[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Marlon

Hi All,

Am planning a solo drive from Mumbai to Chennai on 21/5. Is there any latest information which I should keep in mind especially road conditions.

Regards
marlon

Road conditions are all good.

[Limpid]

I've just travelled from Bangalore to Pune and back last week. Following are some of the updates on road condition.

• Started from OMR at 4:30 AM. Nelamangala flyover is a blessing, traffic was sparse and was able to reach Tumkur in 45 mins. Since Tumkur Flyover /bypass was ready I guess I've shaved close to 50 min travel time till Chtradurga. Road was as expected till Chitradurga.
• Elevated road at Chtradurga has made life easier. One can pass the town in less than 10 mins.
• Road from Chitradurga till Davangere is ready now with 4 lanes and proper road markings. Construction of the toll plaza is completed, I think toll will be charged for this stretch very soon.
• Watch out for BIG speed breakers around 15 ~20 Kms from Chitradurga. Surprisingly, speed breakers are well marked with paint and sign board. Looks like handy work of nearby grampanchayat. I saw one swift flying over these breakers as driver failed to control the speed. He had to stop later to access the damage.
• Davangere bypass is also almost ready but there are still couple of diversions. Watch out for maniacs in Tata Ace and tractors driving wrong way and in fast lane without even turning headlights on!
• Davangere- Ranebennur -Haveri streatch has improved a lot there is second toll way coming here. Ranebennur bypass is making life easier.
• I did see some levelling work in progress on Hubli Dharwad bypass, not sure if there is a plan to upgrade bypass to four lanes.
• Road from Dharwad to Kolhapur is great as usual but I looks like there is a plan to add one more lane and sides of the road are dug up. There is no margin left for emergency stops at some parts on this road.
• I've found overall road condition in Karnataka better than in Maharashtra. Roads are patchy and needs re tarring at many places after Kolhapur. Traffic is dense full of two wheelers. Toll plazas are a mess. I had to spend close to 25 mins at each toll satiation which was quite frustrating!
• Completed Bangalore Pune Journey in 11.5 Hours plus close to one hour of break in Breakfast, Lunch at Kolhapur and at toll satiations in Maharashtra.
• Return journey was much faster. I was able to complete same stretch in 10 hours plus 45 mins of break for refueling and breakfast.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Limpid

I've just travelled from Bangalore to Pune and back last week. Following are some of the updates on road condition.

• Watch out for BIG speed breakers around 15 ~20 Kms from Chitradurga. Surprisingly, speed breakers are well marked with paint and sign board. Looks like handy work of nearby grampanchayat. I saw one swift flying over these breakers as driver failed to control the speed. He had to stop later to access the damage.

This is at Bhramsagara and I am pretty sure this isn't any handy work of the local gram-panchayat but for sure on their behest. What I found was that there is no proper entry/exit to this town from NH4 and eventually people enter from wrong side and through the cut in the median. To facilitate this stunt, they have laid the speedbreakers.

• I've found overall road condition in Karnataka better than in Maharashtra. Roads are patchy and needs re tarring at many places after Kolhapur. Traffic is dense full of two wheelers. Toll plazas are a mess. I had to spend close to 25 mins at each toll satiation which was quite frustrating!

on the road condition part, specially Kolhapur-Pune section but the Satara-Kolhapur section (Towards Bangalore) is way better since its concretized and remains in good shape.
Waiting time at all 4 MH tolls being high is an ongoing phenomenon and off late it has been increasing. Weekends is a mess and I was also a victim of long waiting times when I started on Sunday morning from Pune around 8-30am.

For the number of vehicles using the Kol-Pune section, the toll gates are way too less. No way one can compare the densitiy of MH side to the one in KA.

[binand]

Did Mumbai-Chennai on the 15th, with a professional driver and me taking turns at driving. Started from home at 4:45 AM, and reached Chennai at around 1:00 AM next morning - the intention was to get to Chennai quickly. Some observations along the way that might interest others:

There was a jam on the Mumbai-Pune expressway, due to a truck breaking down and blocking two lanes. Chaos all round. Even without the jam, I thought the expressway could use a couple more additional lanes (though whether there is land for doing that is another question).

The Pune-Kolhapur section of NH4 is a pain - heavy traffic ruins the experience here. The only saving grace was the ghat section (Khambatki?). Several accidents, too - we were held up near Pune after a couple of trucks were involved in one. I think this section sorely needs an upgrade to 6-lanes or 8-lanes.

Being a Sunday, there were several decorated cars on the road with "so-and-so weds so-and-so" messages on them. Must have seen about 50-60 such cars between Pune and Karad.

Beyond Kolhapur the traffic eases, and once past Belgaum there's hardly anyone on the road. NH4 changes personality across the MH-KA state border :-) It is a crowded, cosmopolitan, sophisticated modern highway with high-end car showrooms, McDonalds, CCDs and suchlike in MH - an enabler of commerce. In KA, there are long stretches with nothing but vegetation around you (not even co-travellers on the road) - giving you the impression that the road goes nowhere.

