Road trip from Bangalore to Silchar in Maruti Brezza in October 2020 narrated by Niti Ranjan Das.
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So as per my plan shared here previously and with umpteen suggestions received from different roadies and especially Deepda, I finally covered the 4-thousand odd kilometers from Bangalore to Silchar Assam.
Travellers: Wifey and me.
Driver: Yours truely alone.
Car: Maruti Brezza
Kilometers driven: 3929 KMs
Fuel: 222.75 litres
Night 0: I had planned to start from Bangalore early morning on 13th. But on 12th as I got the whizz of the winds approaching from Bay of Bengal, and we hurried and started by 10:30 PM that night itself for Hyderabad. There was some rains as we started approaching Hyderabad, but it was manageable. By early morning, when we reached Hyderabad, the rains increased and we too took shelter. The roads were all good, but there were small irritating speed breakers in AP whenever small roads crossed the highway. After Kurnool, as I entered Telengana, the roads became awesome. No potholes, no speed breakers (only rumble strips), good quality lane markers and reflectors.
Day 1: As it was raining heavily, we did not dare to take out the car in the rains. We better took rest whole day and waited for rains to stop.
Day 2: We started early morning from Hyderabad, but many roads were waterlogged. As we were exiting the city towards Nirmal, the road was closed due to tree felling and water logging and we were diverted towards some state highway (Gazwel) and we connected back to NH44 after some 50-60 kilometers. From then on, roads were good again till we entered Maharashtra. As soon as we entered Maharashtra, bad roads welcomed us. There are some major potholes and bad stretch around 70-100 kms before Nagpur. After crossing Nagpur, we continued on the Pench National highway road. The road was superb. Then we were stopped by cops and we found to our surprise, due to some pebble strike possibly, the car's front numberplate (made of plastic) had cracked into pieces and had fallen down. Then after few kilometers, the road was closed due to some canal construction, and we were diverted through small village roads and some ghat roads. The roads turned very bad as we approached Seoni. The ring road around Seoni was full of potholes. Dusk had fallen when we reached Seoni. But I had a task to finish, get a new numberplate. So we diverted towards Jabalpur. Our original plan was to reach Narsinghpur or Sagar which we changed to Jabalpur. The road from Seoni to Jabalpur was good to drive on. As we entered Jabalpur, we realized, the city was miraculously covid free. We were of the few aliens who wore masks. After some searching, We found an open shop in Civic center area that would made us the numberplate.
Day 3: From Jabalpur, our next destination was Lucknow. The way through Sagar was quite long, and the way through Prayagraj would make me drive on dividerless highway between Prayagraj and Raebarelly. I preferred the 2nd option for its less distance and shorter travel duration and headed towards Prayagraj. Except few kilometers around Katni and Rewa, the raods were 4-lane till Prayagraj. From there on, the road did not have divider till Rae Bareilly. After that roads were again 4 lane, but full of traffic and crossed through shops, towns and populated areas. So it was never a breeze again. By 5PM we lazily enetered Lucknow. The city never had heard of Corona it seemed. When I asked the security guard of my hotel if there is no Corona here, he answered with a firm No. Then he said, our Lucknow is a very clean city, and immediately thereafter he spitted paan on the street. Then he continued, Corona is for dirty cities. We do not have any Corona here ever. With my mask on face, I felt guilty as though I had just brought Corona to Lucknow.
Day 4: We started again early morning, but roads were not empty. It was full of traffic till Ayodhya, which eased a bit thereafter. One thing I noticed in UP, there were no margin beside the 4 lanes of the roads. And out of the 2 lanes (in one direction) the left lane was full of different kind of slow moving vehicles like cycles, bikes, scooties, tractors, tempos and even people, goats, cows standing in middle of road. They would not bother by any amount of honking. So effectively only right lane was available for fast moving or long distance vehicles and it was a very difficult task to overtake trucks and buses because of this. The traffic eased further after Gorakhpur, but road quality suffered. Potholes started to appear on right lane (as it is used by trucks). Also there were not many good dhabas or restaurants on the roads. After Muzaffarpur, there were lots of food options though. The road quality also improved miraculously. We called it a day at a friend's place near Forbesganj.
Day 5: We were tired a bit and being habitually late-sleepers and late-risers, I was missing some sleep last few days. So we delayed started this day. We started at around 8:30 after breakfast and a full sleep. As we entered West Bengal, road quality became the worst. At some places potholes were as big as my car. There were also lack of proper road markings at some places. Like at one place before Siliguri, the primary road went up a flyover, and the side road had a marking only for Bagdogra. With no marking for Siliguri given I took the primary road (Rishi road) and the road was newly built. Soon after few kilometersof very good newly built roads, the road almost vanished and road was full of trucks. I don't know when I missed the next turn, neither entered Siliguri, nor took NH27 and I entered a forest road. The roads was narrow and not good. But it was beautiful and I did not repent. It took me to the same road Sevoke road finally (I did not have to cross the bridge though). The road thereafter were not 4 lane, but good, specially after Malbazaar. When I connected back to NH27 at Alipurduar, sun had just set, and I had not yet entered even Assam. Anyway, I had no other option but to continue now. As I entered the Assam border, the cops stopped and collected all the basic details. Then they said that they would provide escort vehicle and and would take us to Bongaigaon covid center and would release us after the tests come negative. So I waited and waited. Then the officers there told me that the process would take whole night and there is no assurance when would the escort vehicle arrive. With wife in car, and the next section of road not considered very safe, only way left for me was to pay them some chai paani fees and continue. The roads were not so good till Kokrajhar. After Kokrajhar, the road was smooth and I entered Guwahati by 11:30 PM with no-hurry driving.
Day 6: Body needed a break now and also we had slept late last night after late arrival. So we took a unplanned day off at Guwahati.
Day 7: We started again early morning. The road from Guwahati to Silchar via NH27 is not good. Some 30 kilometers of road had never been completed yet due to issues with forest department. So the viable route is through Meghalaya. At Byrnihat, the Meghalaya entry border, they took few basic details and asked us to take Shillong bypass and not enter Shillong city as were transit passengers. For entering Shillong they issue separate pass after paid COVID RAT test. My inlaws who stay in Shillong came to the bypass with tea and all and met us for few minutes. But as we headed few kilometers ahead on the Shillong bypass, the road had closed due to a landslide the previous night. So they again diverted us into the city through some village roads and my in-laws place falls enroute now. We took a small break there, had our early lunch there and continued. The roads in Meghalaya are the most scenic of all we covered. There was another bypass around another town Jowai, where the road was bad. Due to rains, all the potholes were filled with water, and it was not possible to gauge the depth of the pothole. At one such seemingly innocent pothole, my cars front bumber touched road hard, and it broke the plastic plate that clads the front right wheel. The roads again worsened near the place where I entered Assam plains again. By 7:30PM, I was at the gate of my sweet home in Silchar without any further drama.
Tolls: 4250/- (all fastag, except 2 places in west bengal, at one of which they claimed that fastag is still not operational and at another their reader could not read my fastag. Fastags were read most easily in Meghalaya and with most difficulty in West Bengal).
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Bangalore to Muzaffarpur (Bangalore_Muzaffarpur),
Bangalore to Forbesganj (Bangalore_Forbesganj),
Bangalore to Siliguri (Bangalore_Siliguri),
Bangalore to Guwahati (Bangalore_Guwahati),
Bangalore to Shillong (Bangalore_Shillong),
Bangalore to Silchar (Bangalore_Silchar)
