NH2: Delhi to Kolkata, Puri, Benaras, back to Delhi - 5000 km Went out to discover the new face of the National Highways of India, and came back very pleasantly surprised. Delhi to Kolkata (1500 km) was a fast, uneventful run on the NH-2 in 22 hours - non-stop solo driving, except for tea and loo breaks. Left Delhi at 10 PM, running overnight to reach Allahabad at 6:30 AM. Refuelled. Crossed the UP-Bihar border at 10:30 AM, and - glory to God - what a surprise!!! I've travelled the NH2 in Bihar over the years at average speeds of 20 km/h all these years, and here I was doing 120 km/h constantly!!! Slowed down only when I realised that everything - from trucks to bicycles - comes at you on the high-speed lane travelling on the wrong side, and the devil be damned! Biharis haven't woken up to the fact that there are two sides to the highway, they consider their side of the road to be the only one, and consider building "two roads side by side" as a colossal waste of money... Crossed the Bihar-West Bengal border at 4 PM. Home at 8 PM. Crazy truckers in West Bengal race each other at a speed diffferential of 2 km/h, and both lanes of the highway are blocked for minutes on end, with me sitting behind these smoke-belching behemoths at 55 km/h.
Two stretches of NH-2 are not yet converted to expressway. One is a 70 km stretch at Allahabad (35 km on either side of the city) where a completely new road will bypass the city altogether. For the time being, it's into the city and out, a few level crossings, and stretches of horrible cobblestoned road for a few km - even early morning, clearing this stretch took us about 1-1/2 hours. On the way back, in dense fog on the night of 3-4 January, it took us 5 hours!!!
The other stretch is at Chouparan & Isri Bazar in Jharkhand, for about 30 km. Daytime traffic jam in Isri Bazar held us up for over an hour, and the level crossing there can dissect the underbelly of a low-slung heavily laden car. Trucks frequently break down here too, adding to the chaos.
Traffis in Kolkata is much better managed now than I ever remember. Never held up in hour-long traffic jams. Potholes are few and far between.
Left for Puri at 6 AM, reaching at 3 PM (515 km). Watch out for corrupt RTO officials at the Bengal-Orissa border on the NH-60. They'll stop your private vehicle and first demand to see all papers. Then they'll tell you that Orissa is levying an entry tax of Rs.800 (as I was told), even for non-commercial vehicles entering the state. The amount is bargainable, or as I did, you can call their bluff and just drive through. They'll repeat the trick on your way out of the state too, but are satisfied if you tell them you paid when entering Orissa yesterday. Overall, the highways on this run were decent, except about 65 km around Baleshwar (KM 235 to KM 300 from Kolkata). The traffic in Cuttack and Bhubaneshwar was just about tolerable. The Bhubaneshwar to Puri run (60 km) is on undivided highway with heavy traffic, but the surfacing is not bad.
We had a choice of driving back from Puri via Boharagora-Jamshedpur-Ranchi-Hazaribagh-Barhi-Benaras, or a 150-km longer route via Kharagpur-Medinipur-Bankura-Raniganj-Asansol-Govindpur-Barhi-Benaras. Folks we asked told us that a large stretch of the NH-33 near Jamshedpur was really bad, so we decided to go the other way. Bad decision. NH-60 till Kharagpur was fine, but continue on the same road till Raniganj and over 100 km of the stretch are nightmarish - potholes, washed out sections, sections under repair, and very slow progress. We made it to NH-2 from NH-6 (about 170 km) in 5 hours. Really glad to have left Puri at 4 AM instead of the planned 6 AM. Finally reached Benaras at 9:30 PM (1050 km).
Never drive yourself in Benaras. The city is a maze, the traffic is crazy, half the roads are out of bounds for cars, and parking? - what's that? We decided to ride an auto-rickshaw for our sightseeing ventures. Worth the price. The fellow's rear crash guard (a solid bar of steel) was ripped off by another auto banging into him. Both the drivers drove away nonchalantly. That impact on my car would have cost me more than 10 times the money (Rs.500) I paid as hire charges.
Prevailing fog conditions over north India got me worried on the drive back. The evening seemed very clear, so we thought leaving Benaras on an overnight run to Delhi may not be a bad idea. It was. One hour out of Benaras, we were enveloped in fog with visibility down to ten feet from my bumper. Then came the Allahabad stretch, and we were committed to it - no visibility to even turn back! Followed trucks and local vehicles, and made it to the expressway again - Kanpur at 6:30 AM. Tea break. Mathura at 11 AM. A very long coffee break. Really needed the Espresso they serve at McDonalds - hot, strong, black, extra sweet with 3 pouches of sugar. 2 cups of it. Finally home at Delhi at 3 PM - 820 km from Benaras. |