[youknowitbetter]

Just drove on the expressway. Don't think that the pending work will be complete in 2 months. Will be happy to be proven wrong. The beginning of the expressway from Mumbai has to much undulation and feels very jumpy. Guess that's the reason that the speed limit of 100 KMPH has been imposed instead of 120 KMPH which is the case for most the expressway. Practically, there aren't any food plaza on the expressway. We just stopped once each way for bio break at fuel pumps, which were just okay-ish.

While we were careful about the speed guns, not sure how they have been placed. We saw 2 interceptor Ertigas with speed guns, which hardly covers any ground and I may have to shell out some money (hoping not a lot)!

Access control is okay, but had monkeys and dogs roaming around and crossing the road which is a big issue!

[puneetakhouri]

Originally Posted by gauravdgr8

What beats me is the road etiquette of some citizens. Imagine an Alto driving on the right most lane at 70 and not budging.

That's a very very common occurrence on the Mumbai Pune Expressway with numerous vehicles hoarding the right lane. Usually I just go past them because I don't want to get into the Driver Education Program and teach people where to drive and get into road rage , but if the middle lane is also slow then simply climbing up right behind the vehicle and flashing the headlights a few times from my Safari Storme help the lane clear up.
My observation is that the headlights of SUVs are in line with the ORVMs of smaller cars, so flashing lights has a direct effect on their eyes and they would immediately get out of the way.

[carchronicles]

I'll be going to Tadoba and Pench on Sunday, 16th February. Has any new eatery opened on this highway for pitstop?

[vyasachetan]

Hi,
We are planning to drive from Ambi Valley air strip to Aurangabad next week.
Hoping to drive on the Samruddhi Mahamarg.

Can anyone suggest how the road surface is ?
Samrudhi starts from Igatpuri or even earlier.

Will be in a low slung sedan, any suggestions will help on the route and road condition.

[sumalkar]

Originally Posted by carchronicles

I'll be going to Tadoba and Pench on Sunday, 16th February. Has any new eatery opened on this highway for pitstop?

Not a new eatery as such, but all petrol pumps on the route have a sort-of canteens serving snacks.

[sumalkar]

Originally Posted by vyasachetan

Hi,
We are planning to drive from Ambi Valley air strip to Aurangabad next week.
Hoping to drive on the Samruddhi Mahamarg.

Can anyone suggest how the road surface is ?
Samrudhi starts from Igatpuri or even earlier.

Will be in a low slung sedan, any suggestions will help on the route and road condition.

Road surface is decent and one can easily cruise at 100+ kmph throughout. Limited options at canteens at petrol pumps, so good to carry snacks. Just take a note that wash rooms are also limited and not (that) good ones. Otherwise, the drive should be enjoyable.

Please carry / wear sunglasses as white surface does irritate eyes while driving.

[anjan_c2007]

High Court Rap for Filthy Washrooms in Petrol Pumps on this Expressway

The Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench, came down heavily on oil PSU's whose petrol pump washrooms are filthy. The Samruddhi Expeessway has many of these, maintained by Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and so on. The High Court, Division Bench has asked all such petrol pump owners to submit affidavits before the next date of hearing. One Indian Oil dealer who submitted a false affidavit stating "all is well" faced the ire when the petitioner clicked images to disprove the dealer's contentions and lies. The petitioner, vigilant citizen Anil Wadpalliwar had in fact submitted photos of many such unhygienic washrooms.

The High Court warned of Rs 10 lakh fines from each such dealer and directions for deduction of salary and disciplinary action against responsible officers of the oil PSU's who supervise hygiene.

The interim order stated that though the petrol pumps have better hygiene in their workplace, their washrooms are stinking, dark and extremely unhygienic.

The news:-



GADKARI's STERN WARNING OF OCTOBER 2024

In the backdrop is a "stern warning " by Gadkari in October 2024, saying that petrol pump washrooms on National Highways need to be well maintained, else strict action shall be taken. God only knows how many of them have been booked by the NHAI?

Flagging that toilets at petrol pumps along highways are either locked or not maintained, causing inconvenience to commuters, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has warned pump owners of cancelling the NOCs for access roads leading to their fuel stations, reports Dipak Dash. "I urge all such petrol pump owners to unlock their toilets. Otherwise, we will withdraw NOC, and then don't complain. If you don't maintain them properly you will get a bad rating by a third party entity and action will be taken," Gadkari said.

Newslink:-
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.../114130172.cms

[sahil624]

As per latest news report the work on the last stretch of Samruddhi expressway is completed.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.../118509724.cms

Though this news article mentions that plantation work is going on, anyone aware whether the last stretch is open for traffic? Thanks.

[prad]

On Youtube, Droneman has an excellent video series covering the progress on the Expressway. I find them very informative, and have subscribed to his channel. The latest video released a few days ago is titled "Samruddhi Mahamarg Opening Soon | Nagpur Mumbai Expressway".

According to him, the hurdle for opening is the Vadape interchange on the Thane Nashik road to access Amane, which is where the expressway starts and the opening may be by the end of April.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFKbyL9uXrs

[AlphaKiloPapa]

Hi all ! I am planning to travel to shirdi from Mumbai. I just want to want which is the earliest point where we can join the samruddhi expressway. Is there any way we can join the expressway before the igatpuri ghat section or is the igatpuri interchange the first interchange from mumbai side ?

[humyum]

Originally Posted by prad

On Youtube, Droneman has an excellent video series covering the progress on the Expressway. I find them very informative, and have subscribed to his channel. The latest video released a few days ago is titled "Samruddhi Mahamarg Opening Soon | Nagpur Mumbai Expressway".

