Bombay to Bangalore by Car(NH4)

In early May, my work required me to relocate to Bangalore. As usual, I had no plan until the last minute. Sitting in Durg (the center of India), I contemplated the best way to reach Bangalore on Monday via Mumbai. My flight from Durg was scheduled for Saturday noon.

On Friday night, a sudden realization struck me—it would be great if I could travel in my own car. This way, I wouldn’t have to search for a cheap air ticket and could commute on my own in Bangalore.

This decision would also allow me to escape the famous auto-rickshaws of Bangalore. There are plenty of horror stories about them, and you can always have a good laugh about the way they refuse passengers. They have a mystique in their behavior; there are a few honest, hardworking ones, but that only proves Darwin’s rule—there is always an exception. Certainly, this post is not about them.

After numerous frantic calls to friends and family members, I was fortunate to have Ramesh as my driver. He is a very experienced driver, although he no longer pursues driving professionally. The plan was simple: to start early morning for Bangalore on Sunday. We would stop as night falls and reach Bangalore on Monday.

I reached Navi-Mumbai around 9 PM after spending the afternoon and evening in south and central Mumbai. As soon as I reached home, I had to complete a long list of household chores, starting with laundry. While the drum started spinning, I began collecting items that I would require during my stay there. I picked items quite randomly, but the only thing I had in my mind was a survival kit. After completing all that, I tried to sleep at 2 in the morning, but after a restless hour, I got up and started wrapping up as many loose ends as I could before leaving.

A Chronicle of Events on That Sunday

06:00 / 000 KM - Picked up Ramesh from Nerul Railway Station; returned to Kharghar; packed all items in the car.

06:45 - Started from home; the expressway was well paved with concrete construction and numerous tunnels. It’s the pioneer road corridor in India, constructed with dividers and proper lanes.

08:15 / 041 KM - Started from Food Mall/Diesel stop around 40 minutes. Many cars, SUVs, and buses were packed with families going out of Mumbai as schools were closed for summer vacations. Seating space was scarce, and although the food wasn’t great, everything tastes good on a road trip with a hungry stomach and miles to go. The service was prompt and deserving of appreciation.

09:00 Pune - Bypassed the capital of Maratha culture. There were plenty of new big IT and BPO offices with glass outer walls, but their scattered placement on NH4 without symmetry made them more of an eyesore than an architectural beauty.

09:40 - Picked up an FM station from Pune, and the journey continued. Soon, we reached another toll plaza and started our ascent for the Satara Range. Two separate roads for opposite directions led to numerous twists and turns, reaching a point with a great view. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stop to enjoy the beauty.

10:30 - On the road towards Mahabaleshwar.

11:10 - Crossing Satara, a place surrounded by seven hills (tara). We had to pay extra attention due to the numerous crossroads allowing people to turn and cross the highway from the other side. Ideally, there should be a flyover, but in rural areas, the extra cost may not be justified. Thankfully, NHAI has put up fences to prevent crossing roads everywhere. It’s common in India for cattle and humans to cross roads whenever and wherever, leading to many accidents.

12:00 - Crossing Karad, a small town with good infrastructure and overpasses. By this point, we had crossed the Krishna river several times. The road dividers were well-maintained with lots of Bougainvillea planted, giving a positive feeling on Indian roads, sometimes synonymous with potholes.

13:25 / 397KM - Stop for lunch near Kolapur, the last major town in the Maharashtra side of NH4. Soon, we would start crossing the border into Karnataka. Lunch was a simple vegetarian meal, a quick one as we were uncertain about how much road we could cover today. Bangalore lies in the southern part of Karnataka.

14:05 - Started the journey ahain

14:43 - We entered Karnataka; it started to drizzle around Belgaum. The soil color changed to red. Unfortunately, we had to drive almost 5 KM on NH-4 north with opposing traffic as the southbound was closed due to a major accident involving a big trailer.

15:17 / 493 KM - Almost halfway. There are hamlets of houses painted by Airtel, TATA, Reliance for their mobile phone advertisements, or sometimes for cement and steel companies.

