[swiftvxi06]

Introduction-

This is our second road trip in our Nissan Magnite Turbo. In July 2021, we did a road trip to Santiniketan.

Here is the link -

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ite-turbo.html (Impromptu getaway to Santiniketan in our Nissan Magnite Turbo)

On 24th December 2022 we did a short weekend trip to Mayapur located in Krishnanagar Sadar subdivision of Nadia district of West Bengal. It is situated next to Nabadwip, at the confluence of two rivers, where the waters of the Jalangi River mix with Bhagirathi, a distributary of the Ganges. It is located about 130 km north of Kolkata.

My cousin who is a devotee of ISKON made prior arrangements for our accommodation at Ishodyan Bhavan. We started at 5.30am in our humble Nissan Magnite Turbo. The weather was quite chilly and was a little foggy.


Early morning pic of Kolkata

Route –

We decide to take the route to Mayapur from Nabadwip side as we wanted to avoid NH 34 due to many diversions and broken roads. The route suggested by some members was – Vidyasagar Setu – Kona Expressway – Dankuni – Delhi Road- Mogra Flyover – (Sptagram-Tribani-Kalna- Katwa) STKK Road- Gourango Setu- Mayapur.

DAY 1

Being early morning we crossed Vidyasagar Setu by 6.10am and then took Santragacchi ROB. Luckily the infamous Santragacchi ROB was opened on 23rd December after more than a month long repair work.


Glimpse of Vidyasagar Setu

I was maintaining a steady 65- 70kmph speed and saw the mileage hovering around 21.9 kmpl. But then just near Dankuni saw a massive chock a block. It was 7.10am and one side of the highway was blocked by heavy traffic comprising mostly of trucks and buses and few cars. It was a bad traffic jam which stretched for more than 1.5 kms. We came to know from locals that the server was down at Dankuni Toll Plaza since 3.30 am. Soon the wait turned out to be for more than 1.5 hours. At around 8.30am the traffic slowly started moving.


Stuck in traffic




Clicks from traffic jam


Magnite stuck in the sea of trucks and buses

And we took the right turn to Delhi Road from NH19/ 44 and continued our journey. We stopped for breakfast at Royal Hotel near Serampore. It has a neat and clean place. We had a hearty breakfast comprising of Masala Omelette, Toast, Aloo Paratha with Curd followed by piping hot coffee and tea.


Our Magnite at Royal Hotel

After the breakfast, we continued our journey. The road was butter smooth and I could maintain a speed of 80 kmph effortlessly. We missed the right side ramp of Mogra Flyover and took a U-turn and took the road which led to Mogra Moore. We actually relied too much on Google Maps and as a result had to face consequences, which led us to a different route thereby taking much more time. Instead of putting Gourango Setu, we set the location as Mayapur. As a result, instead of taking the left turn towards STKK Road, we took the right turn from Mogra Moore and moved to other side by crossing the Saraswati River Bridge. It was an under construction area and road was filled with mud and concrete from cement mixing trucks.

Nevertheless we continued our journey by crossing the Ishwar Gupta Setu and moved onwards Kalyani Expressway through Kalyani Town.
We really liked the Kalyani Town which is a planned town characterized by underground sewage system, paved roads forming rectangular grids, tree-lined avenues and community parks. It was founded by Late Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, former Chief Minister of West Bengal in 1951. We saw the all new AIIMS Kalyani and continued our journey through Ranaghat, Fulia, Santipur, Krishnanagar with many areas having lots of diversions due to the road widening work of NH 34. Magnite’s suspension took all the bad and broken roads with aplomb.

We reached Nabadwip More Bus Stop and crossed Dwijendra Setu over Jalangi River and took the left turn towards Mayapur near Mayapur More. Being 24th December, Mayapur was jam packed with visitors, devotees and traffic.


First glimpse of the under construction Sri Maya Chandrodaya Mandir or the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium

We entered the Temple complex from Gate no. 4 and we were charged Rs 120 for 24 hours parking. We went to Ishodyan Bhavan where we had our bookings for the stay. Ishodyan Bhavan at first glance looked like a beautiful 4 star hotel. It is surrounded by lush green flora and fauna with a very good view of the campus.




At Ishodyan Bhavan

The Visit-

We checked in at Ishodyan Bhavan and went to our rooms to freshen up after the exhaustive drive. We took a toto and went for Darshan in the main temple. This temple is located next to the Sri Maya Chandrodaya Mandir or the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, which is under construction and will be opened in 2024. At 113 meters once completed, it will be the largest Hindu temple in the world.

After Darshan, we straightway went to Govinda’s restaurant for lunch. It is situated within the Temple Complex. Govinda’s serves mouth-watering Satvik vegetarian food.


Unique Bullock cart at Temple premises near Temple of the Vedic Planetarium

In the evening, we strolled in the lawns and gardens in the temple complex. We also visited Gita Mela which was being held next to the Temple. Soulful kirtan was being sung by the devotees.


Gita Mela




Beautiful Flowers


Glimpse of Temple complex


Night view of Temple of the Vedic Planetarium

With the setting of the sun, the temperature dropped down significantly to around 15 degrees. We were served holy Prasadam and all of us went off early to bed.


