Driving Trip across India

ferrari_fan · April 21st, 2006, 01:01 PM

this plan's sorta been at the back of my mind since the plans for the Golden Quadrilateral were announced all those months ago... thanks to the TN elections which were held in late-April/early-May, my exams got preponed, and that left me with a full 3 months of time on my hands..

over 25 days, me and my folks travelled over 8000 kms by road in our new Innova across the length and breadth of this country, and over the course, saw rivers, mountains, lakes, dams, plateaus, beaches, monuments, modern architecture, malls, highways, expressways, and a few of our relatives on the side, to justify the whole trip - in short, everything modern India stands for!

my one regret is that we stuck to the west of the 'North-South corridor' road, and so didn't really touch down anywhere in eastern India, but this was the best itinerary we could come up with for a 3+ week drive, so east India will have to wait for next year

i've put together a sketchy route map for clarity..

and now, to the pics!!

ferrari_fan · April 21st, 2006, 01:25 PM

my trusty Eicher atlas - awesome detail, and easy to use - ended up proving extremely useful as we went along.

we planned to set out from chennai by 5:30, to beat the morning traffic..
but, of course, like most such well-planned ideas, we didn't - we finally left at a quarter to 7, which is why, as you can see, the construction site of the Kathipara junction flyover - Chennai city's south-western gateway, is so brightly visible..

on the way out of chennai :

sorry about the picture quality, but some of the pics are shot at strange angles coz i've taken them from a fast moving car, so the pics you see may be a bit blurred ..

Chennai Trade Centre

L&T

Luckystreak · April 21st, 2006, 01:44 PM

nice .... bring`em more

klein · April 21st, 2006, 02:54 PM

Maybe you could write an online book about it ..

ferrari_fan · April 24th, 2006, 06:07 AM

thanks guys!

after passing the buildings in the earlier posts, you've gotta pass through poonamallee - a dirty, crowded suburb that makes leaving the city a real pain. but once you've passed poonamallee, you reach the golden quadrilateral(GQ) road, from where it's a breeze... here's a couple of pics:

paddy plantations, near irungatukottai beyond hyundai's factory

st.gobain's factory

GQ, mostly done, but awaiting it's final lane-marking paint job

***Suncity*** · April 24th, 2006, 06:22 AM

The Eicher Atlases are great.

ferrari_fan · May 16th, 2006, 02:47 PM

seriously - especially the city maps have unbelievable detail...

from Chennai to Bangalore (our first stop), NH4 goes 4-laned upto ranipet, from where the 4-laned GQ continues via Hosur, while the 2-laned NH4 continues via Chitoor in AP..

we took the 2-lane road since it's about 40 kms shorter, has less traffic and is super-scenic to boot...

a weak old bridge in ranipet, after forking off the GQ..

beautiful straight smooth roads approaching the hilly terrain of the eastern ghats.

paddy gives way to mango groves which give way to sugarcane plantations and sunflowers..

ferrari_fan · May 16th, 2006, 02:57 PM

edit :
i finally got around to resize-ing the remaining pics from Day 1 - tbh i clean forgot that i hadn't yet posted these!!

this is an amazing stretch of road through Chittoor in AP

pretty treacherous road by the look of it though!!

more..

road train!!

this is definitely one of India's best 2-lane highways..

it amazes me every time i've been on this route to B'lore - the surroundings just get so much greener as we make our approach to the city..

the first glimpse of India's tech capital!! (for the uninitiated, that's the famous ITPL in Whitefield that's visible across the lake..)

what i love about B'lore is that they often seemingly do things just for the cool factor it brings - the cable-stayed bridge across the rail track is prominent among them..

ferrari_fan · May 16th, 2006, 03:05 PM

more..

now onto the flyover that takes us onto the ORR..

driving along the Outer Ring Road - more or less a bypass of B'lore city along its east and north-east.. pretty heavy traffic though - this pic is misleading - it was like a city road for most part..

