Delhi-Chennai

[kmohan]

Hi,

I am planning a trip from Delhi to my home town Chennai. Let me know what are the hurdles I will be facing enroute to Chennai.

Thanks,
Mohan

[joie de vivre]

If you are planning thru NH-8 ( UDAIPUR-BARODA-MUMBAI), pl. note that Baroda bypass - bharuch ( 70 kms.) road widening work is going on, with few flyover constructions also, so try to cross this between 1.00 to 5.00 am. Otherwise you will waste many hrs. in traffic jams.

[hvkumar]

The shortest route to Madras is the following:

Delhi-NH2-Agra-NH3-Gwalior-NH27-Jhansi-Lalitpur-Sagar-Narasingpur-Laknadon-NH7-Seoni-Nagpur-Adilabad-Nirmal-Hyderabad-Kurnool-Off NH7-Panyam-Cudappah-Rayachoti-Chittoor-NH4-Ranipet-Kanchipuram-Sriperembudur-Madras

The problem with the above roue is:
(a) terrible roads - between Jhansi and Laknadon
(b) bad roads/ road widening in Adilabad area, Hyderabad-Kurnool
(c) no bypasses - Agra (bad one), Jhansi, all the small towns in between till Hyderabad
(d) poor facilities - hotels, restaurants scarce, not great

Assuming you are a fast driver (100 kmph), limit your halts to 2 hours max and start/end early/late, our driving plan could be as follows:

Day 1: Delhi-Jhansi
Day 2: Jhansi-Nagpur
Day 3: Nagpur-Kurnool
Day 4: Kurnool-Madras

The route via Bombay - as suggested by Bharat - is as follows:

Delhi-NH8-Gurgaon-Behror-Jaipur-Kishangarh-NH79-Bhilwara-Chittorgarh-NH79-Udaipur-NH8-Shamlaji-Himmatnagar-Ahmedabad-Baroda-Ankleshwar-Surat-Vapi-Thane/Bombay-Pune-NH4-Kolhapur-Belgaum-Hubli-Davangere-Chitradurga-Tumkur-Nelamangala-Bangalore-NH7-Hosur-Krishnagiri-NH56-Ambur-Vellore-Wallajah-NH4-Kanchipuram-Sriperembudur-Madras.

This is a great road, but for he problems in Baroda-Surat - road widening plus rain damage - but if you are planning the trip in year-end or next year, most of the problems will be sorted out. All towns are bypassed, including Thane/Bombay. Roads are outstanding south of Bombay. Bangalore City may be a little problem getting across.
Day 1: Delhi-Udaipur
Day 2: Udaipur-Bombay
Day 3: Bombay-Bangalore/Hosur
Day 4: Bangalore/Hosur-Madras

[kmohan]

Finally we have decided to start our long journey from Delhi-Chennai on 25th October. I will taking Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Chennai route.

I have collected the route map from maps of india and consolidated the route in a word file.

I would like to know the problems that might occur enroute and like your valuable suggestions. I will be taking my Zen estillo car.

There is a comments column on this word file. If you can put your views on bad road conditions or some other things which has to be watched out for on the particular stretch that would be really useful. (I think kumar sir can help me in this I guess)

I have driven till Udaipur already last month and I can manage route from Bangalore to Chennai.

Cheers,
Mohan

[hvkumar]

Bombay-Bangalore-Madras

http://hvkumar.googlepages.com/kumar'sdrivinglogbooks25

Please take a look at the above link - has the details of the Bombay-Bangalore-Madras route - except that the Bangalore-Madras route is on NH4 via Chitoor and not the GQ route via Hosur and Vellore.

