Madhavpur beach road, Gujarat

Madhavpur beach road, Gujarat enroute to Dwarka.



(Picture courtesy: Anoop A Bari in May 2015)



(Picture courtesy: Anoop A Bari in May 2015)



(Picture courtesy: Anoop A Bari in May 2015)



(Picture courtesy: Nirmesh Pratap Singh Chauhan in February 2015)

Rickshaw Run (Jaisalmer to Shillong) by Rutavi Mehta in April 2015

Rutavi Mehta born in Mumbai is one of only a handful of Indian women to ever participate in the Rickshaw Run. Adventure has been in her blood since she was a little girl and has led her on some amazing adventures, such as hiking to Everest Base Camp and spending months living on the remote and uninhabited Lakshadweep Island. Using her travel stories and experiences, as well as the Rickshaw Run, she strives to empower women with a “women can do, and will do” attitude for Indian women. Aiming to show that Indian women, and in fact all women in general, can take on incredible journeys and travel India safely. It all starts with the realization that they can overcome any fear.

The Rickshaw Run:
http://www.theadventurists.com/rickshaw-run,
http://www.photokatha.in/indian-travel-blogger-on-rickshaw-run-2015/

Drove Rickshaw all the way across India's widest bit, from the Rajasthan desert in Jaislamer to the Meghalaya hills in Shillong - 2700 kms in 2 weeks, 6th - 18th April, 2015.

Rutavi drove the Rickshaw Run along with Derek Freal & Ryan Brown.
Since Rutavi was the only Indian, she did the entire route for 4 teams, viz.
Polar Exploreres - Canadians,
Teen Romanchak Yaar - her own team,
Horrendous Koalas and
Skjegg - Norway.

H.V.Kumar has helped her with her route plan across India. Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Jaipur-Agra-Kanpur-Lucknow-Ayodhya-Gorakhpur-Gopalganj-Muzaffarpur-Darbhanga-Forbesganj-Purnea-Dalkola-Siliguri-Birpara-Alipurduar-Bongaigaon-Nalbari-Rangiya-Guwahati-Shillong.

They funded the ride themselves on a tight budget.

Jammu-Srinagar highway closed due to snowfall & land slides at several places in early March 2015

Jammu - Srinagar National Highway continued to be closed due to snowfall & land slides at several places in early March 2015.

(Photo & news courtesy: Ajay Wali from Jammu)

Car breaks into two after crash on Yamuna Expressway on 2015-01-10

A woman died on Saturday 10th January 2015, after a car she was travelling in hit the divider on Yamuna Expressway and broke into two pieces. The woman’s husband who was driving the car lost his control and slammed it into a divider. The other two occupants were injured in the accident. The victims were travelling from Etawah to Noida.
The accident took place near 105 milestone on the Yamuna Expressway.
The deceased Archana, her husband Ranveer Bhadoria and his friend Ankur were heading to Noida when they met with the accident.
The expressway was blocked for about half an hour after the accident.

Whistle of rear engine of Volvo B7R accelerating to 110 kmph

Accelerating to 110 kmph.
The whistle of the rear engine of the Volvo B7R as the turbo set in was sweet music for the ears even while I was following this beast in my VW Vento TDI.
This was on 2015-01-25 afternoon very near the crossing of NH6 and NH2.
The bus was plying on the Kolkata - Asansol route.

Drunk driving kills six at Thirupalaikudi, Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu on 2015-04-14

Six people were killed when a car collided with an SUV at Thirupalaikudi in the Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday (2015-04-14).
Police said five youths were returning to Karaikudi from Rameshwaram when their Maruti Swift car collided head-on with a Bolero SUV. All the passengers in the car were drunk, and police said rash driving under the influence of liquor could be the reason for the accident.
While three people died on the spot, three others succumbed to their injuries later, either on the way to hospital or in hospital.
The deceased include all youths in the car and a person who travelled in the SUV. Another person in the SUV, who sustained injuries, was admitted to hospital.
The deceased and the injured were yet to be identified.

(Source: Times of India)

Rage on Social Media on Delhi banning diesel vehicles over 10 years old

Citing environmental issues Delhi has decided to ban all categories of diesel vehicles which are over 10 years old.
Debates are raging across every platform in the Social Media.

This one by a gentleman is so apt:

"These guys are fools if they think they can "assist" the environment by banning older vehicles which are in perfect order. This is a typical knee-jerk reaction from the government. Even dead bodies will kick out a leg if whacked hard enough.
The solution would be to ensure smoother traffic movement, fewer traffic signals, higher speed limits, no speed-breakers, keep pedestrians off the roads, improve parking, encourage the adoption of electric vehicles coupled with solar chargers, mandate solar charging facilities for EVs in all commercial establishments, eliminate heavy vehicle movement inside city limits (only smaller goods vehicles allowed), eliminate ageing buses and replace with modern higher efficiency vehicles, more rapid deployment of metro, bidding system for office "start" timings to avoid "rush-hour" situations (more on this in a separate post)...
But all the above take dedication, vision and execution.
Much easier to just sign a piece of paper that says "BANNED" on it."

