[arindam30]

Originally Posted by haisaikat

I plan to travel end of March from Kolkata to Varanasi. If I make the travel during the night, will i be able to bypass the majority of the traffic issues on this route?

I will recommend driving by daylight or started very early morning and drive the initial 1-2 hour before daylight (rather than after). Starting (very) early morning will also save you lots of small/intermittent traffic hold-ups from local traffic. So a 4 am start will give you a good 4-5 hour of smooth passage.

Also very important is you reach Karmanasa river bridge (broken) at least by 3-4 pm. There is huge pile-up and you may need to follow local people via village-roads / service-lanes / wrong-side etc. Doing it in the day-light will be much easier.

[evilminstrel]

I travelled from Ranchi to Faridabad on 14th and 15th March 2021. Here are some happy updates:

1. Karamnasa River bridge is repaired, opened, and functional.
2. Dehri-on-Sone was a breeze to cross, no issues there
3. For the folks who come to Delhi via Lucknow, the Unchahar bridge which was under construction is fully functional as well.

What a pleasant surprise it was this time

I took Ranchi - Hazaribagh - Aurangabad - Varanasi- Allahabad -Unchahar - Rae Bareilly - Lucknow -Delhi route

[Sail]

Originally Posted by evilminstrel

I took Ranchi - Hazaribagh - Aurangabad - Varanasi- Allahabad -Unchahar - Rae Bareilly - Lucknow -Delhi route

Hi evilminstrel,

Thanks for the update.

Appreciate if you can highlight more on Aurangabad – Varanasi sector. On road conditions, traffic jams, what time you passed this section etc.

My family will be going back to Gurgaon from Kolkata after a long stay in Kolkata with my driver and I am away from home. They will have two nights stay at Varanasi for rest as well as religious reasons.


Brdgs
Sail

[evilminstrel]

Originally Posted by Sail

Hi evilminstrel,

Appreciate if you can highlight more on Aurangabad – Varanasi sector. On road conditions, traffic jams, what time you passed this section etc.

Brdgs
Sail

I started early from Ranchi and crossed Aurangabad around 10.30 AM. I was in Chandauli by 12.45 pm. I got car's tank full at Chandauli BP Ghar (COCO) and had lunch with family in the COCO dhaba itself. By 14.30, we left Chandauli and by 17.30 we were in Allahabad. We called it a day in Allahabad. Also, we stopped for tea breaks, breakfast etc between Ranchi and Aurangabad so the time mentioned above may not be proportional to the distance we covered. The trip from Chandauli to Allahabad was with no break.

Road in Aurangabad-Varanasi section is not bad. There was no traffic jam. I was not in traffic even for 5 minutes anywhere, even on toll plazas. See infamous Sasaram Toll Plaza for example (attached here)

I guess apart from the fact that Karamnasa bridge and Dehri on sone was smooth to pass, the day also played a role. I always try to cover this stretch on a Sunday. So I try starting from Ranchi on a Sunday and from Delhi on a Saturday.

[meetarin]

Does anyone know a good doctor who can treat procrastination!?

While I sit down to write this short blog, a lot of traffic has passed through NH-19 and a lot of water through the Ganga. Nevertheless, I still thought of penning this down because well, how much of a 1500 km road can change drastically in two months!

PPE is quite the buzzword in this pandemic hit world, so I will borrow the word in this blog:
Premise
Planning
Execution

Premise - My Hyundai i10 Magna 1.1 (HR registration) had served me for 6 years and has seen all my struggles in life. A good companion always, it never let me down in any situation. The car had been plying in Kolkata and suburbs since late 2017 and the first couple of years in the state had mostly been trouble-free. However with the onset of the pandemic, it drew more attention of the cops for unknown reasons which would result in my harassment on frequent occasions. To be honest it became a bit frustrating. I did have a plan to upgrade my car, though not immediately. But with the hassle peaking, I finally decided to part ways with my beloved i10, because it was not worth spending the money for registering it in WB for a 6 year old hatch.

Planning - With the decision in place, I started enquiring locally, both offline and in the Hyundai showroom. The offers were not lucrative at all, and thus I decided to drive down to Delhi and sell it off there. Meanwhile, I also spoke to the showroom from where I made the purchase and also booked an appointment with Cars24 for the coming week of 17th Jan.

