[Monaro CV8]

Thanks Moralfibre for this thread.

The commute on good old NH48 is getting nightmarish - with every year's Monsoons adding more salt to already bleeding wounds.

Demanding Toll for the Pune -Satara sector is already insulting to the average Road-Tax Payer. And to top it all, there are various Speed Camera Guns located at strategic points on this sector.

I mean, who does that? Provide broken Highways and also install Speed Guns !!


MH roads and its perils !!

[C300]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

So all in all, it is a joint effort of center, state and local bodies who hamper these. Ironically elected by the locals

MH has transformed into a big cesspool over the past two decades. As a Marathi Manoos its painful to watch the degradation of the overall civic governance in the state. The Gunthamantris and their Chelas are running the show at local level. They will switch their affiliations based on the direction of the wind.

[yd_gli]

Originally Posted by C300

MH has transformed into a big cesspool over the past two decades. As a Marathi Manoos its painful to watch the degradation of the overall civic governance in the state. The Gunthamantris and their Chelas are running the show at local level. They will switch their affiliations based on the direction of the wind.

+1 to this. I am born and raised in Pune. Having traveled across the country and lived abroad as well, I always felt Pune was still a livable city with decent and educated people. However, over the last decade a small part of me dies everytime I venture out of the house. It's basically become a lawless mess with goondaism and sycophancy. The NH48 running from the expressway to the other end has become ground zero for this situation. Road rage, wrong side driving, physical threats are all a daily occurrence.

[ObsessedByFIAT]

Originally Posted by abhatt

The reason I am worried with this thread is that I am travelling back to Bangalore pretty soon and wondering if I should time it well to avoid the hassles.

Don't worry so much! Ofcourse planning your journey well is always a good thing though!

You will have to be careful from right after the Katraj tunnel till you cross Karad. Post that things are pretty well. Don't remember the exact location, but it is before Karad for sure where the road is in very bad shape. If you are not careful it can do a lot of damage.
Also, the places where flyover construction is underway, the approach and exit of diversions are in bad shape.

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One more thing that I remember of the Pune bound road is, right after you cross Satara and headed towards Pune, make sure you don't take the left most lane. It just disappears and reappears. This happens till the beginning of the tunnel.

[NiInJa]

This stretch has become a political battlefield for various reasons. Mr. Gadkari won't care about it as this has been an area dominated by opposition parties for long. There is political pressure to have dividers removed at certain places to facilitate movement of commercial vehicles as this is turning into an industrial area. Then, there are too many restaurants and bars having political connections asking for service lane access for them. Then the politics over who pays toll at Khed Shivapur, the list goes on...

As for us, When going southwards, its better to cross Satara before 8-8.30 AM and reaching Pune just before sunset if heading towards Mumbai. Has worked well for me so far. I am eagerly waiting for the old Mumbai-Goa highway to complete, Once that happens, its good-bye NH48 for my Goa/Konkan travels.

[adneeraj]

I've recently driven this stretch about 10 days ago.
While Pune to Satara was covered in the day, Satara - Pune stretch was pretty much after dark. I believe the road condition is poor compared to the other side.
The new flyovers have LOST their tarmac! Stress levels rise considerably as you need to maneuver the car through these craters while ensuring no one from the adjoining lanes is dodging their own and avoid a collision.
Landscaped roads make it even worse. Inclines, slopes and curves make it only worse.

While I love my Fiesta, one thing I felt strongly was to get better headlamps. Seeing better would reduce stress to some levels.

[Hrishi_111]

I am a regular traveler of this stretch of highway since 2000 as my parents stay at Satara.

Back those days, frequent travelers on this route were rejoiced to see the highway being transformed to a two lane from single lane one. Then in 2010, it was announced to become a three lane and people hoped for even better commute.

However, not a single thing with respect to this highway has gone straight since that day. Delay in completion of work, quality of road surface, steep rise in toll and the list just continues.

Once in a while, we see local politicians raising their voice against incomplete work, potholes, quality of surface, life claiming blind curves etc. However their intent is certainly not transparent as the protests usually fade away without any conclusion.

As rightly said in original post, root cause of current situation lies in financial conditions of the company who has the contract and Government (neither Central nor State) is not keen to take any steps for obvious and known reasons.