Sambalpur (OD) to Raipur (CG) - Indian Roadie Preferred Route, Motoring Route, Driving Route, Best Route for road trip

Indian Roadie Preferred Route, Motoring Route, Driving Route, Best Route for road trip from 

Sambalpur to Raipur 

(Sambalpur_Raipur): 

Sambalpur town (Laxmi Talkies Chowk) ---- 
Sambalpur NH6 Ainthapalli crossing (4 kms) ---- ROR: Deogarh, Kharagpur, Kolkata via NH6. RA: Jharsuguda, Rajgangpur, Rourkela. ROL: Bargarh, Raipur, Nagpur, Mumbai via NH6 ---- Remed Chak, Sambalpur ---- Mahanadi River Bridge and Hirakud Station (11 kms) ---- Bargarh (ICICI Bank, Gandhi Chowk) (40 kms) ---- Kamco Springs factory (14 kms) ---- Sohela (15 kms) ---- Luhurachati (Inter state Orissa Chattisgarh border check post) (16 kms) ---- Saraipalli (32 kms) ---- Basna (21 kms) ---- Sankra (19 kms) ---- Pithora (17 kms) (ROR: Barnawapara Forest) ---- Patewa (38 kms) (ROR: Sirpur 17 kms) ---- Tumgaon Police Stn (10 kms) ---- 
Kodar Resort (3 kms) (on right of NH6) ----
Crossing of NH6 and NH353 (ROL: Mahasamund 10 kms) (8 kms) ---- Mahanadi River Bridge (2 kms) ---- Arang (7 kms) ---- 
Jindal Power & Steel stockyard (9 kms) ---- 
MM College of Technology + Mayoor School, Raipur on left of NH6 (3 kms) ---- HPCL Raipur Depot on left of NH6 (8 kms) ---- Monnet Ispat & Energy (2 kms) ---- Jindal Steel plant on left of NH6 (2 kms) ---- 
ROR Naya Raipur (2 kms) ---- Treasure Island Mall on right of NH6 (2 kms) ---- Magneto Mall, Labhandi, Raipur with PVR & KFC on right of NH6 (3 kms) ---- Raipur NH6 bypass on left flank (1 km) ---- Raipur Rly Stn on right flank (7 kms) via Gaurav Path, Ghari Chowk, Jail Road, Hotel Babylon, Hotel Celebration.

Suggested hotels in Raipur: 

Hotel Celebration, Hotel Babylon.

Distance from Sambalpur (Laxmi Talkies Chowk) to Raipur (Hotel Celebration, near railway station) = 294 kms.

Expected driving time = 5 hrs.

Not too many eating joints enroute, unless one is keen on a stopover at the Chattisgarh Tourism lodges in the dense forests.
Toilets at the fuel pumps are not too clean enroute. However, there are a few exceptions at some of the pumps located in the outskirts of Sambalpur and Raipur.

ROR: Road on Right; ROL: Road on Left; RA: Road Ahead.

'Ram Bhakt' on the move in Jalna, Maharashtra

Indian Roadie, Deep Banerjee spotted this M&M Scorpio on the outskirts of Jalna, Maharashtra while driving from Pune to Kolkata in March 2013.
The owner appears to be a great 'Ram Bhakt'!
I wonder if these 'Ram Bhakts' can get away flouting all rules laid out in the Motor Vehicles Act in India.
Be honest .... can you read the registration plate in 5 secs flat?
Jai Ram Ji Ki!

P.S: In Maharashtra, 4141 is a sought after number because it can be scripted in Marathi to look like 'DADA'!

NH6 between Chichira and Jamsola on 2015-04-30

Road update on 2015-04-30 by Kishalay Haldar driving a 2005 M&M Scorpio CRDe with wife and minor daughter enroute to Mumbai from Kolkata:

"NH6 between Chichira and Jamsola is just pure horror. The road is full of craters. Some are so deep that even my Scorpio could not negotiate them. I heard light scrapes and thuds in underbody. At places the entire width of the road is that deep and full of water. I had no choice but get into the crater without knowing how deep it is. The sides were worn out and slushy.
We reached Bahargora, the border chekpost between Jharkhand and Orissa, through that kind of road. As expected the place is madness. It is just a big field with 100s of huge trucks moving in all directions. We got an unsolicited advice from a local to take a bypass through the market and merge with NH6 at Jamsola. Looking at the chaos, we took that advice.
The bypass essentially is narrow village road, some 10km, but much better surface. After merging with NH6 the horror continued till the ghat section. Then onwards till Ghuntur (Near Keonjhar), we found road to be free of any major nuisance.
NH6 soon becomes two-way road and was marked as NH49".

Kishalaya Haldar left Kolkata at 5am and reached Sambalpur at 6pm.
He is thrilled that he could show his little daughter what an Indian village looks like.