Here is a report on the road conditions in the Bombay-Bangalore route (I drove on it 10 days ago):

Great all the way till Haveri
Haveri bypass abruptly ends in some big pot holes, be very careful else you may have a serious mishap
Haveri-Ranebennur stretch is 2-laned, in a mess, take care, but road is not bad
Ranebennur bypass is incomplete, have to go through town, minor potholes and generally indifferent roads
Worst is Harihar-Davangere section - kuchcha roads, muddly, detours and uneven roads, could become messier if it rains hen you are driving through.
Davangere-Chitradurga has lots of unmarked deviations, take care when you are driivng on the open lane, oncoming vehicles are also confused, but road conditions are good
Chitradurga bypass is incomplete, but road condition is good

Here is a guide to bypassing Bombay:

For those coming from Ahmedabad/Delhi on NH8, after turning off NH8 at
Ghodbunder (coordinates discussed in eralier mails), travel 18 kms towards Thane
till you reach Kapurbawdi Junction (order of travel - toll gate, ghats, river on
left, water park on right, large Vijay sales showroom to right, Multiplex to
right and Ford showroom to left). After the Ford showroom, you go straight
through a round till a point where you see a large flyover bisecting your road.
Turn LEFT here into the flyover's direction (straight goes into Thane city,
right goes to Bombay). This is the Zero Km point. You are now on NH3 (Bhiwandi
bypass) and you will see overhead signboards showing Pune/Nasik. Go this road
for 2 kms till you hit a Toll Gate. Take care to turn LEFT exactly at the Toll
gate (toll gate for straight goes to Nasik, toll gate for left goes to Pune).

Thane Flyover, 0 kms (Kms are cumulative)

Toll Gate, 2 kms

Kalwa Junction, keep going straight, 4 kms

Mumbra Bypass Flyover, 5 kms
This is a super bypass which flies over Mumbra own and is a great drive

Atlanta Toll Gate, 11 kms

Take a RIGHT turn at end of Bypass, 11 kms, after Toll Gate

Bharat Gears Factory to your right, 12 kms

Road to the right goes to Turbhe, keep going straight, 13 kms

Sheel Phata, Road to left goes to Dombivli/Kalyan, road to right goes to Turbhe,
keep going straight, 14 kms

Toll Gate, 20 kms

Taloja MIDC Industrial area to the left, keep going straight, 26 kms
After 1 km, you have 2 choices - first is to keep going straight towards
Kalamboli 5 kms away and join the Bombay-Panvel road, but this will mean that
you have to take the second entry gate to enter the Pune expressway.

Instead, if you take the right turn, you can take the first entry gate to Pune
expressway

Turn off RIGHT after Taloja Industrial Area, 27 kms

Join the Bombay-Panvel road, turn LEFT, and go along the flyover, right goes
back o New Bombay/Bombay, 30 kms

Entry to Pune Expressway, 33 kms

[kmohan]

Thank you so much Kumar sir. It will be very helpful for me during my journey.

[kmohan]

Hello Kumar Sir,

I just now read this post on TeamBHP and like to know more about the road conditions now.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...onditions.html

We are planning to start around 4 am on 25th morning. I am planning to finish this trip in 2.5 days max. I can drive 1000kms a day (as I have already done Delhi-Udaipur in 8.5hrs) and please suggest me on the halt and the latest road conditions.

Note: Not only Kumar Sir, anyone can help us to make this trip successful. We have only coupe of days more to go. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mohan

[kmohan]

Hi,

We are finally decided on how to go about this trip and here are the plans finalised for this trip. We are taking Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai route.

Day 1: Delhi-Udaipur-Surat (~1200 kms)
Day 2: Surat - Chennai (halt can be made in Bangalore if necessary) (~1200 kms)

If I can cross Baroda-Surat well before the time then I will try to stay in Vapi and proceed as per plan on Day 2. I have been reading Kumar sir's threads all over and got to this plan. Let's c how it goes.

Thanks for all your help and will update you once I reach Chennai.

Mohan

[hitanshu]

please push onward, and my suggestion is to sleep before BLR - so that you can cross it at 2-3am to avoid max traffic.

[joie de vivre]

Mohanme the road between baroda and surat is in very bad shape. Took 2 hrs for baroda-bharuch (only 70 kms.)- last week. Too many diversions. and in evening there are many jams, on narrow diversion treks. In fact kumar sir may able to tell you more in couple of days, he is just on this trek.