[KingCheeese]

Originally Posted by ramjiramu

Thanks, road trip was a breeze. The road condition was extremly good compared to my last drive in Nov 2020.

Eluru - Rajuhmundry stretch is a breeze now. Approx, 2 KM stretch before Godavari river crossing near Kovvur Toll Plaza is full of pot holes but don't avoid this route.

Vijaywade by-pass road is also very good now and avoids the congested Benz Circle.

Also, I was surprised to see that the speed limits in many sections of NH16 is now 100KM and hence could cover the entire distance in less than 10hrs. I started on a weekday hence traffic was very less and could drive on cruise mode most of the stretch.

Go ahead with the road trip, you will be surprised to see that most of the flyovers and overbridges are now completed and fully operational. Happy Driving

Thank you so much! You have no idea how much joy this brings me
I love driving on this stretch but the Eluru - Rajahmundry stretch was big deterrent. Now that you mentioned that it's complete along with most fly overs(assuming the ones near hanuman Junction), really looking forward to driving this time!

[1985Darkkid85]

Are roads still bad from Vijayawada’s bypass to Eluru?
Gmaps show 2.24 hours for 79 kms, which is very poor in terms of time management.

Do advise!

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by KingCheeese

Thank you so much! You have no idea how much joy this brings me

Originally Posted by 1985Darkkid85

Are roads still bad from Vijayawada’s bypass to Eluru?
Gmaps show 2.24 hours for 79 kms, which is very poor in terms of time management.

Do advise!

I travelled yesterday, the stretch between Vijayawada-Eluru continues to be worse, the quality of road surface is bad, overtakes not possible due to 2 lanes and diversion due to construction. I could hardly maintain 40kmph following trucks, the left lane is completely used by bikers, who sometimes come into the fast lane to overtake another bike.

[KingCheeese]

Originally Posted by SKC-auto

I travelled yesterday, the stretch between Vijayawada-Eluru continues to be worse, the quality of road surface is bad, overtakes not possible due to 2 lanes and diversion due to construction. I could hardly maintain 40kmph following trucks, the left lane is completely used by bikers, who sometimes come into the fast lane to overtake another bike.

Thanks for the update Skc!
Sad to see that the construction works are still not done.
How is the road from Eluru to Rajahmundry though? Had that improved?

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by KingCheeese

Thanks for the update Skc!
Sad to see that the construction works are still not done.
How is the road from Eluru to Rajahmundry though? Had that improved?

The new Gundugolanu - Kovvuru road was a very good road, this highway is a new style of 6 lane+ 4 lane service road. Once the above road ends there is huge traffic jam due to manual toll collection, after crossing toll the road is very bad until we reach the old NH16 road.

[Saft1]

Completed the drive during winter break in December. The highway from Eluru to Rajahmundry is spectacular. Great 6 lane road for most part and very light traffic. The road ends at godavari 4th bridge where you would face a bit of a traffic jam as everyone tried to squeeze into a 1.5 lane narrow bridge after going through a toll booth without Fastag. But after the joy of driving on some of the best roads on the entire Hyd-Vizag stretch, it felt like a small price to pay, though it is still a rude jolt back to reality. On another note, navigating through Vijayawada continues to be a nightmare. I took the bypass, which turned out to be a bad decision as a third of the way in, there was a diversion set up by traffic police. I then ended up navigating through some narrow bylanes before tracking back to the main roads ending up near Prakasam barrage and wasting 20 min. Getting on the bypass is not worth the risk, at least for now.

[Subrat Seet]

Hi everyone,
I am planning a road trip from Mumbai to Bhubaneswar during September last week. Basically, my plan is to drive upto Hyderabad on Day 1.
Day 2 - Hyderabad to Vizag then on day 3 - Vizag to Bhubaneswar.
So, request you all to share about the recent road conditions in this routes.

Thank you and regards
Subrat

[samkat1]

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

Hi everyone,
I am planning a road trip from Mumbai to Bhubaneswar during September last week. Basically, my plan is to drive upto Hyderabad on Day 1.
Day 2 - Hyderabad to Vizag then on day 3 - Vizag to Bhubaneswar.
So, request you all to share about the recent road conditions in this routes.

Thank you and regards
Subrat

I can comment on the Hyd - BBSR stretch & hopefully it'll help you. The overall road conditions from Hyderabad till Brahmapur is in immaculate condition. The scenario changes a bit after crossing BAM as there are many flyovers are being constructed leading to diversions & speed breakers. However, many of those flyovers are in the finishing stage. Therefore, every time I travel, I find some flyover or the other gets opened up. Hopefully it would have improved further now.

