[Red Panda]

Does the Kolkata to Siliguri Volvo service still operational? If so, then which route does these buses take for reaching Siliguri? Once this service was stopped.

[amyth78]

Originally Posted by Red Panda

Does the Kolkata to Siliguri Volvo service still operational? If so, then which route does these buses take for reaching Siliguri? Once this service was stopped.

Royal Cruiser (Volvo) service is operational between Kolkata - Siliguri. They take Kolkata - Krishnanagar - Moregram - Farakka - Malda - Dalkhola - Siliguri route.

Travelled in Royal Cruiser between Siliguri - Krishnanagar - Siliguri on 5th November'15 while I was back home during Diwali to attend some urgent family matter.

[AJ-got-BHP]

21.11.2015 Update :
Sharing an experience of my recent travel upto Farakka from Kolkata whereby I was travelling for business. Though I had visited other areas also in this trip of mine, but here I am stressing on a Route Option to connect to Siliguri for all fellow BHPians who frequently travel in between Kolkata and Siliguri.

Sharing a Link of the Route Traveled which might help everyone - https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Ko...78ee56!1m0!3e0

Details of the Route Traveled with some pictures for your reference :

105 Kms : Kolkata to Burdwan
Route : Via NH2
Road Condition : No questions to be asked

55 Kms : Burdwan to Jajigram (before Katwa)
Route : Burdwan Katwa Road via Balgona Via SH7 and then divert to SH14 Road Condition : Excellent
Probably Bottleneck : Crossing Burdwan City Traffic during the daytime. However, no issues if crossed early morning or later in the evenings





64 Kms : Jajigram to Kandi
Route : Turn into SH6 and drive through Ketugram. Connect back to SH7 and drive upto Kuli. Turn right into SH11 and drive upto Kandi.
Road Condition : No Potholes, only a few rough patches (nothing to worry). Overall a very comfortable drive.

24 Kms : Kandi to Khagraghat NH-34
Route : Continue straight untill you connect to NH-34 at Khagraghat (Outskirts of Behrampore)
Road Condition : Worry Worry Worry !! This stretch will take you around 30-40 Mins as most of it is broken

75 Kms : Khagraghat to Dhuliyan
Route : NH-34
Road Condition : After 5 Kms of Not so Good roads or so the road open upto the 4 Lane Behrampore -Farakka 4 Lane Highway upto the town of Dhuliyan





Met BHPian Samba at Dhuliyan as he was on his way back to Kolkata from a vacation in Darjeeling and Sikkim :


Samba informed that there is a complete bottleneck after the Ballalpur (Single) Bridge. This Iconic Bridge :



So, I enquired with my local channel partner and got to know of an inner road which connects Dhuliyan to Farakka in 17 Kms against the conventional NH-34 route which is of 29 Kms or so. Firstly I took my chances with NH-34 avoiding the inner road which goes through the villages. But, after getting stuck in the traffic for a while, managed a U-Turn and took the route as advised by my local channel partner.

6 Kms : Dhuliyan to Jigri More
Route : Drive for about 6 Kms on NH-34 4 Lane Expressway untill you find a cut to go onto the other side
Road Condition : Excellent

12 Kms : Jigri More to Farakka
Route and Road Condition : There is a cut on NH-34 and you need to cross/ cut through the road here and get into the road which is diagonally opposite to you to enter small market place. Once you cross the market, the road in well made upto Jaffer Bazaar post which the road becomes narrow and the condition of it starts to worsen as you go through the village of Beniagram. However, the road has close to no traffic so it's not an issue. On a few occasions I found a couple of local buses coming against me and had to make way for them. But that was fine.

Attaching some pictures of this drive from Jigri More to Farakka (the Inner Road) :











To avoid the usual traffic jam at this point, this route is advisable which saves time and saves kilometers too


Could not refrain myself from sharing a pic of my "Figo at Farakka" :








Note :
Also, people who are driving down from Siliguri (or from further up north) to Kolkata can stay over at Dhuliyan after crossing the traffic of Malda and Kaliachawk. This channel partner of mine has opened up a Hotel in the name of Dhuliyan Guest House which is located 100-200 Mtrs. off NH-34 on Pakur Road. You can Call on 9933103003 for bookings. It's a small place with just 7 rooms. They have their restaurant with parking facility also in their premises. Double Occupancy (AC Rooms) charges are Rs.900. Rooms have LED TVs.

