Road trip from Pune to Kolkata (Pune_Kolkata) via Nagpur, Sambalpur, Cuttack in January 2020.
This was almost 3 years before Samruddhi Expressway was opened for public use.
11/01/2020 - Day 1: Pune to Nagpur, 5.00am to 7.00pm (14 hrs).
12/01/2020 - Day 2: Nagpur to Angul, 5.30am to 6.30pm (13 hrs).
13/01/2020 - Day 3: Angul to Kolkata, 6.00am to 3.00pm (9 hrs).
Day 1:
Pune to Ahmednagar : Excellent well marked road after Shirur. Till Shirur there are intermittent unmarked rough patches . Didn’t use Nagar Bypass and drove via city.
Ahmednagar to Aurangabad : Excellent well marked 4 lane highway where you can easily maintain triple digit speed. Aurangabad bypass is very bad for initial 5 km near Kham river. It improves marginally after that. If travelling in off peak hours, travelling via city would be faster.
Auragabad to Jalna : 4 lane highway with rouge patches and random potholes.
Jalna to Mekhar : Around 80% road is good with occasional rough patches. Road from Sultanpur to Mekhar bypass is completely non existent.
Mekhar to Karanja : Only 50% road is good. Road becomes very bad near Kenwad after Dongaon. Some bad to very bad stretches till Shelu Bazar and some improvement after that.
Karanja to Amravati : We took a village road shown in Gmap instead of normal route via Pimpalgaon. This road connects to Loni before Amravati. We took the chance as normal route was already bad. But this village road was even worse and got underbody hit in 2 occasions. So not recommended. Please stick to the normal route.
250KM long undivided dual carriageway from Jalna to Amravati took 5 hrs 45 mins.
Amravati to Nagpur : Superb as always ! But Nagpur ORR in shambles as road widening in progress from west part of the city till NH44 connector to the south. Took a lot of time to cover this sector and it was a torture for the car. Better use inner ring road from Wadi
Nagpur to Bhandara to CG Border : Road surface is good but road becomes 2 lanes intermittently. The longest one is Bhandara. Elevated road construction is undergoing in Bhandara and few other small towns. Also traffic was very high. Took 2 hrs 40 mins to cross this 140 km stretch
CG broder to Bhilai : Excellent well marked road without any interruption. Only major town Rajnandgaon has nice elevated road to bypass. Used Durg Bypass to reach Bhilai directly. Elevated road under construction in Bhilai to Raipur sector. There are several signals between Bhilai and Raipur which would have taken lot more time to cross in the evening hours. So decided to stay at Bhilai itself.
Day 2 :
Please note standard route from Sambalpur to Angul to Dhenkanal to Cuttack in poor condition due to road widening and existing road is not repaired. So we decided to use OD SH /NH57 combo to manage the distance.
Bhilai to Sohela: Excellent road to maintain steady triple digit speed.
Sohela to Barpali : Very good undivided state highway. Except some village traffic but manageable.
Barpali to Sonepur : Again excellent road and you can maintain 70kmph easily once Barpali is crossed. Barpali has a railway crossing and we were stuck for 15mins.
Sonepur to Boudh : Superb NH57. Wider than SH. Well maintained and well marked. Goes along the bank of Mahanadi. At Boudh take left turn to the bridge to cross Mahanadi.
Boudh to Boinda Circle via Athmallik : Superb OD SH62. Not just Superb quality of tarmac but well marked with cat’s eye. Between Athmallik and Boinda, road goes via dense forest and ghat. A very enjoyable drive.
Boinda Circle to Athagarh : Mixed review on this stretch. Between Boinda and Barakeda 30km, you must take broken Sambalpur-Angul NH55. But we were okay that at least half of the road was concretized and traffic was allowed.
From Barakeda to Bantala to Mahidharpur to Athagarh, very good SH. Traffic builds up as you reach near to Athagarh.
Athagarh to Gopalpur ( Connecting NH16 before Cuttack) : From Athagarh, take road towards Mundali. View of Mahanadi from Mundali bridge is spectacular. Mahanadi is very wide at this point. Mundali to NH16 via Trishulia square is all good.
Cuttack to Kolkata via NH16 : 4 to 6 lane widening in progress till Bhadrak. As a result some long diversions and too much wrong side traffic. So low average speed initially. Uninterrupted from Bhadrak to Kharagpur to Kolkata with excellent roads all the way.