15:49 - We crossed a sign for Karwar (next to Goa going west) near Dharwar, but the road was a single lane. Witnessed a horrible accident involving a TATA Indica and a truck with an ambulance on the scene. Hoping for the best for those in that car as it looked very terrible.

16:17 / 560 KM - Back to a divided road. We crossed a huge Jain temple that, from a distance, looked like a space station with rockets ready for launching. After some internet search, I realized there are many Jain pilgrimage places in Karnataka that I did not know about.

599 KM - We were looking for a fuel station for the last 15 minutes but found none on our side of the road. Finally, we found one, filled diesel, and achieved a fuel economy of 19.05 KM/L with AC on the highway. We crossed one flight of stairs in the highway but could not figure out which would be the nearest airport. Wanted to have a tea-break, but “miles to go before I sleep.”

636 KM - Again, a single lane with bad road conditions. Found an almost finished yet unfinished flyover while maneuvering through bad traffic—big trucks, SUVs attempting to cross everyone by hook or honk. This continued for a while. We crossed a town called Ranibennur, crowded with village merchandise as it seemed to be market-day on Sunday. Police were in the middle of the road managing traffic. The road condition improved as we crossed Harihar at sunset, a magnificent scene as the sun sets on the lush green paddy fields on the banks of the Tungabhadra river.

As it became dark, Ramesh kept on driving. We decided to continue until we felt like stopping. Driving till Chitradurga, our estimated destination, was around 70 Kms away.

20:30 / 765 KM - We reached Chitradurga, our estimated destination. Called a relative in Bangalore and were told the road should be better now, and it might be sensible to reach Bangalore the same night. We had a big dinner and stopped for one hour before starting again. This break helped to stretch our strained bodies. There are roadside hotels around 40 KM out of Bangalore A1 (from Reliance group) and Kamat to choose from. The initial part of the road was very bad, with many trucks. It was dusty, and we had to be very careful with all these big vehicles; many of them did not even have rear lights or brake lights.

After dinner, feeling too sleepy, I dozed off for a few minutes. I asked Ramesh a few times if he is OK to drive or if it’s better to park on the side and take a small nap. Being an excellent driver, he kept on driving without any problem.

Around Tumkur, we found a hotel, but as we were there, they were closed as it’s midnight, and normally they close at 23:30. So, there was not much choice for us other than to continue driving.

Blackberry came in very handy as I looked up the phone number of my service apartment, which was booked from Monday onwards. They gave their best directions, but for us, it really did not mean much. One part of the highway was newly paved with proper marking and division, so a toll plaza followed.

In the dark, we kept on asking for directions to MG road whenever we found someone on the road. We encountered some stray dogs and a drunken group ready to start a fight as we spoke in Hindi. Somehow, we reached MG road and found an English-speaking auto-driver who gave us proper directions for the last mile.

It was great to reach such a wonderful place. We found ourselves in a two-bedroom apartment; I took a quick shower before calling it a night.

In the morning, we woke up quickly, dropped Ramesh at the bus stop, where I got him a ticket in a Volvo for Mumbai. And I went to the office—thus, life in Bangalore started.

Lesson learned from this 1000 KM trip:

• Keep your wallet ready to pay the toll. In India, the government is the biggest “Bhaia” or “Don”; they know all the tricks to tax their law-abiding citizens. When the road condition is good, be prepared for tolls every 40/60 KM. Keep change ready, or you will get toffees as change in return. Not sure why NHAI kept those odd numbers like 18, 23, or 22 instead of rounding it to 20 or 25. There are lots of improvements needed for NHAI if they want to bring Indian roads to world standards.
• With the highest rate of street accidents and mortality, Indian roads are not ready for family travel yet. Initially, I was thinking of driving back to Mumbai one day, but after seeing that accident and the bad stretch of 200 KM before Chitradurga, I do not think I will do that soon. If you do want to drive, drive during the day and drive safely— HAPPY DRIVING.