[Samba]

Did a Kolkata - Siliguri run in 13 hours through Nh34. Total -618 kms.

Dankuni to Panagargh- Excellent road. To avoid traffic jam at Panagargh one can take the Panagargh bypass.

Panagargh to Moregram - Road is good to rough in few places. Road work in progress in few places. This 150kms took me 2.5 hours.

Moregram to Farakka- 90% of the road is now one way and in great condition. Its a toll road now.

Farakka to Malda- One of the most tricky stretch because of the dreaded Kaliachok traffic jam. Just before Kaliachok market one can take a detour through master para (road is super narrow) connect to Muthabari road, take right from Muthabari and connect back 5 kms before Malda. Malda bypass work is on progress but if any one want to take it, he can go through that road. Road is yet to be tarred but driving on it wont be a problem. The level crossing is unmanned.

Malda to Dalkhola - Road is one way for the first 25 kms from Malda. From then there are many diversions and ultimately one has to drive through single lane road. Road condition is 85% good with few rough patches and sudden pot holes. Traffic at Dalkhola is bad. In-case there is a long traffic jam at Dalkhola one can take a detour through the Dalkhola Bypass. Its not a bypass actually. Its a super narrow road. It goes through villages. Ask any local about the road, they will show the detour. Its not there in google maps. One has to take right turn 5kms before the Dalkhola railway crossing and this road connects Nh31 just before the Toll gate. The land mark on Nh31 is Holly cross school. This road is not advisable unless there is a very long traffic jam at Dalkhola. The level crossing is unmanned and in few places road is extremely narrow. This bypass took me 30 minutes.

Dalkhola to Siliguri - The first 30-40 kms road is okay with rough upper surface in the middle. One has to drive on extreme right or extreme left. From Islampur onwards road is excellent till Siliguri.

I had the option of taking the Deoghar-Bhagalpur road but it would have been 120+ kms more. So by the time i do that extra kilometers i could manage the same time through Nh34. I returned back through Nh34 too and the timing was similar.

[arindam_xeta]

Originally Posted by Samba

Farakka to Malda- One of the most tricky stretch because of the dreaded Kaliachok traffic jam. Just before Kaliachok market one can take a detour through master para (road is super narrow) connect to Muthabari road, take right from Muthabari and connect back 5 kms before Malda. Malda bypass work is on progress but if any one want to take it, he can go through that road. Road is yet to be tarred but driving on it wont be a problem. The level crossing is unmanned.

Crisp update Samba.

Found another smaller bypass for the unforgiving Kaliachowk, actually I did these streches along with Samba on the same day. Take Masterpara rd, then instead of taking a left turn towards Muthabari Rd, take the straight through road, left of kaliachowk police station. This road meets NH 34 at Baliadanga. It's a lonely road with level surface having decent width. From Baliadanga on, one will get few streches of 4 laned roads, thus helping in maintaining better average speed.
Only the first 1 km of masterpara road is horribly narrow, and hugely undulating, if one passes on a Sunday afternoon more chance that this road will be clearer since it passes through a bazaar.
This route to Siliguri is shorter, and doable in any small car as of this day!

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by AJ-got-BHP

21.11.2015 Update :
Sharing an experience of my recent travel upto Farakka from Kolkata whereby I was travelling for business.

Sharing a Link of the Route Traveled which might help everyone - https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Ko...78ee56!1m0!3e0

One curious question:
Any specific reason for not taking the entire SH7 till Morgram instead of deviating towards Katwa and again towards Kandi?

[AJ-got-BHP]

Originally Posted by gearhead_mait

One curious question:
Any specific reason for not taking the entire SH7 till Morgram instead of deviating towards Katwa and again towards Kandi?

As mentioned in my post, I was travelling for business and had to cover a lot of these points to visit clients/ customers. I had to stop at Burdwan, Katwa, Kandi, Behrampore, Dhuliyan & Farakka for the given reason thus chanced this route; turned out to be worth it !!

