Routes and Roads in Madhya Pradesh

[Ravi_M]

Hello,

I am a new member here from Indore, so you may find it funny that I am asking about MP roads and their status.
I searched on Google, here and also on TeamBHP, but couldn't find anything useful about my query. It appears that MP is not that popular among roadies.

I have planned to visit Orchha, Khajuraho, Chitrakoot, Maihar in coming days. I have driven to Sagar - Kanha -Jabalpur - Amarkantak, but northern part is not traversed yet.
The big hurdle had been the bad condition of NH3 (Indore to Gwalior). For years till now, this part of the Agra-Bombay road (NH3) remained in bad shape, while Indore to Mumbai is a very good 4-lane road. I have heard that this part has now been converted to 4-lane.

I am considering a route : Indore - Bhopal - Vidisha - Sagar - Damoh - Maihar- Satna - Chitrakoot - Panna Reserve - Khajuraho - Chhatarpur - Orchha - Jhansi - Guna - Indore (this last leg via NH3).

Can any experienced member advise on this? Change in route and itinerary? Road conditions?

I guess there are others also looking for this information, so your comments will help us all.

 

[adsatinder]

@suyash_tripathi ji can tell better about Road Conditions.
Rest decide your itinerary yourself with help of other logs.
I think 1 night can be spent at each place is ok.

 

[suyash_tripathi]

From Satna till Chhatarpur roads are not in very good condition but surely driveble, rest all the other roads as mentioned are in good condition. MP roads have improved a lot, don't worry.

 

[Ravi_M]

Hello Folks,

I completed my trip (by Swift Desire Automatic) smoothly as listed next (Nov 8 till 15):
Indore - Dewas - Guna - Shivpuri - Orchha - Jhansi - Orchha - Chhatarpur - Khajuraho - Chitrakoot - Panna Reserve (Hinauta) - Maihar - Damoh - Sagar - Vidisha - Bhopal - Indore.

Observations / comments:
1. Stayed at Orchha (2 nights), Khajuraho (1 night), Chitrakoot (1 night), Hinauta (1 night), Maihar (1 night).
2. Orchha, Khajurahu & Hinauta stays were good, Chitrakoot & Maihar stays were bad.
3. Sighted 3 tigers (mother & 2 grown-ups) during the only safari we took in the morning.
4. Orchha & Jhansi are clean and good, in fact I found Jhansi quite nice! Chitrakoot is dirty. Maihar is OK.
5.Good roads - Indore to Orchha via Guna is mostly 4-lane or good 2 lane with work in progress (NH3);
- Maihar to Indore is good 2 lane with work in progress (few places), but Sagar was problematic due to road work there and NO Bypass for Sagar;
- Road from Orchha to Jhansi is OK, but Orchha to Chhatarpur is bad at many places (~70km);
- Chhatarpur to Khajuraho road is good & then upto Panna also it is good;
- Panna to Chitrakoot via Ajaygarh & Atarra is good 2 lane road (we took it while returning), but we took other route via Majhgava which was very bad
from Panna till Majhgava, but good wide road from Majhgava till Chitrakoot;
- In Chitrakoot, roads are poor / OK but city is not good;
- Panna to Hinauta is good single lane road through jangle & we crossed NMDC colony (mines);
- Hinauta to Maihar road was OK, we baypassed Panna city;
- Maihar to Damoh to Katnai to Sagar all roads were good;
- Sagar to Vidisha to Bhopal & road was good.

More later!!

 

[Ravi_M]

Hello all,

I am sorry for not posting any pictures yet. I didn't want to delay sharing more useful information from our tour, hence writing now.

- Our travel had only two longish drives (12 hours or more), one was from Indore to Orchha (0630-1730 hrs) and the other, Maihar to Indore (0630-1900 hrs).

- Panna Tiger Reserve has started some 6 years ago (earlier it was just a reserve forest) and it is much small compared to Kanha, but they have added large
jungle area to it now. There are two entry gates - Madla (Not Mandla) and Hinauta. Madla is right on the Jhansi-Panna road, between Bamitha and
Panna, hence very easy to reach. Hinauta is difficult to find on Google Map, as you land at some other Hinotas (2) in the Reva-Satna-Katni area itself. This
Hinauta is inside the Panna forest area, some 12 km south of the Chhatarpur-Panna road. As you reach Panna (from Chhatarpur), some 2 km before, a road
branches to right (south) to Hinauta. The nearby village is Majhganvan (not Majhgava, which is on Chitrakoot-Satna road). We passed a
colony of NMDC (for Panna Dimond Mines).

- Forest Deprt. has good tents and canteen at Hinauta and you get the feel of living in the middle of the forest. Most tourists use Madla gate, as it is
45km from Khajuraho and reachable in 30 minutes from there for early morning safari. Hinauta safari may be more available than Madla safari for this very
reason. We booked in morning, just before the safari started. We reached there the previous evening.

- We were lucky to sight 3 tigers (mother + 2 grown-ups) just within 45 min. into the safari. Only one more Gipsy could sight them, while other Gipseys from
Madla gate couldn't. But there were very few other animals (few cheetals, neelgay, sambhar, boars only). In Kanha, you get to see large population of
many animals. We also did boating in Ken river, but couldn't see crocodiles, as it was not sunny enough at 0800 hrs.

- MPT (MP Tourism) has good stay facilities at Orchha, Khajuraho and Maihar, but the one at Chitrakoot is bad. At Chitrakoot, it is in the city and very
dusty and full of monkeys. Mandakini river has good amount of water, but it was dirty, as some nallah was feeding it all polluting things. We didn't feel like
entering the water.

I hope the above information will be useful to others.