[abhi_tjet]

I was pleasantly surprised when I used this road in early 2018 for Bangalore and Goa road trips. Surprise was again there in monsoon 2020, but a nasty one.
Random potholes came out of nowhere, no smooth joints for bridge and horrible diversions are just a few to name.
Moreover, i just can't understand why there is so much delays in toll plaza(since everyone uses a Fastag nowadays).
I used this route last weekend for a solo morning bike ride and was pleased to see that diversions paths are at least freshly laid.

[abhi7992]

Did a Mahabaleshwar trip from Mumbai and went to Nagpur the very next day on returning to Mumbai in the first week of November. Although this highway is not in great condition but is still so much better when you compare it with stretches like Ahmednagar-Aurangabad- Jalna (Jalna-Aurangabad is much worse) or something like Mehkar-Karanja in the Vidarbha region which is a drive of 120 kms on the surface of moon.

Doesn't really feel you are driving in one of the most industrialised states in the country with the highest GDP.

[Slick]

Aaah the Belgaum road,

I always wondered how much more expensive would the project be if the road was a slightly elevated expressway with exits (And Entries) every 5/10/15 Kms depending on the significance of the town/village ?

I know it would be much more expensive but wouldn't it be cheaper or more efficient for a much longer time ? Speaking purely from a ROI (less travel time, less fuel and less accidents, lesser maintenance) and much more peace of mind.


I saw the Hinjewadi Phase1,2,3 infra and was shocked that for a project that was executed so recently there was no provision for a metro, A road that is getting jammed with not even 30-40% offices being ready.

I personally think it is an opportunity lost by the design team to make the town and highway truly world class.

Any new infra being built is an opportunity to plan for the next 50 years.

- Slick

[moralfibre]

Interesting bit of coverage from Pune Mirror on the toll management by PS Tollways private limited. A subsidary of Reliance Infra through which they are managing this 140km stretch of the highway:

Link

[jomson13]

I have been doing monthly trips on this route since 2016. This year not so much owing to the lockdown. Here are my observations:

1. The khed shivapur toll has been, still is and will continue to be a major bottleneck on this route. The only viable option is to cross this in the dark (before 6am while exiting pune) or wait for a day when the trucks are on strike!
2. Initially the flyovers bypassing villages were under construction hence there used to be jams at the diversions. Now many of them have been constructed but the road surface has literally been washed away in less than a year.
3. Potholes - Auto Tier 1 suppliers are the happiest. I expect them to have a separate segment for pothole driven revenues in the balance sheets from next year onwards. I remember this one trip when I saw at least 5 cars parked within a kilometer of the descend after Satara (while returning to Pune). All of them had a flat right front tyre.
4.The two lane section (satara - kolhapur) is a welcome relief. Clearly marked roads, an even surface and a continuous median translate to a much more comfortable journey. The return leg is even better - tar roads make it an ultra smooth drive. Can't complain about the scenery too - makes it quite a relaxing drive

[Sandy Damodaran]

I just travelled from Pune to Thrissur, using this road. Being the first trip with our dog, we decided to do Pune-BLR,a stopover at Bangalore to let the dog recover and then, BLR-Thrissur via Salem Erode Palakkad road.

The road till Satara was Ok nothing compared to Kolhapur-Dharwad stretch of course, but nothing bad either. Fastag is a life saver and breezed through the Tolls, although Murphy's law did seem to strike with a probability of 1, leading to acrobatics in cutting lanes, reversing a few hundred metres as the camera in my lane went kaput one car before mine in 2 toll booths.

Dharwad to Chitradurga has loads of diversions (27 approx) and does slow one down, but post Hotel Ojas, just before Chitradurga To Bangalore it's a breeze.

The dog was more than coping up on the trip and hence decided to Move on to Thrissur directly on Sunday and Left Bangalore (Near Yelahanka) at 12.30 PM and managed to cross Hosur only by 2.30, Thanks to some rally near Electronic city bogging us down for 45 mins.

Bangalore to Thrissur via Salem/Erode is awesome except for 3/4 diversions and has lots of places to safely eat(McDonald's/A2B etc)
All in all a pretty easy trip.

[SSD2122]

Does anyone have any idea of the road condition from Satara to Aundh town (Yamai temple) via kopargaon.

Last time when I visited, road widening and construction was happening and I had to take a detour.

[moralfibre]

The honourable minister of road transport and highways has hinted that the work for completion of the highway is another six months away.

link