Ishodyan Bhavan at Night

DAY 2
We woke up early in the morning, got freshened up and went to see the morning Aarti. Being 25th December, Christmas Day, visitors started pouring in since early morning in large groups. Post the Aarti we did some photoshoots. The whole complex was filled with beautiful winter flowers.



Flowers in the morning

After our breakfast at Govinda’s comprising of tasty and filing Cheese Dosas we set out for our return journey to Kolkata.
During the return journey, We took the Nabadwip Gourango Setu route via STKK Road. It was a beautiful road with couple of speed bumps.


Glimpse of Rural West Bengal

We had a delicious lunch comprising of piping hot tandoori rootis and chicken kasha and pomfret fish curry at Maa Annapurna Bojhanalaya. A must visit for travelers going on this route.


Maa Annapurna Bhojanalaya


Back to Kolkata

In all our faithful Magnite car travelled a total distance of close to 370 kms and returned an overall fuel efficiency of 22.8kmpl during the trip (manual method calculation, crosschecked with MID).



Our faithful Magnite Turbo.

[haisaikat]

Congratulations for completing your second self drive out of Kolkata. White Beauty seems to have returned excellent numbers on FE but demands more such ventures for break in.

We had booked Mayapur Coonch Bhavan for our stay after lot of deliberation about a year back considering my mom with limited mobility would find it suitable to make a temple visit (most easy route to the temple) but due to unavoidable circumstances had to cancel it. Hope to visit someday in future especially during Holi when there is mega celebration out on the streets.

How is the Gourango Setu route? Does it still have lot of speed breakers?

Your narration has been spot on as always and eagerly waiting for your next venture and TL. All the best.

[swiftvxi06]

Originally Posted by haisaikat

Congratulations for completing your second self drive out of Kolkata. White Beauty seems to have returned excellent numbers on FE but demands more such ventures for break in.

We had booked Mayapur Coonch Bhavan for our stay after lot of deliberation about a year back considering my mom with limited mobility would find it suitable to make a temple visit (most easy route to the temple) but due to unavoidable circumstances had to cancel it. Hope to visit someday in future especially during Holi when there is mega celebration out on the streets.

How is the Gourango Setu route? Does it still have lot of speed breakers?

Your narration has been spot on as always and eagerly waiting for your next venture and TL. All the best.

Thank you Saikat da.
The Gourango Setu route is much better than NH34 route. It has smooth roads but has speedbreakers at many places.

[boniver]

Lovely write-up! The first time I ever drove on a highway (after about 20 days of learning to drive) was on the way to ISCKON Mayapur back in 2018, but it was so short a distance that we went in the afternoon and were back home by evening. Brings back old memories. Coincidentally, that was on 25th December too!

View from the parking lot:

[cr4nkshaft]

Felicitations on the venturesome voyage, my good sir!
I desire despite some sly comments thee keepeth going f'r such trips and shareth m're travelogues with us, f'r they bringeth us a lot of joy.
I raiseth a toast to thee! 🥂

[sayakc]

Dear Abhirup,

I came to know about this travelogue from our WA group.

Thanks for sharing this fairly comprehensive blog on Mayapur - will refer to this in case I come up with a plan to visit these places in the coming days. I must say that you have a flair of writing and should write more often.

Wish you many more travels in 2023!

Btw, the below intrigued me - not sure why did you require to pass through Kalyani town?

Cheers,
Sayak

Originally Posted by swiftvxi06

Nevertheless we continued our journey by crossing the Ishwar Gupta Setu and moved onwards Kalyani Expressway through Kalyani Town.
We really liked the Kalyani Town which is a planned town characterized by underground sewage system, paved roads forming rectangular grids, tree-lined avenues and community parks. It was founded by Late Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, former Chief Minister of West Bengal in 1951.

[swiftvxi06]

Sayak da thank you for your kind words. We moved through Kalyani town since it was adviced by some locals there.

[Mile_Breaker]

Lovely photos ! And a good source of information on Mayapur ! Great to see our beloved White Beauty being so well maintained. While there are few more days left for this picnic season lets see if we get to see more of White Beauty.

[Neversaygbye]

Wonderfully detailed description and it is great to see White Beauty in action again! Your travelogues make for great reading because of the amount of information you provide - I am sure that this TL will be a very useful guide for anyone planning to go to Mayapur from Calcutta. Please keep writing and travelling - looking forward to more such posts featuring WB!

[swiftvxi06]

Thank you so much Niladri da @Mile_Breaker and Sumanta Da @Neversaygdbye for your kind words.

[cdibya]

Dear Abhirup,
Congratulations for your second highway drive. It looks like an annual event. I will be really happy if you can convert the annual to a monthly one. Your use of language is so flawless, just like way you drive your TM.
N.B.: Shall I share the TL link with ISRO (Iskon Sevait & Ruling Organization) community with all due permission from your end?

[swiftvxi06]

Thanks Dibya da for your kind words.

[ron82x3]

Congratulations Abhirup da on completing 4,000Kms in 2 years. Wishing you more happy miles and more mileage.
As usual, your TL is like a small guide to Mayapur, mentioning all the small details.
Thanks for posting!