The date of the departure was decided to be 14th Jan. Accordingly, I visited the Hyundai Service Station to get a full service done including wheel alignments. The day prior to the journey, all the tyres were checked thoroughly for possible damages and punctures. I had to ensure that small hungers and sleepiness during the drive don’t go unnoticed, so I made enough purchase of chocolates and a pair of RedBulls. Of course, order was placed to Mom’s kitchen to pack breakfast and lunch; along with a flask of tea, which is much needed on a long drive, especially when you are alone.

Execution - Pros always advise on catching enough sleep before the day of the journey, but this is something which has always eluded me. I never manage to get more than 4-5 hours of sleep before the day of the journey, and surprisingly, it has never troubled me. With the alarm set at 3.30 am, I woke up timely, quickly got ready and was ready for the challenge. My parents were a bit upset that I always listen to none other than myself and I assured that I will share my live location with them. With that, I bid goodbye to them and the wheels started rolling at 4.45 am. While going to Delhi, there is not much one can experiment with the route and can simply follow the NH-19. I was no exception.

In an hour, I hit the Durgapur expressway crossing the towns of Memari and Rasulpur. Though it was the Sankranti, which is apparently the peak of winters in Bengal, the night was not very cold and there was hardly any fog. While crossing Memari, I was stopped by WBP cops, they just did a routine check and let me go without further questions. I smiled myself thinking that the farewell wasn’t bad!

My first stop for breakfast was right at the WB-Jharkhand border. The plan throughout was not to make frequent stops and by this time, I had already driven for 3.5 hours and 195 kms. After 20 mins or so, I resumed the drive again and soon entered Jharkhand. Durgapur Expressway, as most of you know is pretty good to drive. With entering Jharkhand, the quality of roads went down by few notches. The silver lining for the entire stretch of Jharkhand is that a lot of roads are being made and the day is not far when we are going to see beautiful roads to drive in Jharkhand. Nevertheless, crossing Jharkhand was not a very difficult affair, except a small delay in the Bagodar toll plaza. The folks tried to extract cash saying my Fastag doesn’t have balance, I thought it could be a trap and insisted they scan the tag using a hand-held scanner and the matter was sorted.

Next up was the drive through Bihar. Just before entering Bihar, I finished my lunch at about 12.30 because I didn’t want to lose time after entering the state and the intention was to cross the Sasaram toll plaza as early as possible. Before my drive, I had enquired a lot both in Team-BHP and few friends (who frequent this route) about the deadlocks in Bihar, and to be honest, the words were not very encouraging. I was mentally prepared for the possible congestions but to my surprise, I was crossing the dreaded bottlenecks one after the another at ease. At certain places, the road was crowded, probably because of Sankranti melas and trucks driving on the wrong side was a common sight. However, crossing the infamous bottlenecks of Sher Ghati, Jawahar Bridge and eventually, Sasaram toll plaza and Karmanasha toll plaza was a breeze. I could not thank my stars more!

The worst stretch was crossing the Karmnasha canal, the broken bridge was still there and construction for the new bridge was still in progress. This is probably where the front tyre on the driver’s side picked up a big nail and resulted in a flat tyre. At this point, I was actually driving ahead of ETA, and the flat tyre went on to prove the truthfulness of Murphy’s law. I was just 60 kms away from my destination for the day and had to encounter some moderately dense fog because of this setback.

I finally reached my hostel (GoStops hostel) in Varanasi at 7.26 pm. The plan earlier was to experience the evening aarti but I thought it prudent to call it a day and explore Varanasi on the next back-up day.

To be continued - Day 2 (Varanasi-Delhi)

Live Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iZJvmffSSE

The only three pictures clicked on Day 1:

[Sail]

My family safely completed Kolkata – Gurgaon trip yesterday with one night stay at Varanasi.

I was monitoring their progress from Pacific Ocean, keeping close contacts with them.

Day 1 // 02 Apr

Departure Kolkata, Ballygunge: 0230 hrs
Arrived Varanasi, Rivatas Hotel: 1530 hrs

Food was home packed, so not much delay or stoppage other than two petrol filling at Nirsa & Chandauli at my pre-decided Reliance petrol bunk. Roads in WB & JH mostly empty, may be due to time & polls. Surprise package was JH roads, now repaired and smooth sailing. They did face little hick-ups around Dehri on Son Bridge and adjacent areas. Slow moving traffic / light traffic jam was there on Ganges bridge of NH-19, I immediately asked them to take a U-turn and pass via Ramnagar-Padao and then cross via old bridge and GT road.

Day 2 // 03 Apr

Departure Varanasi hotel: 0600 hrs
Arrived Gurgaon home: 1915 hrs.