Hebbal Flyover - South India's most complex interchange by a long way..

the Lakeside Habitat twins across the Hebbal lake..

one more of the flyover to round off day 1..

ferrari_fan · May 16th, 2006, 03:07 PM

heading out of B'lore early-ish..

huge empty roads..

the road again - it's 6-laned upto about 50 kms out of B'lore.. it'll serve the new airport as well as people travelling towards HYD on NH7 like us..

onto the 2-laned NH7 now - it stays this way pretty much upto HYD..

flat and pretty dry terrain..

grape vineyards! we stopped by at one of them where they had a stall - we ended up buying five different types of grapes!!

a few rough patches along the way, but luckily nothing major..

more..

quite a few cool rock features popped up here and there as we went along..

some old fort ruins by the side of the road!

a very 'Indian' moment as the train passes the level-crossing.. man i love trains..

more stretches of flat land as we move deeper into the Deccan..

racing the train!!

we're winning!!

A1 Plaza - these joints are all around the country - it's so nice to have a nice clean, cheap place where you know you won't fall sick because of the food - these A1 plazas came in useful several times as the trip went on..

back on the road after our brunch - around 11 am..

ferrari_fan · May 16th, 2006, 03:08 PM

park on the banks of the Krishna river (if i remember correctly)..

the river itself - the first big river we had to cross on the trip - not a patch on some of the other rivers we encountered later in the trip, but big enough to impress us at the time..

crumbly potholed bridge across the river..

the water was pretty fast-flowing..

some old fort on a hilltop next to the river..

soon after the river, we came to some of the best 2-lane highways i've seen anywhere in India..

this was a pretty long, hard drive with quite a bit less scenic beauty than day 1, but this stretch of road just made my day..

onto the 4-laned approach to HYD city..

entering the city now!! massive road-expansion work was in progress when we were there - from what i could make out it's the road to the new airport - is this part of the ORR? it looked very wide..

into the old city now.. i didn't like this part of town, and so i lowered my expectations from the rest of the city - turns out that was a stupid thing to do - HYD is fantastic - i totally loved it!! we just happened to see its worst side first..

the city kept getting better from that point..

into the heart of town now..

the huge Hussain Sagar

and one last shot to wind up the Day 2 pics..

that night we checked into the hotel and relaxed and watched Schumi qualify pole for the San Marino grand prix.. it was a good way to end the day..

sudipta_rch · May 17th, 2006, 07:33 AM

wonderful pics ferrari ! just waiting for those spaces to get filled up soon !

ferrari_fan · May 17th, 2006, 01:07 PM

thanks Sudipta..

now, onto Day 3 :

we had a whole day to spend in HYD - i say a whole day because our time was stretched so tight that some cities didn't even get that long..

we were up at 6 am, and drove down to tank bund road where we walked around and saw HYD waking up..

well maintained, grassy traffic islands and clean roads..

buildings by the Hussain-Sagar lake.

tank bund road, with morning walkers and early traffic

yoga lessons on the roadside park

more walkers - seems a real popular early morning place! also, beautiful landscaping, and most importantly, it was all very clean and tidy..

the Banjara Hills skyline with the buddha statue in the lake, and iMax on the banks on the left of the pic...

tank-bund road again

dunno the name of the flyover or the building, but they made for a nice
picture..

now, onto Necklace road - what i felt was HYD's most beautiful road..

Lumbini park's fancy entrance arch..

awesome road, great greenery, and the flowers on the road just add that extra touch

Necklace road MMTS station

ferrari_fan · May 17th, 2006, 02:48 PM

after breakfast, we set out to see the city of Hyderabad, including the usual old touristy areas but mainly newer, more developed parts of the city...

Babukhan Estate - HYD's tallest? i seem to remember reading that on one of the HYD threads..

Big, wide roads, but increasingly dirty and dusty as we neared the older parts of the city

the area around the Charminar is a super-mess for a monument of its importance, but apparently the chudi-bazar makes for great shopping... no offence, but i hated it - it was the only part of HYD i didn't enjoy..

what is a trip to HYD without a visit to it's icon, the Charminar..

back to some real roads, as we head for Banjara Hills!

sorry about the terrible picture, but what i hope you can see is the Hyderabad Central Mall..

propertyladder · November 6th, 2007, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari_fan

after breakfast, we set out to see the city of Hyderabad, including the usual old touristy areas but mainly newer, more developed parts of the city...

