Kolkata to Jagdalpur‬, Tirathgarh, ‪Chitrakoot & back in 3 days in July 2015 (Day-1)

Day-1‪‎:
IndianRoadie‬, Soumitra Bhattacharjee left Kolkata with wife and daughter in his ‪‎MahindraScorpio‬ on 16th July 2015 post midnight at 12.30am for a 3 days drive to ‪‎Jagdalpur‬ & ‪Chitrakoot‬ (Chhattisgarh‬) for his own version of a solo rain drive.
He drove on NH6 upto Kharagpur, NH60 upto Balasore and NH5 upto Bhubaneswar.
He reportedly stopped for breakfast at Bhubaneswar at 7am.
After breakfast he drove on NH5 past Khurda, Barkul, Ganjam, Brahmapur, Ichapuram, Elluru, Srikakulam and a further 12 kms south upto Chilakapalem, before turning right to exit NH5 and enter Andhra Pradesh SH36.
Soumitra drove on AP SH36 which merged into NH43 at the Ramabhadrapuram junction.
From Ramabhadrapuram, he drove on NH43 via Sunabeda, Koraput, Jeypore and right upto Jagdalpur.
For the uninitiated, Sunabeda, Koraput, Jeypore are in Odisha and became famous from the late 1980s after the huge investments which were made by the Govt of India while setting up National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO).
Soumitra & family stopped for a late lunch near Koraput at 4.30pm.
He had to drive through blinding rains for a little over an hour upto Jagdalpur.
Reached Jagdalpur around 6.30pm and checked into Atithi Inn Hotel, near Railway Station & New Bus Stand (Tariff: Rs.800 for AC rooms & Rs.600 for non-AC Deluxe rooms).
Indicative distances (vide Google maps):
Srikakulam bypass on NH5 - Chilakapalem on NH5 = 15 kms,
Chilakapalem - Ramabhadrapuram junction = 75 kms,
Ramabhadrapuram - Koraput = 100 kms,
Koraput - Jeypore = 25 kms,
Jeypore - Jagdalpur = 85 kms.
Except for about 30 kms of rough patches on AP SH36 and on NH43, the stretch has very good road surface. However, the entire distance from Chilakapalem to Jagdalpur is double lane.
Ghat section on NH43 = 60 kms approx.
Day 1 (2015-07-16), actual distance driven from residence in Kolkata to Jagdalpur = 1120 kms in 18 hours.
Indian Roadie fans from ‪Chennai‬, ‪Vijaywada‬ can turn left near ‪Visakhapatnam‬ or ‪‎Vizianagram‬ to drive on ‪NH43‬ via ‪‎Araku‬.





(Photo & content credit: Soumitra Bhattacharjee. Additional inputs by: Deep Banerjee)