Varanasi-Handia sector is improved now, nothing to complain. Number of diversions after Allahabad by-Pass to Kanpur sector very less now than what I saw in last year June. They had 3-stops for food / break and one petrol filling stop 22 kms after Kanpur elevated road, again at pre-decided Reliance bunk.

Passing Aurangabad – Varanasi sector at correct time is the key point now. Every time I passed this stretch at night, I have encountered huge traffic jams, especially Delhi bound track.

Overall, it was a pleasant trip for them. My hands are itching to drive back in May.

Brdgs
Sail

[avi_swift]

After a long 7 months in Kolkata, we returned to Delhi on 19th March. Started from Kolkata on 17th, took a break on 18th in Varanasi and reached Delhi on 19th. To avoid city traffic, we planned an early start at 4:30 AM, but sadly, was immediately caught in a HUGE truck snarl even before we crossed Dankuni. After 10-15 minutes, finally the road cleared. The road till Panagarh is 4 laned, and 6 laned afterwards. The small potholes which we encountered 7 months back, appears to have been repaired. Tarmac was excellent till Dhanbad.

After Dhanbad, we were expecting horrible roads, like we witnessed 7 months ago. To our very pleasant surprise, we saw this:





Roads have drastically improved by now. Although the Jharkhand stretch was still the slowest since there are many diversions still, overall, the road quality is light years ahead from what we had seen on our way to Kolkata.



Since the road was quite good and the Jharkhand stretch is the most scenic, we took quite a lot of breaks





The bridge over the Sone river did not have too much traffic, but we saw many of these tractors carrying sand. In fact, some parts of the road resembled a mini desert, where the tractors stop due to traffic and sand gets blown everywhere.



The advise I received from this very thread was the Sasaram toll remains generally empty during the afternoon, and I am glad to have followed it.
Since we started at 4:30, we reached Sasaram around 3:30 PM, and it took hardly a minute to cross since I was behind 2 cars.

Another happy surprise was in store, as we didn't see the long line of trucks on the outskirts of Varanasi. Well, we did see this, on the Kolkata side, but honestly, this was a midget at around 0.5 KM. The snarl which we saw on the Delhi side 7 months back was easily 5-10 times longer than this.



So, the only snarl we faced on that day was the horrible traffic before Dankuni, where we least expected it.

We were on the outskirts of Benaras by 5:30, but it took a further 1.5 hours to reach our hotel in the cantonment area. I have driven to Varanasi only once before(while going to Kolkata), and at that time I felt that driving there is same as any other Indian town. Maybe it was because the domestic tourist industry was still almost shut down at that time (ironically, the total COVID count was probably way lower then). This time though, driving in Benaras was a whole different experience. Some time back, I read a survey has said that Kolkata has the best drivers in India and Delhi the worst. I'm sure whoever did the survey has never set foot in Benaras. I did not spot a single working traffic light in 3 days(either they were switched off or were blinking yellow). And as expected, traffic was basically a free for all.

We found this hotel from MakemyTrip and it was quite good as well as VFM. The only thing was: none of the staff wore masks. We found it to be quite strange as nowadays, it must be a rare occurrence indeed.



With no other option, we liberally used the sanitizer spray which we were carrying all over the room.



We spent the whole day inside the hotel as it was too hot outside. The only thing I did was fill the car up and the tires. The weather turned pleasant during the afternoon and we decided to visit what Varanasi is best known for: ghats.

Rail bridge inside the town.



There are many boats offering a ride down the river. My suggestion will be to opt for a manual row boat. They are quite small and you can rent one for yourself only. The boats with a motor fitted and larger and take on almost 20-30 tourists per trip.



The river and the town made for a beautiful sight.



The famous ghats..





This is the Darbhanga ghat with the Darbhanga palace. Now this palace has been converted to a luxury hotel, but sadly, they have demolished almost half the palace while doing so. Kolkata also used to have a Darbhanga palace where 'The 42' now stands. Satyajit Ray's fans will recognize this as 'Machli Baba's' place in Joy Baba Felunath.



We pulled up alongside dozens of other boats to watch the famous Ganga Arati.



Watching the ongoing Arati..





The fancy boat is the Alaknanda from Alaknanda Cruise. I was not aware of this company before, definitely something to try out next time you are in Benaras.