Big, wide roads, but increasingly dirty and dusty as we neared the older parts of the city

the area around the Charminar is a super-mess for a monument of its importance, but apparently the chudi-bazar makes for great shopping... no offence, but i hated it - it was the only part of HYD i didn't enjoy..

what is a trip to HYD without a visit to it's icon, the Charminar..

Just picked up on this thread, know its from last year, but was great to read of your journey thru' India, in particular Hyderabad!

I did a similar driving trip 10 years ago just covering ~2000km Southern India in 10 days, would love to do a longer trip now that so many better highways and roads and flyovers have been completed especially in Hyderabad.

Although all the modern buildings and roads esepecially around Hitec city are to be admired I still love the old part of Hyderabad city (I know you didn't like that part) but Charminar's architecture, history and charm is just something any modern building could not replace. And chudi bazaar also known as Lad Bazaar is particularly spectacular at night as theres are so many lights and dazzling colours and sparkling stones -its one place that has retained its old charm, warmth and character. I mean where else can you go where they'll serve you chai, soft drink, samosa, mitai or even a biryani FOC whilst you shop! There are so many modern air-conditioned shopping malls in Hyderabad right now -that look great but have no warmth in their sales service instead seem to have an array of electronic checkouts and procedures in place to buy just the simplest thing.
I love Hyderabad in particular the warmth, character of the old city blended in with the modern buildings.

Luckystreak · May 17th, 2006, 06:15 PM

Great updates!

Good pics of the most over-hyped city of India

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari_fan

dunno the name of the flyover or the building, but they made for a nice
picture..

Secretariat flyover

magestom · May 18th, 2006, 05:30 AM

Great pics.
Can anyone identify this flyover?

city2020 · March 24th, 2007, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magestom

Great pics.
Can anyone identify this flyover?

it is telugu talli flyover and dthe building is burgulla ramkarishna bhavan and not secretariat. secreterait is oppositte to that

***IndiansUnite*** · May 18th, 2006, 05:45 AM

Even though i havent travelled to hyd,i found this link with a similar picture of the flyovers and it indicates its at Bashirbagh.

Ill post the news on the link in the the flyover thread.

http://www.projectsmonitor.com/detai...sp?newsid=4814

harsh1802 · May 18th, 2006, 06:22 AM

The above fly over connects the secretariet and the tank bund road. I think it is also called telugu thalli flyover!

April 21st, 2006, 01:01 PM	#1
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	8000 Kms, 25 Days - India by Road this plan's sorta been at the back of my mind since the plans for the Golden Quadrilateral were announced all those months ago... thanks to the TN elections which were held in late-April/early-May, my exams got preponed, and that left me with a full 3 months of time on my hands.. over 25 days, me and my folks travelled over 8000 kms by road in our new Innova across the length and breadth of this country, and over the course, saw rivers, mountains, lakes, dams, plateaus, beaches, monuments, modern architecture, malls, highways, expressways, and a few of our relatives on the side, to justify the whole trip - in short, everything modern India stands for! my one regret is that we stuck to the west of the 'North-South corridor' road, and so didn't really touch down anywhere in eastern India, but this was the best itinerary we could come up with for a 3+ week drive, so east India will have to wait for next year i've put together a sketchy route map for clarity.. and now, to the pics!! __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; June 16th, 2009 at 05:29 PM.

April 21st, 2006, 01:25 PM	#2
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	Day 1 : my trusty Eicher atlas - awesome detail, and easy to use - ended up proving extremely useful as we went along. we planned to set out from chennai by 5:30, to beat the morning traffic.. but, of course, like most such well-planned ideas, we didn't - we finally left at a quarter to 7, which is why, as you can see, the construction site of the Kathipara junction flyover - Chennai city's south-western gateway, is so brightly visible.. on the way out of chennai : sorry about the picture quality, but some of the pics are shot at strange angles coz i've taken them from a fast moving car, so the pics you see may be a bit blurred .. Chennai Trade Centre L&T __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; March 26th, 2007 at 04:06 PM.

