Covid-19 testing centre for migrant workers at Chichira border on NH6 near Kharagpur

Migrant workers reaching the Chichira interstate border checkpost on NH6 (old number) near Kharagpur in hired buses from distant states are forcibly stopped by West Bengal police at this point in the midst of nowhere and subjected to unprecedented harassment.

The shack with fluttering plastic sheets is West Bengal's unmanned and hitech super-speciality Covid19/ health checkup/testing centre at Chichira border on NH6.

The police themselves are advising the poor/ hapless travellers to leave the buses and start walking to their destination in West Bengal through the forests to avoid waiting for hours for the health checkups to happen.

P.S: It's not clear if roadies in own cars and bikes also need to take a break at the same location, abandon the ride and continue walking.

Video courtesy: An anonymous traveller.

Video date: 2020-05-14.

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* Indian Roadie Covid19 Lockdown Tales

* How India Travels

* Bengal Doomed

* Tsunami Of Development

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).

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.

Sambalpur (OD) to Raipur (CG) - Indian Roadie Preferred Route, Motoring Route, Driving Route, Best Route for road trip

Indian Roadie Preferred Route, Best Route For Road Trip, Motoring Route, Driving Route, Best Intercity Driving Route from 

Sambalpur to Raipur 

(Sambalpur_Raipur): 

Sambalpur (Ainthapalli Chowk. ROR: Jharsuguda 50 kms, Rourkela 175 kms) (OD) ---- Remed Chowk, Sambalpur (OD) ---- Mahanadi River Bridge ---- Jagruti Vihar, Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd HQ on right ---- Hirakud railway station on left ---- Attabira ---- Bargarh (OD) ---- Haldipali (ROL: Barpali 19 kms, Balangir 75 kms) ---- Sohela (OD) ---- OD-CG border ---- Saraipali/ Saraipalli (CG) ---- Basna ---- Sankra ---- Pithora (ROR: Barnawapara Forest Range) ---- Patewa ---- Kunti More (ROR: Sirpur, ROL: Kodar Dam) ---- Mahanadi River Bridge ---- Arang (CG) ---- MM College of Technology, Raipur on left of NH53 ---- HPCL LPG Bottling Plant, Mandir Hasoud, Raipur on left of NH53 ---- Mandir Hasoud Toll Plaza (CG) ---- ROR: Raipur Ring Road Number 3 ---- Magneto Mall, Labhandi, Raipur on right of NH53 ---- Keep left on NH53. Raipur bypass starts and continues as NH53 from Telibandh, east end of Raipur city (CG) (Avoid RA: Raipur city, Railway Station, via. Gaurav Path, Ghari Chowk, Jail Road, Hotel Babylon, Hotel Celebration) ---- Raipur bypass ends at Tatibandh chowk, west end of Raipur city (CG) 

Distance From To:  

Sambalpur to Raipur (Telibandh) = 275 kms. 

Sambalpur (Ainthapali) to Bargarh = 52 kms. 

Bargarh to Haldipali = 4 kms. 

Haldipali to Sohela = 22 kms. 

Sohela to Saraipali = 44 kms. 

Saraipali to Pithora = 58 kms. 

Pithora to Patewa = 28 kms. 

Patewa to Arang = 36 kms. 

Arang to Raipur (Telibandh) = 31 kms. 

Raipur (Telibandh) to Raipur (Tatibandh Chowk) = 14 kms. 

Suggested hotels in Raipur: 
Hotel Celebration, 

Hotel Babylon. 

* Odisha_Trails 

* Chhattisgarh_Trails 

Note: These are user generated best routes. 

Abbreviations used: 

RA = Road Ahead.
ROR = Road on Right.
ROL = Road on Left.
NH = National Highway.
SH = State Highway.
NE = National Expressway.  

P.S: 

- Offline Driving Routes In One Page 

- Best Intercity Driving Routes  

- Skip Online Navigation Maps  

- User Generated Best Routes 

- Choice of all road travel and automobile lovers who are consumers of products and services, too 

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* Motoring Routes of India is a joint initiative by Indian Roadie (India's most admired road travel and automotive forum for matured roadies) and Marketingpundit. 

P.S: Search thousands of accurate and best route options throughout India in: 

www.facebook.com/MotoringRoutesOfIndia, 

www.indian-roadie.blogspot.com, 

www.bestrouteforroadtrip.blogspot.com 

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(bior) 

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.

Dense 'sal' forest between Sambalpur and Angul (Odisha)

Driving solo from Pune to Kolkata in my Mahindra Scorpio VLX Micro Hybrid Special Edition SUV, for work (a passion to develop a B-school as a Centre of Excellence in Sales & Marketing studies) & pleasure.
Dense 'sal' forest section between Sambalpur and Angul (Odisha).
On a chill winter morning in December 2012, the sun piercing through the trees was enough motivation to stop for a brief photo session.