Bangalore to Kolkata (Bangalore_Kolkata) road trip by Indian Roadie Palas Panja with wife and daughter in December 2021.
Start : Bangalore , Karnataka on 9th December 2021 evening.
End : Kolkata (Behala), West Bengal on 12th December 2021 evening.
Total Distance Covered : 1927 Kms.
Vehicle : Maruti Suzuki Ciaz ZXI (Manual)
Halts : Palm beach Hotel, Vizag (Day 1), Swosti Premium, Bhubaneshwar (Day 2), Kolkata /Home(Day 3).
Total toll : INR 2,061 (Only INR 10 in cash at Vidyasagar Setu, rest all on FastTag)
Fastag from : PayTM
RTPCR checks : None in hotels of stay or at the borders
C19 Vaccination check : None in hotels or stay or at the state borders
Enroute Fueling points : Nellore (GX9Q+72 Nellore, Andhra Pradesh), Vishakapatnam(P8CC+62 Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh) and Cuttack(GWFR+Q4R Manguli Chowk, Odisha)
Total Fuel : ~INR 11,700/-
Mileage : ~17.2 KMPL
Day 1 : Started from Bangalore around 9:15 PM.. The roads all the way up to Tirupati was awesome and good speed can be maintained. The stretch from Tirupati (via Srikalahasti, Renigunta) to Naidupeta which is about 70 Kms is single lane and had some potholes and uneven patch work being done which will tend to slow down the pace to a bit. Post Naidupeta the roads become smooth again.
At Eluru, right after the Garuda Food Court, we took a left'ish turn on to the Kovurru Road/GNT Road (newly built) and reached Rajahmundry in no time. The road at the entrance to Rajahmundry is kind of messed up and gets better as we cross the Godavari into the city. From Rajahmundry to Vizag the roads are good and quite picturesque.
Reached our hotel in Vizag around 15:00 hrs and had to settle down quickly for some evening meetings. (advantages of WFH)
At the KA-AP border the cops did stop and asked us something which we did not understand and so they let us pass.
Day 2 : Started from Vizag around 11:30 AM (this was planned this way) and the roads up to Srikakulam was smooth except for some diversions due to construction of flyovers around the Srikakulam city. The roads are good till AP. Once you reach OD there are diversions which starts and goes all the way upto Bhubaneswar city.. The local traffic of OD is very unpredictable.. u might encounter a lot of roadies traveling in opposite direction. We did not halt anywhere on the way for lunch as we did a heavy and late breakfast at the hotel. This way we save a lot of time by avoiding a long break.
Reached hotel around 19:00 hrs (had to face some amount of traffic inside the city of Bhubaneswar)
At the AP-OD border the cops were busy having lunch.. no one bothered when I crossed.
Day 3 : Started from BBSR around 11:30 AM. The roads from Cuttack till Balasore are no good..there are multiple diversions (for flyover constructions…about close to 50 of them) which can get very stressful for many. At the diversions they will either route you to the other side of the highway or to a service road. The service roads are not that well maintained at places and numerous bumps to top it all. Another observation is very frequently the highway crossed those small culvert and the joining/smoothing/leveling work of the road and the culvert is very shoddy…the car gets a real jolt if one is at a good speed. Bad for your back as well. Once you cross Balasore and head towards Jaleswar/Datan the road got better and better all the way. However those who will cover the Kharagpur to Kolkata stretch of NH16 post sunset (it gets darker sooner in this part of the country) please chose to drive on the middle lane as much as you can. At various points (where you have a village intersection) there are barricades placed which DO NOT have the light reflectors attached and becomes difficult to detect at night.
Reached home around 20:00 hrs....(faced the usual Kolkata evening traffic as usual)
At the OD-WB border, there were a couple of trucks in queue and the cops were busy in hafta collection.. I took advantage of that situation and just drove past. No questions asked there too.
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* Learn from the experience of other roadies
* Almost all cars can drive to most places in India
* Drivelog
