[ghodlur]

Folks, experts need your suggestions.

I am travelling from Pune Sinhagad road to Akkalkot tomorrow, planning to start early around 5 pm from residence. There are several routes to Akkalkot from Pune and the most preferred one is the Pune-Hadapsar-Temburni-Mohol-Solapur-Akkalot route via NH65. I have used this route several times before and is the fastest as yet. This route does have eateries and fuel pumps a plenty.

This time I am interested to take the route as seen in the screenshot attached i.e Pune-Satara-Rahimatpur-Vita-Nagaj-Mangalweda-Solapur-Akkalkot using SH 72 later using NH166. The reason is to check this route for road condition, traffic etc as I intend to use this route for my upcoming Bangalore Pune run to avoid the messy Belgaum to Karad section. This route from Nagaj further ties to the Jath-Tikota-Vijapur connecting to NH50 which I am planning to take from Bangalore instead of the usual NH48.

The cons of taking this route is longer distance about 100 kms more and also longer time of 1 hr than the usual NH65 route. Should I try this route in the return leg which will on the 16th. I am aware that the extended weekend means more traffic on road and heavier rush at Akkalkot.

So the suggestions needed are for the road condition and traffic from Satara to Nagaj, post Nagaj the NH166 which runs till Solapur is a 4 laned tolled road which I have taken previously and I assume is still the same fantastic road. Any one travelled in this route recently can share the experience regarding road condition, traffic, eateries and fuel pumps between Satara and Solapur.

I will be driving my BIL's 2009 Ford Fiesta which I used to own earlier before I sold off to him.

[condor]

This alternate route is going to be round-about and SLOW. Lot of local traffic too. Suggest to stick to your regular route.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Folks, experts need your suggestions.

I am travelling from Pune Sinhagad road to Akkalkot tomorrow

Stick to your original route. This new one will be very slow and long. Pune Kolhapur road itself isn't as good as the Pune Solapur.

I travelled on the Pune Solapur highway last week and its one of the better maintained roads in MH.

[blackwasp]

While going it's a no-brainer. Stick to the regular route. You should reach Solapur from Pune in approx 4-4.5 hours.

The return trip's timing will determine which route you should take. Try to avoid peak times when you enter Pune on both routes - i.e. Hadapsar on Solapur route and Khed-Shivapur on the alternate route.

[ani_meher]

Stick to the usual solapur route. When you have to travel on that alternate route, do it in that journey only. No use of taking such a long detour. Even if it is is bad state, still you would face it once only - either this time or while going through it. So why waste time and fuel now?