Travelogue - My Journey from Hyderabad - Indore and back - by road

Part III 


The Journey begines

08 May 10

Missed the alarm at 0425. Got up only at 0503. No panic as packing is done. A cup of tea and dot at 0600 we moved out. From Bolarum we went on to Shamirpet - Hyd road and turned right in to Alwal to reach Nagpur road (NH 7). By 0630 we were on the Nagpur road. Road condition  was very good. Till Medchal the traffic was heavy, after that traffic conditions became better. Stopped at Harita Restaurant of APTDC, 102 km from home after two hours at 0805. Good place, good food but crowded and self service  hence takes time. 

We spent 30 min which included a plate of Idli and two cup chai.  Preparation is good and the place is recommended (don’t have breakfast at home, keep that for Harita of APTDC). Road condition thereafter was good with four lanes in place except when road passed through a major town like Armur, Nirmal and Adliabad or forested area (about 80 km) but in the forested areas the two lane surface is very good and sufficiently wide. Good thing however is that the bypasses around Nirmal and Adliabad are likely to be ready very soon (may be within a month).

Worst was yet to come. When we reached Maharashtra the road became bad. Four lane work could be seen everywhere but most work looked dead (no one was working though some road laying activity at some stage could be seen) Small patches were ready and put to use. Therefore, every 200 meters there was a track change (diversion) from old road to new patch and vice versa. The junctions between diversions were not levelled properly. This nightmare continued till 388 km from Hyderabad (about 90 km from Nagpur) when good four lane surface started. Till four lane work  is done the patch post Adliabad (20 km from Adliabad) till 90 km from Nagpur (a stretch of 60 km) is going to be bad.

With this journey we made it to Nagpur (490 from home) in total 8.30 hrs of time (only 7.30 hrs of driving in our Indigo Diesel). We enjoyed two more breaks (apart from Harita) in the car itself with AC running (just stoped to the side of the road) and had a cup of good dip tea during those two breaks (using Electric Kettle which works with car cigarette lighter socket and it was very convenient). Once full Four lane  road is available the time between Hyd and Ngp would be 6.30 hrs of driving time@100 km top speed. The economy we got was 16.43 km/Ltr with AC on and about 100 km of poor quality road (with outside temperature of about 42 degree centigrade). Stayed at Nagpur for the night. My mom and daughter also arrived at Nagpur in the evening from Mumbai.