11/01/2020 - Day 1: Pune to Nagpur, 5.00am to 7.00pm (14 hrs).
12/01/2020 - Day 2: Nagpur to Angul, 5.30am to 6.30pm (13 hrs).
13/01/2020 - Day 3: Angul to Kolkata, 6.00am to 3.00pm (9 hrs).
Day 1:
Pune to Ahmednagar : Excellent well marked road after Shirur. Till Shirur there are intermittent unmarked rough patches . Didn’t use Nagar Bypass and drove via city.
Ahmednagar to Aurangabad : Excellent well marked 4 lane highway where you can easily maintain triple digit speed. Aurangabad bypass is very bad for initial 5 km near Kham river. It improves marginally after that. If travelling in off peak hours, travelling via city would be faster.
Auragabad to Jalna : 4 lane highway with rouge patches and random potholes.
Jalna to Mekhar : Around 80% road is good with occasional rough patches. Road from Sultanpur to Mekhar bypass is completely non existent.
Mekhar to Karanja : Only 50% road is good. Road becomes very bad near Kenwad after Dongaon. Some bad to very bad stretches till Shelu Bazar and some improvement after that.
Karanja to Amravati : We took a village road shown in Gmap instead of normal route via Pimpalgaon. This road connects to Loni before Amravati. We took the chance as normal route was already bad. But this village road was even worse and got underbody hit in 2 occasions. So not recommended. Please stick to the normal route.
250KM long undivided dual carriageway from Jalna to Amravati took 5 hrs 45 mins.
Amravati to Nagpur : Superb as always ! But Nagpur ORR in shambles as road widening in progress from west part of the city till NH44 connector to the south. Took a lot of time to cover this sector and it was a torture for the car. Better use inner ring road from Wadi
Nagpur to Bhandara to CG Border : Road surface is good but road becomes 2 lanes intermittently. The longest one is Bhandara. Elevated road construction is undergoing in Bhandara and few other small towns. Also traffic was very high. Took 2 hrs 40 mins to cross this 140 km stretch
CG broder to Bhilai : Excellent well marked road without any interruption. Only major town Rajnandgaon has nice elevated road to bypass. Used Durg Bypass to reach Bhilai directly. Elevated road under construction in Bhilai to Raipur sector. There are several signals between Bhilai and Raipur which would have taken lot more time to cross in the evening hours. So decided to stay at Bhilai itself.
Day 2 :
Please note standard route from Sambalpur to Angul to Dhenkanal to Cuttack in poor condition due to road widening and existing road is not repaired. So we decided to use OD SH /NH57 combo to manage the distance.
Bhilai to Sohela: Excellent road to maintain steady triple digit speed.
Sohela to Barpali : Very good undivided state highway. Except some village traffic but manageable.
Barpali to Sonepur : Again excellent road and you can maintain 70kmph easily once Barpali is crossed. Barpali has a railway crossing and we were stuck for 15mins.
Sonepur to Boudh : Superb NH57. Wider than SH. Well maintained and well marked. Goes along the bank of Mahanadi. At Boudh take left turn to the bridge to cross Mahanadi.
Boudh to Boinda Circle via Athmallik : Superb OD SH62. Not just Superb quality of tarmac but well marked with cat’s eye. Between Athmallik and Boinda, road goes via dense forest and ghat. A very enjoyable drive.
Boinda Circle to Athagarh : Mixed review on this stretch. Between Boinda and Barakeda 30km, you must take broken Sambalpur-Angul NH55. But we were okay that at least half of the road was concretized and traffic was allowed.
From Barakeda to Bantala to Mahidharpur to Athagarh, very good SH. Traffic builds up as you reach near to Athagarh.
Athagarh to Gopalpur ( Connecting NH16 before Cuttack) : From Athagarh, take road towards Mundali. View of Mahanadi from Mundali bridge is spectacular. Mahanadi is very wide at this point. Mundali to NH16 via Trishulia square is all good.
Cuttack to Kolkata via NH16 : 4 to 6 lane widening in progress till Bhadrak. As a result some long diversions and too much wrong side traffic. So low average speed initially. Uninterrupted from Bhadrak to Kharagpur to Kolkata with excellent roads all the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment