Few weeks ago, covered both the sides by road.
Delhi to Kolkata in Oct 2nd week.
Kolkata to Delhi in Nov 1st week.
Summary
Delhi to Kolkata
Agra (YEW) >> ALE >> Etawah (NH19)>> Kanpur >> Prayagraj >> Varanasi >> Danbad >> Durgapur
Kolkata to Delhi
Durgapur (NH19) >> Dhanbad >> Varanasi >> Raebareli >> Lucknow >> ALE >> Agra (YEW)
Details
Background - Car: Maruti Baleno (Petrol).
- Del->Kol: Solo person/Driver. 100% driven by me.
- Kol-> Del: 2 Adults + 1 child. ~75% driven by me.
- First ultra-long (if we can call it that) trip/drive by me. Previous ones were in 6-8 hour range with several drivers.
- I found the Durgapur expressway (NH19) most beautiful because of the greenery.
- Most of Jharkhand and Bihar had beautiful roads.
- ALE and YEW were easiest to drive, but you miss anything beyond the highway, except hints from lifeless sign-boards.
- Biggest issue was the bridge on the Karmanasa river at the UP-Bihar border. It sees jams of 5-10 km. I followed the locals to the wrong-side (got this input from T-BHP also) otherwise get stuck for several hours.
- The biggest risks as per me (and mostly after dark) were stray animals. On several occasions, I saw cars/trucks suddenly avoiding a black cow, on a dark stretch, in the middle lane. Observed numerous evidences (some old, some new) of animal hits on almost all the stretches of the roads.
- The best washrooms are with petrol-pumps. Noticed that pumps that are away from populated areas were the cleanest.
Delhi to Kolkata Day1:
Started: Delhi, Dwarka, just before 4:00 am
Reached : Varanasi hotel at 8:00 pm
14 hour drive-time + overall 2-hour break = Total 16 hour journey time.
~820 km Drive
Day2:
Started: Varanasi hotel at 7:00 pm
Reached : Durgapur town (Relative's place) at 7:30 pm
10.5 hour drive-time + overall 2-hour break = Total 12.5 hour journey time.
~510 km Drive
Day3:
Started: Durgapur town (Relative's place) at 10:00 am
Reached : Kolkata, Barrackpore at 2:00 pm
3.5 hour drive-time + overall 30-min break = Total 4 hour journey time.
~180 km Drive
(Note: Drive-time is measured by the engine-running timer in the car console).
Fuel
Tank-full start from Dwarka, Delhi
Tank-full again just before Varanasi.
Reached Kolkata, Barrackpore (and fueled up).
Basically a single refuel on the entire route. Each tank-full gave ~780+ km range (with few liters remaining).
Delhi-Varanasi : 24.7 km/L (as per car MID)
Delhi-Kolkata: 22.3 km/L (as per car MID)
My observation is actual mileage is about 1km/L less than what the MID shows.
The main mileage drop happened at the massive jam at UP-Bihar border, with jam/wait/reverse/wrong-side/driving-in-muddy-fields etc.
That 10km took me about an hour to cross even with all these hacks.
This picture after the Delhi>>Varanasi leg.
Did lot of study of the route from T-BHP, google-map, blogs etc. Found that Agra to Varanasi has few combinations. Rest of the route suggestion was mostly the same.
Stay:
There are almost no hotels on Highway. Few with ~5 mins detour. I also wanted to visit the ghats and catch a glimpse of the river. (I had calculated, there was no way I could reach by Ganga-Aarati time.)
From map-study, I selected the area between BHU and Assi-ghat, as a "possible zone to stay" with quick entry and exit from NH-19 plus a quick visit to the river. This also avoids the crowded toll-plaza on NH-19, before the Ganga-bridge. Map below explains it. I selected 'Sarweshwary hotel'. It had good parking area. (outside, but secure). Even Radisson was available for ~2400. But the location is neither near NH-19, nor near the ghats/river.
I reached the hotel at 8 pm. Kept luggage/changed and went out at 8:15pm to Assi ghat , 10 min walk away. Then extended the walk till Dashashwamedh ghat along the river (~2 km). It provided a fresh relief after a 16-hour drive.
Next day started at 7 am. Was out of Varanasi in 3-4 mins via Ramnagar bridge (in the map). Reached NH-19 few km away in about 10 mins more.
The above map shows a possible area to select a hotel if you want to take a quick visit to the ghats.
Complete route map (Delhi to Kolkata), I followed
https://goo.gl/maps/Jv9xKJ6NsyAwPi428
Agra (YEW) >> ALE >> Etawah (NH19)>> Kanpur >> Prayagraj >> Varanasi >> Danbad >>
Good: Delhi >> YEW >> ALE >> Etawah >> Kanpur.
Bad: Kanpur to Handia, there are hundreds of bridges being constructed. For about 4 hours, there is few mins of good road and few mins of diversion, continuously. It was very frustrating
Ugly: UP-Bihar border Karmanasa bridge. 10km long jam. Followed the locals for way-out.
Kolkata to Delhi Day1:
Started: Kolkata at 10:00 am
Reached: Durgapur town (Relative's place) at 2:00 pm
3.5 hour drive-time + overall 30-min break = Total 4 hour journey time.
14 hour drive-time + overall 2-hour break = Total 16 hour journey time.
~180 km Drive
Day2:
Started: Durgapur town (Relative's place) at 4:30 am
Reached: Varanasi hotel at 6:30 pm
13 hour drive-time + overall 3-hour break = Total 16:00 hour journey time.
~510 km Drive
(a) A big jam at a tool just before the UP-Bihar border. (b) Massive, and expected jam at UP-Binar border on the Karmanasa river. Again wrong-side/jam/slow-drive etc.
Thereafter we spent the next entire-day at Varanasi, enjoying the vibes of the place, the ghats, food, Vishwanath temple, and some much-needed rest.
Stay:
"Hotel Temple on Ganges", Varanasi
This has sufficient parking of its own. About 2 mins walk from Assi Ghat.
One of the very few hotels, so near the river to have their own parking.
But this has about 10 mins extra drive compare to the hotel I stayed in my Delhi>>Varanasi>> Kolkata leg.
But I also had plans to spend 2 nights (1 full day) at the hotel and explore the ghats/city.
Day3:
Started: Varanasi hotel at 6:00 pm
Reached: Kolkata, Barrackpore at 2:00 pm
3.5 hour drive-time + overall 30-min break = Total 4 hour journey time.
~180 km Drive
(We not worried about the relatively late start, as we knew that YEW and Delhi will be easy to drive even after dark, and Delhi roads are familiar).
Complete route map (Kolkata to Delhi), I followed
https://goo.gl/maps/Go8RSzxkamZ7vk8WA
Durgapur (NH19) >> Dhanbad >> Varanasi >> Raebareli (NH30)>> Lucknow >> ALE >> Agra (YEW)
Good: Kolkata >> Durgapur >> Dhanbad. Excellent & continous good roads.
Bad: Dhanbad >> Aurangabad >> Dehri >> Sasaram. Occasional diversions and bad patch at Dehri.
Bad: Rae-Bareli had some major diversion going through dusty village roads.
Ugly: Karmanasa toll-booth with 5 km long truck line. Karmanasa Bridge at UP-Bihar border 8-km long jam.
Some Pictures
Somewhere in Bihar
Somewhere in Jharkhand
Somewhere in West Bengal