After the Arati, we moved upriver till Manikarnika Ghat, after which, the boat will turn back and drop us from where we had embarked



This is the Lalita Ghat, and the construction that you see is for a parking lot (as per our boatman) for the visitors to Kashi Vishwanath Temple





We requested our boatman to drop off near the Dashashwamedh Ghat since we wanted to explore the famous lanes of Kashi. After getting down, the first thing we did was visit the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Since cameras are not allowed inside, there are no pictures. One thing I must mention is the entire neighborhood of the temple has been demolished, for the construction of the Vishwanath corridor. After paying obeisance to the Lord, we returned to exploring Kashi.

Man Mandir on the Man Mandir ghat, constructed by Maharaj Jai Singh of Jaipur.



Exploring the lanes of Kashi on foot is an experience which is not to be missed at any cost. Unfortunately due to less than adequate light, I do not have any 'uploadable' pictures. But in the evening, with very less people around, we enjoyed it thoroughly, guided only by GoogleMaps. By the time we reached Darbhanga ghat, it was almost 9, so we called it a day and returned to our hotel.





Started for Delhi next morning at 6AM.



The road till Prayagraj is a superb 6 laned highway.



We took a break on the outskirts of Allahabad. The road bifurcates here, one going inside the town while the highway goes to Kanpur.



We actually wanted to try the road via Kanpur, so we went straight. But, soon after, the quality changed with numerous diversions and suddenly, it was Jharkhand all over again. After reaching Kanpur, we looked for a way to reach the Agra Lucknow Expressway but it seemed we had to cross the town to do so. It was almost 2 and traffic was a mess, so reluctantly, we decided to continue on the highway to Etawah. Thankfully the roads improved after Kanpur and we didn't encounter any bad stretch till we joined the ALE in Etawah. In hindsight, though, I think the Rae Bareli route is the one to take, in spite of the slightly longer distance and the bad condition of the road between Allahabad and Lucknow.



Yamuna Expressway at last..



We reached Greater Noida by 6 PM, however, the horrible Delhi traffic ensured that we reached home after another couple of hours. It was a strange feeling, driving on the familiar roads after a long 7 months.

The car performed admirably as usual. Fastag also worked flawlessly. Only thing is the Agra Bypass and the YEW do not accept Fastag, so you have to pay by cash. All the other toll plazas accepted Fastag.

I must say I never thought driving this long is a feasible option in India, especially for me, since I always try to avoid driving during the night. But after this 3000 KM round trip, I will try to drive home again if I get a long enough break

[The_Motorist]

Hello Everyone

A very quick update for all the driving enthusiast on this route (Kolkata – Varanasi - Allahabad – Kanpur – Etawah - Gwalior)
This was my fourth drive on this route & by far the best.
So, I recently(9th & 10th May 2021) covered this route on my Creta from Kolkata to Gwalior(1270 kms approx) & below given is my personal experience & feedback on my travel of crossing the FIVE states of West Bengal – Jharkhand – Bihar – Uttar Pradesh – Madhya Pradesh:

Day 1:
• Started from Kolkata at 5am
• Arrived at Varanasi at 4pm
• West Bengal: Overall superb ride throughout the state
• Though witnessed some good no. of parallel driving trucks leading to slight
slowdown in my drive otherwise overall smooth drive
• Jharkhand: 70% of the drive was a sail owing to newly repaired / laid down roads
& remaining 30% was OK to drive
• Bihar: Though no traffic BUT worse road out of the five states I crossed
• Given Sone de bridge is repaired now, it was an easy cross across the bridge
• Thankfully did not witness any UP/Bihar border traffic & was in Varanasi by 4pm
through Mughalsarai
• Traffic within the city of Varanasi was very sparse & negotiating it to reach the
hotel was no big deal

Day 2
• Started from Varanasi at 8:30am
• Arrived Gwalior at 6pm
• Uttar Pradesh: Varanasi to Allahabad was like a wink & a pleasure to drive
• Allahabad to Kanpur: Initial stretch of 100 – 120km is good & remaining stretch
has got lot of diversions due to construction of lot of flyover.
• In coming years, even this stretch should become a much smoother a ride
• Kanpur to Etawah: overall road was superb, though it had its share of local bike
traffic at certain points, otherwise again overall good to drive
• Etawah to Gwalior: I would say, I’m slightly disappointed by the road conditions,
majority of the highways is without divider leading to poor driving discipline
witnessed.

On a concluding note, this time my overall experience of driving on this route was the quickest & best so far.
Cheers !!