Had I been travelling from Kolkata (Point A) to Farakka (Point B), continuing on SH7 through and through would be ideal as mentioned by you.

However, deviating did not make much difference in the overall kilometers, just that the roads were better and the drive was much more comfortable indeed.

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by AJ-got-BHP

Had I been travelling from Kolkata (Point A) to Farakka (Point B), continuing on SH7 through and through would be ideal as mentioned by you.

Thanks! The reason I ask this question is that I wanted to know the current condition of SH7, specially the stretch between Narjja-Mangalkot-Debagram crossing.

Any pointers, anyone?

Note : Will post this in the correct thread as well.

[vikram31]

Guys thank you so much for the update. I am on a road trip from Mumbai-Gangtok (and for the 5 days i am staying there, I will be doing various circuits around north/east/west sikkim. I am staying in Howrah during my trip. With a 12-14 hour max driving (including lunch/bfast/tea break of short duration), do you think we can comfortably reach Siliguri in a day ?

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by vikram31

With a 12-14 hour max driving (including lunch/bfast/tea break of short duration), do you think we can comfortably reach Siliguri in a day ?

Why not? That is the standard time taken for this trip.

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by vikram31

With a 12-14 hour max driving (including lunch/bfast/tea break of short duration), do you think we can comfortably reach Siliguri in a day ?

Recently Samba has covered Kolkata-Siliguri in 13 hours. So, the answer is yes, it can be done.
But perils (or hazards) still exist in the route, which can crumple any timing.
Leave early from Kolkata.

[vikram31]

Thanks for the confirmation...i plan to leave from Howrah ~6.30 am/7 am..target silguri by 8 pm?

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by vikram31

Thanks for the confirmation...i plan to leave from Howrah ~6.30 am/7 am..target silguri by 8 pm?

Try to leave by 5 am, if possible. Target should be to cross the usually congested towns early.

[themagicclicks]

In Kaluk, Mandarin Village Resort. Came through the Asansol-Jamtara-Sarath-Deoghar-Katoria-Banka-Amarpur-Bhagalpur-Purnia-Siliguri route foe the first section, and road condition around Katoria Banka and Amarpur is pretty bad although drivable, was much better last May, after Purnia roads are good and found NH31 in better shape than in May, could drive at good speeds in the darkness to Siliguri without much pothole bumps.

To Kaluk, till Jorethand road is in as bad a condition as before, in fact road condition through and through is pretty bad that I have seen in MAy 2014, from Nayabazar locals suggested the route towards Legship and upward fork from Reshi, but took the Zoom-Soreng route, that was a very poor decision for today, traffic was tremendous all through and should have considered that, and embarrassingly ended up stalling at one of the steepest slopes and had to put stones to bail myself out, had to almost max out RPM to get moving again, this route is pretty steep and with on coming traffic is a tough 6km to do.

[Maverick14]

Hi All,

I just did a trip with 2 friends to Darjeeling and a short one to Sikkim just after Diwali. We initially planned to take the route via Burdwan and then go ahead with NH34. Just after Burdwan, we took a few wrong turns and decided to follow Google maps which took us through SH7. That was a blunder. It is a must avoid road under all circumstances. There were huge craters all the way to negotiate. There was a toppled truck on the way as well. We finally joined NH34 and took Farakka and Malda and the roads were average. A few good stretches followed by broken roads under repair. Now after reaching Raigunj, just before Dalkhola, we had 2 options: go through the Dalkhola railway crossing or take a "shortcut" as suggested by Google maps and the locals. That was another mistake, and we were back to crater land . Until we reached Islampur, were literally offroading in my Santro. We finally reached Siliguri in 16 hours time - atleast 3 hours lost in the process. However while coming back we took the Bhagalpur Dumka route. Some excellent stretches, however as luck would have it, the next day was Chhat Puja in Bihar and we had to make it through heavily crowded market places and again managed 16 hours only. Plan to take NH34 all the way next time Honestly, the state that the internal roads of Bengal are in - dont know what to say - pity, frustration or whatever. I just hope they improve.