The MH toll points took an average of 20 minutes to cross, the KA ones perhaps 20 seconds :-)

The single carriageway section between Dharwad-Hubli is a bummer. Are there no plans to upgrade this to a dual carriageway?

There was another single carriageway section, plus a couple of detours for rail overbridge construction, drawing markers on the road etc. In short, GQ is not complete between Hubli-Chitradurga. Fortunately, Ranebennur now has a completed bypass (had got stuck in the town the last time for about an hour).

Paid Rs. 1009 as toll in 23 toll booths. There were a few where we had to show our previous receipt, so I think the average is about one every 50km - too frequent, if you ask me.

The notorious Bangalore jams start long before anywhere near Bangalore :-( Was caught in one near Nelamangala and had to crawl through a couple of toll booths and flyovers before spotted the NICE Ring Road exit ahead.

The NICE Ring Road flyover across Bannerghata Road is not completed either - get off the ring road, battle local traffic to cross Bannerghata Road, and then get back on the ring road. At around 7:30 PM, this process took about 15 minutes for me.

Beyond Bangalore it is pretty much well known how things are upto Chennai.

My car, which was giving barely 8 kmpl in Mumbai city, gave about 12-13 kmpl on the trip. :-) But that was offset by the petrol price hike on Sunday. Till, I think I used up about 110-120 litres of petrol at about Rs. 70 per litre, putting fuel costs at about Rs. 8000.

The paid driver took Rs. 3500, so my total trip cost was 1000 (toll) + 8000 (fuel) + 3500 (driver) + 500 (food) = 13000. Given that a movers & packers firm quoted Rs. 15000 to ship the car to Chennai and an average flight cost of Rs. 4000 for me, I think driving it was at the very least, cost effective.

Some times: Mumbai (Goregaon, WEH) - 5:05, Pune (exit from expressway) - 7:05, Karad - 10:25, Belgaum - 12:25, Chitradurga - 16:10, Bangalore (NICE ring road exit from NH4) - 19:00, Krishnagiri (NH46/NH7 Junction) - 20:44, Poonamalle (Chennai bypass) - 00:25. As can be seen, Pune-Karad was disappointing and Belgaum-Chitradurga was a fantastic run.

[hvkumar]

binand, that was a neat report, you are absolutely right about how much more efficient the toll booths are in KA - maybe that is because of the less traffic - but I find that there is so much of Q cutting and inefficiency in some of the MH toll booths (especially the one at Khedshivapur & Satara, immediately after Pune), that they need to revisit their processes and speeden up issuance of tickets.

You mentioned that you used a driver as back-up - can you share with me details? Someone I know wants one! You can send me a PM.

[binand]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

You mentioned that you used a driver as back-up - can you share with me details? Someone I know wants one! You can send me a PM.

Don't think I have sufficient privs to PM yet, so please send me an email (binand [at] gmx [dot] net) and I'll respond with the driver's phone number and some comments.

Binand

[Marlon]

binand, good report. will be very useful for me since I am driving this weekend.

[Fauji]

Originally Posted by Marlon

binand, good report. will be very useful for me since I am driving this weekend.

The trick is to clear Pune - Satara stretch early in the morning. Otherwie it is a pain. At the same time, trucks are a pain after Davangere specailly if you are driving between Davangere - Bangalore after 5 PM. But for thse pain points it is a breeze.

[Marlon]

Thanks all for your advices.

I started at 3.30am from Santacruz, Mumbai and went picked up my friend from Goregoan and started on the long drive.

Was able to cover lot of ground early on due to less traffic. Roads very good all through the way. As most of you pointed. The traffic in Pune - Satara could be a pain. Since we were little early I faced little problems here. Reached Belgaum around 11.45 am. We went off route to Dandeli and tried for some water rafting but unfortunately the water gates were closed that day. Then we returned back to Dharward.

On the way saw a Scorpio toppled. Unfortunatley no one had major injuries. Seems a bike guy (with no helmet & 2 yr old kid) came on opposite direction and Scoprio tried avoiding the bike but toppled. This was just 2 min ahead of us. Infact the Scorpio overtook us when we were tracking our route through GPS. We stopped the car and saw that no one had major injuries. It was a remote area but still few people managed to come over. We pulled all the people from the car , gave them water, some local guy called an ambulance and people were fine and we left on our way.



Dropped my friend in Dharwad at 3.45pm and started as a solo person on the long way back. Roads were good and was able to do literally a Non-Stop drive to Bangalore with a quick refuel stop. Reached Electronic City around 9.30 pm In Bangalore near electronic city , I could not get any decent accommodation and then stopped over at a HP fuel station for dinner and took long rest and a power nap.

Started at 1 am from Hosur and was able to reach Velachery, Chennai around 5.15 am.

Overall I enjoyed the drive and will always be a memorable one.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Marlon

Seems a bike guy (with no helmet & 2 yr old kid) came on opposite direction and Scoprio tried avoiding the bike but toppled.

