Lalit Tyagi drove on the following Indian Roadie Preferred Route for official work at Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) while driving Lucknow to Sambalpur and Sambalpur to Lucknow:
Sambalpur - Jharsuguda - Sundargarh - leave NH and turn left after 11 kms and start driving on OD State Highway - keep going on this beautiful SH through small places like Subdega - Balisankara - OD-CG border - Tapakara - Kunkuri - Bageecha - Ambikapur - CG-UP border - Renukoot - Sonebhadra - Mirzapur - join NH19 (old NH2) at Gopiganj - Allahabad bypass - exit NH19 - Tunda - Raebareli - Lucknow.
Timings:
* Ambikapur to Renukot takes about 4 hrs.
Road condition:
* Once you leave Sambalpur - Rourkela NH after Sundargarh (at Karamdihi which is just 10-11 kms after Sundargarh), whole route is very scenic.
* Ambikapur to Renukoot is mostly good 2 lane road with occasional potholes but nothing much to worry, traffic is also very modest, mostly trucks or local bikes.
Lil less pleasant but very small sections on this route are:
* 10 kms very narrow, single village type road where we leave one broad 2 lane highway just outside Kunkuri to join another road coming from Jashpur.
Actually, this is a short cut, else one can continue on the highway and turn left to the that road coming from Jashpur later which would be longer by 40-45 kms.
This is just a 10 km stretch with no traffic except few bikes, and nice tarmac.
* Few potholes around Bageecha.
* Short stretch of 3-4 kms narrow single lane road, a few kms after Bageecha.
* Some potholes here and there between Bageecha and Ambikapur.
* Night driving is best avoided.
