIL and written by him. Posting it as is without any edits.

Following is the post:

This is an awareness post considering whatever we experienced recently.

• Date: Wednesday 25th October, 2023 , evening 6.30 pm.
• Location: Samruddhi Highway, 20 km before Jalna while coming towards Pune.

Incident: While driving down a slope in a particular patch, we suddenly encountered a group of 7-8 animals supposedly dogs, (however after some thoughts later we suspect those were foxes), barely 50 meters ahead of us. They were totally stationary and did not move an inch as they covered up almost 2 lanes on the right. Since it was a bit of a descending slope, we did not have normal visibility of what was in front of us I had barely 2 seconds to react and the only option I had was to neither move left nor right abruptly, but to just go straight and unfortunately I had to run over 1 of them. Applying brakes the hard way could have caused some other untoward incident which is better not to mention.

This caused quite an impactful noise and we carried on for a few meters completely in shock. As we just started to think about what just happened, we heard a sound coming from the front side of our car and some red indicator blinking on the panel. We then stopped to check what it was. As we stopped aside, we saw the front side bumper was heavily damaged and it was hanging around and had touched the ground. We saw water leaking away from the coolant and spilt on the road. This was a bit of a scary situation and just to be safe, we all moved away from the car up to a few meters. After a few minutes, as we started to regain our senses, we slowly walked towards the car and started to think about what to do next to come out of this situation. It had turned completely dark by this time and it was almost a jungle-like spot. However, we decided to stay calm and called up the Samruddhi Highway helpline control room and they responded quickly and the patrolling team reached the spot in about 20 minutes.

Once the team reached there, they assured us of complete safety and I must say they were extremely polite people which automatically calmed us down. They had certain contacts of nearby mechanics who they said were ready to help with the repair works at any odd hour and that too on the spot if the conditions permitted.

The mechanic guys came later after about 45 minutes, checked the condition of the car and assured us that they would fix it on the spot. It was detected that the radiator to which the coolant water flows had been severely damaged and it was beyond repair. The only option to get out of there was to replace it with a new one. Once this issue was identified, they went back to the nearby Jalna city to get the material and it understandably took about 90 minutes for them to come back to the spot.

But not to worry, as all this while, the highway patrolling vehicle stood firmly behind us till the end. I must say hats off to them, the way they work and the way they stand behind you and especially when they see families, they never leave them alone. These are the real heroes.

Finally, after a long wait of almost 6 hours, half past midnight, the issue was resolved on the spot and we took off and having faced all this trouble, we decided to stay overnight at a hotel in Jalna and then came back from there after starting afresh the next morning.

Awareness: Whoever drives on this highway is advised to watch out for animals especially between Jalna and Mehkar as this is the patch where incidents and even major fatal incidents have occurred due to animals coming in between as mentioned to me by the patrolling guys. Apart from this, as most of us might know, have the tires in good condition and stay alert while driving on this highway. Yes, this highway is certainly a wonder but one only has to be in the right frame of mind and nothing more.

Below is the control room number for Samruddhi Highway and I would suggest keeping this handy in case any help is needed while on this highway: 18002332233

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