Your travel plan seems to be apt. My only suggestion would be to avoid staying inside in Vizag city (if the plan is just to spend the night and start the next morning) as you might have to face the city traffic. I prefer staying on the outskirts of the city to avoid the city traffic.

[Subrat Seet]

Originally Posted by samkat1

I can comment on the Hyd - BBSR stretch & hopefully it'll help you. The overall road conditions from Hyderabad till Brahmapur is in immaculate condition. The scenario changes a bit after crossing BAM as there are many flyovers are being constructed leading to diversions & speed breakers. However, many of those flyovers are in the finishing stage. Therefore, every time I travel, I find some flyover or the other gets opened up. Hopefully it would have improved further now.

Your travel plan seems to be apt. My only suggestion would be to avoid staying inside in Vizag city (if the plan is just to spend the night and start the next morning) as you might have to face the city traffic. I prefer staying on the outskirts of the city to avoid the city traffic.

Thank you so much. Great to know that the roads are great.
Little change in the plan may be, so plz suggest if this is good.
Day 1 - Bhigwan, Pune to Vijayawada (Overnight stay and leave early morning next day).
Day 2 - Vijayawada to Berhampur or Gopalpur then Day 3 Bhubaneswar to Balasore/Jaleswar.
Is it a good option? Any proper place to stay at Vijayawada as will be with family.
Regards

[samkat1]

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

Thank you so much. Great to know that the roads are great.
Little change in the plan may be, so plz suggest if this is good.
Day 1 - Bhigwan, Pune to Vijayawada (Overnight stay and leave early morning next day).
Day 2 - Vijayawada to Berhampur or Gopalpur then Day 3 Bhubaneswar to Balasore/Jaleswar.
Is it a good option? Any proper place to stay at Vijayawada as will be with family.
Regards

It's still workable. I've done Berhampur to Hyd in 1 day. If the Pune-Hyd stretch is smooth enough, you shouldn't have an issue. Hyd onwards you won't face much challenges with the road.

[mayukh42]

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

Day 2 - Vijayawada to Berhampur or Gopalpur then Day 3 Bhubaneswar to Balasore/Jaleswar

I can comment on this part of the route as I crossed it just few days back. Roads are all good till OD border. The only things to note are:

• Vijayawada city traffic
• Kovvuru Toll - Godavari - Rajahmundry bypass is horrible (if you can plan to cross this stretch in non-peak hours, perhaps taking the city will be better - not in terms of time, but certainly in terms of suspension and ride)
• Rajahmundry - Vizag is moderate traffic
• Vizag bypass is not fully complete - especially access road from south. Vizag city has many signals so bypass is still the better option.
• Lots of diversions in OD and most of them are bad. Remaining part has concrete roads till WB border, and 80-90 kms are excellent 6-lane fast stretches.

For more details, you can refer my post (Bangalore - Kolkata : Route Queries).

[Subrat Seet]

Originally Posted by samkat1

It's still workable. I've done Berhampur to Hyd in 1 day. If the Pune-Hyd stretch is smooth enough, you shouldn't have an issue. Hyd onwards you won't face much challenges with the road.

Thank you. So encouraging to know that you have dine Hyd to Berhampur in one day.

Originally Posted by mayukh42

I can comment on this part of the route as I crossed it just few days back. Roads are all good till OD border. The only things to note are:

• Vijayawada city traffic
• Kovvuru Toll - Godavari - Rajahmundry bypass is horrible (if you can plan to cross this stretch in non-peak hours, perhaps taking the city will be better - not in terms of time, but certainly in terms of suspension and ride)
• Rajahmundry - Vizag is moderate traffic
• Vizag bypass is not fully complete - especially access road from south. Vizag city has many signals so bypass is still the better option.
• Lots of diversions in OD and most of them are bad. Remaining part has concrete roads till WB border, and 80-90 kms are excellent 6-lane fast stretches.

For more details, you can refer my post (Bangalore - Kolkata : Route Queries).

Thank you. you are right about lots of diversion in Od road.

[Altrozed]

Hello All,
How is the route condition via Suryapet Khammam Devarapalli Rajamundry section?
From Suryapet(Bypass) to Khammam is newly opened in last Oct,2022 and is fab. The rest of the section status is unknown and anyone has idea on this.

Planning to drive in this section as I have driven via Vijaywada multiple times and wanted to have a change.

