Drive to Bangriposi from Kolkata and back in February 2016

Indian Roadie fan/ member, Neeraj Pandey got back from a 841 kms road trip with family from Kolkata to Bangriposi and back in early February 2016.

Route taken during onward journey was Kolkata - Dhulagarh Toll Plaza - Uluberia - Kolaghat - Kharagpur (Exit NH16) - Lodhasuli (ROR: Jhargram) - Baharagora - Jamsola - Jharpokharia - Bangriposi (distance 242 kms).
5 kms between Baharagora to Jamsola had craters within craters.
Time taken to negotiate this stretch was 1 hour. The Ritz managed fairly well with no underbelly scrapes.

Khairi Resort is a big no no. They gave him a room on the first floor. The room was dirty with a strong smell of pee from the loo. He left immediately and checked in to Hotel Bangriposi.
First look at Hotel Bangriposi and there was this thought "Lets go to Ramtirath and stay at Toshali". Incidentally, a couple of years ago, Neeraj had done a JV with the Forest Dept and Toshali Group, 60 kms from Bangriposi going towards Keonjhar at a crocodile breeding centre called Ramtirath.

Hotel Bangriposi was a small building with dirty rooms and absolutely unimpressive. Its only when he went behind that he came across a nice cottage. It was basic but neat, clean and had a good sit out. Neeraj, in any case he carries his own sheets, towels, etc. He decided on staying in the cottage for the entire duration of the trip.
The cottage was kind of a village initiative and it was pretty nice to see children and chickens playing about. The cottage did not have brick walls except for the toilet. The entire structure was straw mats held together with bamboo. There was no AC and summer months will obviously be very hot.

He got woken up in the morning with cock crows and chirping birds. Food was fixed. The menu comprised of a simple chicken dish and rotis for two which cost Rs 300 and breakfast with 2 omelettes and puri and aloo was for Rs 200.
It's a very relaxed place and recommended. However, do remember they have only one cottage.

Return route was Bangriposi - Baripada (36 kms) - Duel - Gopinathpur - Gopiballabhpur - Pheko Ghat (105 Kms) - Jhargram - Kharagpur - Kolkata (Total distance 322 kms).

Neeraj reported that the drive through the countryside of Odisha and West Bengal was pretty interesting. Except one bad stretch of about 1 km, which was nothing compared to Jamsola, it was generally good roads, sometimes quite narrow with no traffic.
This road met NH6 at Pheko Ghat.

During his stay in Bangriposi, Neeraj took two trips Bisoi and back (60kms), one to Ramtirath and back (120 kms) and one on the evening of 12th February 2016 to Baripada and back (72 kms) to see the palace and buy tissue paper.

Hotel Neelkant just after one crosses Kharagpur and before Great India Hotel has good food and extremely clean loos.

NH6 between Chichira and Jamsola on 2015-04-30

Road update on 2015-04-30 by Kishalay Haldar driving a 2005 M&M Scorpio CRDe with wife and minor daughter enroute to Mumbai from Kolkata:

"NH6 between Chichira and Jamsola is just pure horror. The road is full of craters. Some are so deep that even my Scorpio could not negotiate them. I heard light scrapes and thuds in underbody. At places the entire width of the road is that deep and full of water. I had no choice but get into the crater without knowing how deep it is. The sides were worn out and slushy.
We reached Bahargora, the border chekpost between Jharkhand and Orissa, through that kind of road. As expected the place is madness. It is just a big field with 100s of huge trucks moving in all directions. We got an unsolicited advice from a local to take a bypass through the market and merge with NH6 at Jamsola. Looking at the chaos, we took that advice.
The bypass essentially is narrow village road, some 10km, but much better surface. After merging with NH6 the horror continued till the ghat section. Then onwards till Ghuntur (Near Keonjhar), we found road to be free of any major nuisance.
NH6 soon becomes two-way road and was marked as NH49".

Kishalaya Haldar left Kolkata at 5am and reached Sambalpur at 6pm.
He is thrilled that he could show his little daughter what an Indian village looks like.