Kolkata to Deogarh via NH49 (old, NH6) road trip by Sandip Hunday in November 2019

Indian Roadie regular Sandip Hunday drove from Kolkata to Deogarh (near Sambalpur) (Kolkata_Deogarh), a distance of 486 kms in his Honda WRV on Friday, 2019-11-22.
He crossed Vidyasagar Setu/ 2nd Hooghly Bridge over Hooghly River and toll plaza at 8.30am and reached Deogarh (Odisha) at 7.30pm.

Route :
He drove on NH 49. Kolkata - Kolaghat - Kharagpur - Jamshola - Baharagora - Bangriposhi - Jashipur - Keonjhar - Pallahara - Barkote - Deogarh.

Road condition:
Road was excellent from Kolkata to Baharagora.

It was just ok from Baharagora to Keonjhar.

However, the NH was in very bad condition for the rest of it from Keonjhar to Deogarh. It was total offroading experience.

There was one portion  of around 50 kms between Keonjhar and Pallahara which was absolutely a terror. Only  trucks were plying with extreme difficulty.

Here, thanks to Google and with confirmation from some localities found a new route of 45 kms. It was an excellent and scenic ghat drive, via a small place called Telkoi.

He took the same route back to Kolkata on Sunday, 2019-11-24.
He left Deogarh at 9am and was there at the Vivekananda Setu toll plaza at 7.30pm.

During return journey, lunch break was at Pantha Niwas, Keonjhar. Thereafter, stopped for a short while for tea at Kolaghat.

Total distance for the round trip was 987 kms.

P.S:
* Sandip is of the opinion that in another 18 months the whole strech from Kharagpur to Deogarh will be fully 4 laned because construction work was in full swing in November 2019.

* A bypass is being constructed to skip the narrow road passing through Deogarh.

* Road widening work is presently on right up to Sambalpur (Orissa).

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.