[Altrozed]

Originally Posted by Altrozed

Hello All,
How is the route condition via Suryapet Khammam Devarapalli Rajamundry section?
From Suryapet(Bypass) to Khammam is newly opened in last Oct,2022 and is fab. The rest of the section status is unknown and anyone has idea on this.

Planning to drive in this section as I have driven via Vijaywada multiple times and wanted to have a change.

Route less Traveled. Very few travelogues in Team-Bhp in this section.

Hello All,

I have recently driven in this Rajamundry - Devarapalli - Aswaraopeta- Khammam - Suryapet Stretch to reach Hyderabad from Vizag.

Penning all the info which I observed so that it will be useful for all.
Most of the bhp-ians take the regular Suryapeta Kodada Vijaywada route to reach Vizag and above.

Tried searching for route updates on this Khammam stretch but there was no recent info.
Hence, I decided to drive and share the details.

In short, the route is fabulous to drive. It really cuts down distance , toll paid and the painful Vijayawada city stretch to cross.

From Vizag to Rajamundry, it was the regular NH 16 taken and post the new 4th bridge, one should drive couple of kms to see the Devarapalli Exit(Google Maps might mislead for the exit part).

After the Exit is taken, the road is 2 laned with no dividers.
The road is very well laid, fully camouflaged with trees.
The route of lot of curves and small not so ghat~y sections which is fun to drive.

The NH passes through various towns of AP and TS and since I have crossed during post noon on a hot summer day, the traffic is relatively less and I have kept constant speeds of 85-90kmph.

Attaching the map here which shows the route. I can surely tell that this route is far much better if you are ok to drive undivided NH's which are laid very well. There is no toll from 4th Bridge of Godavari till you take Khammam - Suryapet newly laid Expressway. This road is great to drive with very less traffic all the way till you encounter the Vijayawada NH.

At Narketpalli, one can switch towards Bhongir/Bhuvanagiri road to meet Warangal NH towards Hyderabad. As a result one can avoid the chaos from Panthangi Toll till Pedda Amberpet ORR Entry.

Hope this info is useful and can be share in multiple threads where people search for route options from Hyd to Vizag.

[soleinkol]

Hi All:

I do not have much to post frequently but do get a lot of ideas about car and trips, thanks to this wonderful forum!

I don't know if the road trip query below should be under this section or not, request admins/mods to move to more appropriate threads.

Now to the question:

We are planning to do a Kolkata - Vizag - Maredumilli - Araku tour in Nov 1st week (Brezza VXI, 4 people, 1 being sr. citizen female, but generally quite fit). 2 of us would drive. Would prefer to start early and end by day end (or thereabouts), little bit of evening drive is okay. Also don't want to pull too much on a single day considering the senior citizen with us, though she seems to be more enthusiastic than us .

The plan so far looks like:

• Day 1: Kolkata - Barkul (OTDC Pantha nivas booked, plan to start early around 4 AM, so that by 5:30 PM/6 PM latest we are in Barkul OTDC)
  • Are there some road work going on, like flyovers etc and too many diversions? Is 12 hours of drive time a good estimate considering both me and my wife are sedate drivers
  • Is the speed limit in this part of Odisha 80 KMPH or 100 KMPH? I am getting conflicting info.
• Day 2: Barkul - Vishakhapatnam - max 6/7 hours I guess with decent road condition? Any latest updates?
• Day 3: VSKP local
• Day 4: VSKP to Maredumilli - Route seems like VSKP - NH16 - Jagampeta - (turn right) - Maredumilli.
  • Any advice or feedback? I understand it is ghat road toward M'milli and we need to be careful about trucks, any further ideas/suggestions please?
• Day 5: M'milli - Pushpa bridge - Sileru - Chitrakonda - Boipadiguda - Araku is the plan we are thinking (GMap route - https://maps.app.goo.gl/XszqHir1LnSXz7pN9)
  • Single road, not sure of the road condition. GMap showing 8+ hrs, we are considering 12 hrs including food and photo breaks. Any road advice here?
  • Given our assumption of 12 hrs, we plan to start early around 6 AM. However, it will still be evening when we approach Araku. How is the last part of the road?
• Day 6: Araku local + Bora caves
• Day 7: Araku to Brahmapur/Gopalpur - should be manageable
• Day 8: BAM to Chandipur, OD
• Day 9: Back to Kolkata

Please help with your advice on this plan and the road conditions/other factors, esp. on Day 4 & Day 5 plans.

Do note that we have been traveling within West Bengal and some part of Odisha in car, so many of you here would have tons of experience that we don't have, hence your ideas are most welcome.