This is the biggest problem on all highways I have driven in India (which is somewhat concentrated in the south, I admit). I really don't understand why the NHAI and the local police forces do not crack down on this. Part of the problem is that the GQ and the NS/EW corridors are all not access controlled. Driver education plays a big role here - the fact remains that in India, to get a license, one needn't demonstrate any knowledge of road rules or hazard perception. I would really like to see a debate on road safety and safe driving practices in India.

[shreeps]

Hello all. I am planning a Pune-Bangalore trip on the 22 June.
I plan to start from Pune on 22nd evening (around 5 PM or so) and stay over for the night at Kolhapur (Have a 1.5 yr old kid with me so non stop driving is not an option).
I have a few questions that I hope the experts can help with:

1. Considering that I will be starting at 5 PM from Pune and will get stuck in the inter village traffic on NH4, what is a realistic time that I can expect to reach Kolhapur (sedate driving)?
2. Are there any good hotels that you can suggest for the stay over at Kolhapur (traveling with Family - wife, 1.5 yr kid, aged parents so it should be good, comfortable and clean)?
3. Or would you recommend that I continue till Belgaum and stay there?
4. If I start from Kolhapur the next day morning - say around 7 AM, what time will I reach Bangalore (sanjay nagar / hebbal area and then onwards to Marathahalli)?
5. After starting off in the morning from Kolhapur, where can I fill up petrol?
6. Do I have to go through any towns or are all by passes complete?
7. I seem to remember reading about a couple of railway crossings near Ranebennur; any particular times to avoid (what time should I NOT start from Kolhapur)?
8. I am not much aware about Bangalore but do remember that last time I traveled with a friend we had a miserable time at Nelamangala. What should I do to avoid getting stuck (any by pass / alternate routes etc)?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

[Fauji]

Originally Posted by shreeps

Hello all. I am planning a Pune-Bangalore trip on the 22 June.
I plan to start from Pune on 22nd evening (around 5 PM or so) and stay over for the night at Kolhapur (Have a 1.5 yr old kid with me so non stop driving is not an option).
I have a few questions that I hope the experts can help with:

1. Considering that I will be starting at 5 PM from Pune and will get stuck in the inter village traffic on NH4, what is a realistic time that I can expect to reach Kolhapur (sedate driving)?
2. Are there any good hotels that you can suggest for the stay over at Kolhapur (traveling with Family - wife, 1.5 yr kid, aged parents so it should be good, comfortable and clean)?
3. Or would you recommend that I continue till Belgaum and stay there?
4. If I start from Kolhapur the next day morning - say around 7 AM, what time will I reach Bangalore (sanjay nagar / hebbal area and then onwards to Marathahalli)?
5. After starting off in the morning from Kolhapur, where can I fill up petrol?
6. Do I have to go through any towns or are all by passes complete?
7. I seem to remember reading about a couple of railway crossings near Ranebennur; any particular times to avoid (what time should I NOT start from Kolhapur)?
8. I am not much aware about Bangalore but do remember that last time I traveled with a friend we had a miserable time at Nelamangala. What should I do to avoid getting stuck (any by pass / alternate routes etc)?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

1) Yes. The strecth from Pune to Satara is worst in the evenings and Mornings after 8AM. Expect lot of two wheeler traffic which will slow you down. Beyond Satara it is a fabulous drive till Kolhapur.

2) We stayed in Hotel Pearl which is value for Money.

3) No. Stay at Kolhapur as the drive between Pune and Satara is tough. Since the drive between Kolhapur and Belgaum is the most prettiest on this strecth do it during day.

4) We took 6 hours and 45 minutes with 20 Minutes break from bangalore to Kolhapur in our Scorpio. The road is fantastic. Since you are saying "Sedate driving" add another two hours.

5) You will find lot of bunks enroute. That should not be a problem.

6) All bye passes are complete and you will not have to go through towns.

7) You cant avoid these railway crossings. They are only minor irritants on this fabulous drive.

8) Your friend is correct. But that is an old story now. You have a nice road now from Nelamangala to city

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by shreeps

2. Are there any good hotels that you can suggest for the stay over at Kolhapur (traveling with Family - wife, 1.5 yr kid, aged parents so it should be good, comfortable and clean)?

Sai Resort, 40 kms after crossing Karad and approximately 40 kms before Kolhapur. On the highway itself.
Opal, inside Kolhapur. Take the first entry into Kolhapur town, and it is not too far inside.

3. Or would you recommend that I continue till Belgaum and stay there?

Once you cross over into Karnataka, 17 kms from Kolhapur, traffic is light and you can reach Belgaum within 1.5 hours maximum. You have Hotel Sankam Residency 100 metres off the highway.

5. After starting off in the morning from Kolhapur, where can I fill up petrol?

Since MH is cheaper than KA, refill in MH itself once you leave Kolhapur city. Lots of petrol pumps before the border. Konduskar's is the best, but I think they sell only diesel.

[bhp]

Konduskar also sells petrol...and its the best place to fill before entering KA

Originally Posted by shreeps

After starting off in the morning from Kolhapur, where can I fill up petrol?

Just before Kolhapur, near Sai Resorts, there is BP COCO retail outlet at Vadgaon located on LHS of NH4, which is good.