According to him, the hurdle for opening is the Vadape interchange on the Thane Nashik road to access Amane, which is where the expressway starts and the opening may be by the end of April.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=JFKbyL9uXrs

I have written about driving from Aamne till Kasara on Samruddhi Mahamarg and how to get there, let me add that post to this thread too since this thread is about the Samruddhi Mahamarg from Mumbai to Nagpur.

So here is my update which all of you will love with a caveat. Do this only if you are comfortable trying something new which will be empty most of your way and at your own risk.

We went to Nashik this time since mom's chemos on 23rd March are on and we tried via the Samruddhi Mahamarg from Amne Interchange near Shangrila till before the Kasara Ghats start. People on the road told us that they do not allow people to travel on the Igatpuri tunnel at night and during the day too they sometimes allow and sometimes not, since we were travelling in the dark, did not want to take this chance.

I had seen a video by a Youtuber in which he had mentioned exactly the route to take to join the Samruddhi Mahamarg and from where to exit near Kasara.

Here is the video to be exact.

-->

https://youtu.be/wangq2DzNwE?si=XMnqv2zpIA3qH3tp

We took a U turn ahead of the Amne Interchange which if you were coming from Nashik, you would join the Samruddhi Mahamarg for a brief moment take U and join back towards Bhiwandi, there you are supposed to take a left turn towards Samruddhi, we went ahead and took it. After a few diversions, we started towards Kasara. The roads were dead empty with very few cars, pickup trucks and 1-2 trucks here and there. The roads had diversions and there are manual boards with radiums which tell you when to cross over to the other side. On-coming traffic will be also driving on your side, so be careful. The road surface is quite bumpy and I can't imagine myself doing continuous 120 here but its way smoother than the Mumbai-Pune expressway, we were in our Crysta

We reached Kasara left turn which is an off road route which is quite bad for 500-600 meters which then takes you out on the normal highway from the backroad of a Dhaba called Mishra Dhaba, on the road towards Mumbai. This turn to exit Samruddhi at Kasara comes a few hundred meters after the 3rd tunnel. After you get on the old Nashik Highway, you have to go ahead for 1 km before taking a U turn and join back towards Nashik on the Normal Highway. The Kasara Ghats towards Nashik are newly laid and you will not find a single pothole on the entire ghat section. Amazing.

Took us 3 hours to reach Nashik on a Sunday, left at 6 o clock from Ghatkopar and reached Nashik at 9 o clock.

We took the same road via Samruddhi too from the same point we exited it and landed up near Shangrila in like 35-40 minutes from Kasara. Google Maps thinks you are driving on a dark land and constantly tries to re-route.

Both the trips happened in the night as we were Mumbai in the evening and left Nashik in the evening too while coming back, but in hindsight, I would not do this road in the night in the current not-opened state as there are diversions which if not careful can catch you off guard. The tunnels have barricades which with radium boards which you have to zig-zag through. Also, on-coming tarffic for most of this road is on your side, but should not be a problem during the day.

As of yesterday, few people use this route with villagers using their bikes and scooters to travel upto some points in between. If your car breaks down here, there is no help at all, so keep that in mind.

The expressway such is ready, the toll boths when we were passing had their lights on and looked like some testing was going on but there is lot of work yet to be done on the approach road from Aamne, from the last 2 visits, I see absolutely no progress there. Also, there are bridges ahead which have no walls on one side, making it unusable for normal traffic. A lot of diversions which are currently used by people to transverse this road will have to be closed. I highly doubt this can open to public in April end, but with some 24 hour work hours and zeal, if it opens, its good.

For now, for all our Nashik trips, we will take this road, next time will try to see if we can go till Igatpuri, if possible then Shanghrila to Igatpuri will be like a 45 minute drive and as you exit, the roads on the Nashik side are completely read, making Nashik from the Shangrila exit a 1 hour 20-30 minute around drive, which is excellent.

All in all, a good adventure if you ask me.

[AlphaKiloPapa]

Originally Posted by humyum

People on the road told us that they do not allow people to travel on the Igatpuri tunnel at night and during the day too they sometimes allow and sometimes not, since we were travelling in the dark, did not want to take this chance.

Hi ! Does this mean that the igatpuri tunnel is open in the day ? Because if the tunnel is open then we can completely avoid the ghat section and continue on the expressway itself.
I am planning a Nashik-Shirdi-Shani Shingnapur trip and on the last day I have to travel from Shani Shingnapur to Mumbai which would be hectic for my wife and 2 year old boy. If the tunnel is open it would be very less tiring for us.

Thanks in advance !

[humyum]

Originally Posted by AlphaKiloPapa

Hi ! Does this mean that the igatpuri tunnel is open in the day ? Because if the tunnel is open then we can completely avoid the ghat section and continue on the expressway itself.
I am planning a Nashik-Shirdi-Shani Shingnapur trip and on the last day I have to travel from Shani Shingnapur to Mumbai which would be hectic for my wife and 2 year old boy. If the tunnel is open it would be very less tiring for us.

Thanks in advance !

It would be a chance. If its not open, a U turn will have to be taken.

You can ofcourse, travel till Kasara (exit after the 3rd tunnel) and save bunch loads of time and effort while going and coming back.

[sahil624]

Originally Posted by humyum

It would be a chance. If its not open, a U turn will have to be taken.

You can ofcourse, travel till Kasara (exit after the 3rd tunnel) and save bunch loads of time and effort while going and coming back.

Does this mean we can travel from Aamne to third tunnel (Kaasra) during day time for sure?

[humyum]

Originally Posted by sahil624

Does this mean we can travel from Aamne to third tunnel (Kaasra) during day time for sure?

When I last travelled on 24th March, it was open. Since whatever we are doing is technically not legal, they can close it anytime they want. Go at your own chance is what I would say and be ready to U turn back to where you started if it comes down to it.