[brownianmotion]

Originally Posted by evilminstrel

I travelled from Ranchi to Faridabad on 14th and 15th March 2021. Here are some happy updates:

3. For the folks who come to Delhi via Lucknow, the Unchahar bridge which was under construction is fully functional as well.

What a pleasant surprise it was this time

I took Ranchi - Hazaribagh - Aurangabad - Varanasi- Allahabad -Unchahar - Rae Bareilly - Lucknow -Delhi route

Thanks a lot for this nice update. Could you please let me know whether N30 from Raeberaily towards Kunda bypass is fully open and there is no need to take detour anywhere ? Reason is whilst we were coming from Lucknow to Varanasi through Raeberaily in October 2020, NH 30 from Raeberaily towards Kunda bypass was closed just after crossing Raeberaily civil line chawk due to either repair or construction of some flyover - not sure what it was. So we need to take a detour from Civil Lines Chawk, crossed a make shift bridge on Sai river , took Pratapgarh Raeberaily road and then again merged onto NH30 near Kuchariya crossing. We lost much time .

[arindam30]

Originally Posted by brownianmotion

Thanks a lot for this nice update. Could you please let me know whether N30 from Raeberaily towards Kunda bypass is fully open and there is no need to take detour anywhere ? Reason is whilst we were coming from Lucknow to Varanasi through Raeberaily in October 2020, NH 30 from Raeberaily towards Kunda bypass was closed just after crossing Raeberaily civil line chawk due to either repair or construction of some flyover - not sure what it was. So we need to take a detour from Civil Lines Chawk, crossed a make shift bridge on Sai river , took Pratapgarh Raeberaily road and then again merged onto NH30 near Kuchariya crossing. We lost much time .

The Raeberaily flyover repair is done and it's a good route between Lucknow and Pryagraj. Some parts of this stretch are without divider, but in general, not much traffic to bother.
For the entire route-details (Delhi to Kolkata), with traffic and toll conditions, you can also refer this personal blog.
delhi-to-kolkata-road-trip

[Ravi Yadav]

Planning for a kolkata trip during the first week of August. I have a few queries.
1. How safe is the lucknow expressway during this period (1am to 4am).

2. In case i drop the Raebareli route and take either of the exits for
Etawah or Kanpur how safe are these connecting routes to NH-19.

3.Do we need RT-PCR test for kids.

[anantpoddar]

Originally Posted by Ravi Yadav

Planning for a kolkata trip during the first week of August. I have a few queries.
1. How safe is the lucknow expressway during this period (1am to 4am).

2. In case i drop the Raebareli route and take either of the exits for
Etawah or Kanpur how safe are these connecting routes to NH-19.

3.Do we need RT-PCR test for kids.

I recently did this route again in mid-June

1. The expressways are safe at night as long as you don't stop anywhere apart from the tolls / rest-stops. I consider stopping among the trucks right after the toll-booths as the safest option at night.

2. Kanpur-Etawah route is sparsely populated in some of the stretches and had lot of diversions in Dec '20. If you're planning to reach the Kanpur exit of ALE at 4am, I would recommend you drive to Lucknow and take the Raebareli exit by 6am instead. Much safer option and the roads are also in good shape now.

3. RT-PCR reports were not checked anywhere between Kol-Del. There was a check-post on the Bengal-Jharkhand border but somehow our vehicle was not stopped.

[Sail]

Hi,

Did this route on 4-5 July.
No one asked for RT-PCR test.
At WB border I was asked about my destination.

Surprisingly I was fined INR 500/- somewhere in JH at a check-post, for not obtaining lockdown pass.
They are only stopping private vehicles.
Please do get a pass to avoid the fine.

Over-all road condition is much better now.
Kanpur - Etawah sector you will be flying.
Quite a few diversions will slow you down in Kanpur -to- Prayagraj by-pass sector. This 140 kms will take 2.5 - 3.0 hrs minimum.

Safe travel,

Brdgs
Sail

[SidharthaN]

The Jharkhand website does not have a transit section. It has incoming section where you have to mention your stay at JH details, but I am passing through. How is one supposed to apply for the pass then

[Ravi Yadav]

Originally Posted by Sail

Hi,

Surprisingly I was fined INR 500/- somewhere in JH at a check-post, for not obtaining lockdown pass.
They are only stopping private vehicles.
Please do get a pass to avoid the fine.

Brdgs
Sail

Hi Sail , was Jharkand observing a lockdown on the day you passed. Requesting fellow bhpians from JH to share input on interstate travel rules.