April 21st, 2006, 02:54 PM	#4
klein Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 38	I am jelous Maybe you could write an online book about it .. __________________ When Hell freezes over , I will ski there too. Ski At Auli <www.skiauli.com>

April 24th, 2006, 06:07 AM	#5
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	Day 1 (contd.) : thanks guys! after passing the buildings in the earlier posts, you've gotta pass through poonamallee - a dirty, crowded suburb that makes leaving the city a real pain. but once you've passed poonamallee, you reach the golden quadrilateral(GQ) road, from where it's a breeze... here's a couple of pics: paddy plantations, near irungatukottai beyond hyundai's factory st.gobain's factory GQ, mostly done, but awaiting it's final lane-marking paint job __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; October 15th, 2006 at 01:08 PM.

May 16th, 2006, 02:47 PM	#7
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	Day 1 (contd.) : seriously - especially the city maps have unbelievable detail... from Chennai to Bangalore (our first stop), NH4 goes 4-laned upto ranipet, from where the 4-laned GQ continues via Hosur, while the 2-laned NH4 continues via Chitoor in AP.. we took the 2-lane road since it's about 40 kms shorter, has less traffic and is super-scenic to boot... a weak old bridge in ranipet, after forking off the GQ.. beautiful straight smooth roads approaching the hilly terrain of the eastern ghats. paddy gives way to mango groves which give way to sugarcane plantations and sunflowers.. __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; October 15th, 2006 at 01:09 PM.

April 21st, 2006, 01:44 PM	#3
Luckystreak Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 2,916	nice .... bring`em more

April 24th, 2006, 06:22 AM	#6
*Suncity* By the ocean Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 15,773	The Eicher Atlases are great.

May 16th, 2006, 02:57 PM	#8
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	Day 1 (contd.) : edit : i finally got around to resize-ing the remaining pics from Day 1 - tbh i clean forgot that i hadn't yet posted these!! this is an amazing stretch of road through Chittoor in AP pretty treacherous road by the look of it though!! more.. road train!! this is definitely one of India's best 2-lane highways.. it amazes me every time i've been on this route to B'lore - the surroundings just get so much greener as we make our approach to the city.. the first glimpse of India's tech capital!! (for the uninitiated, that's the famous ITPL in Whitefield that's visible across the lake..) what i love about B'lore is that they often seemingly do things just for the cool factor it brings - the cable-stayed bridge across the rail track is prominent among them.. __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; April 4th, 2007 at 03:17 PM.

May 16th, 2006, 03:05 PM	#9
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	Day 1 (contd.) : more.. now onto the flyover that takes us onto the ORR.. driving along the Outer Ring Road - more or less a bypass of B'lore city along its east and north-east.. pretty heavy traffic though - this pic is misleading - it was like a city road for most part.. Hebbal Flyover - South India's most complex interchange by a long way.. the Lakeside Habitat twins across the Hebbal lake.. one more of the flyover to round off day 1.. __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; March 24th, 2007 at 05:11 PM.

May 16th, 2006, 03:07 PM	#10
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	Day 2 : heading out of B'lore early-ish.. huge empty roads.. the road again - it's 6-laned upto about 50 kms out of B'lore.. it'll serve the new airport as well as people travelling towards HYD on NH7 like us.. onto the 2-laned NH7 now - it stays this way pretty much upto HYD.. flat and pretty dry terrain.. grape vineyards! we stopped by at one of them where they had a stall - we ended up buying five different types of grapes!! a few rough patches along the way, but luckily nothing major.. more.. quite a few cool rock features popped up here and there as we went along.. some old fort ruins by the side of the road! a very 'Indian' moment as the train passes the level-crossing.. man i love trains.. more stretches of flat land as we move deeper into the Deccan.. racing the train!! we're winning!! A1 Plaza - these joints are all around the country - it's so nice to have a nice clean, cheap place where you know you won't fall sick because of the food - these A1 plazas came in useful several times as the trip went on.. back on the road after our brunch - around 11 am.. __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; April 4th, 2007 at 02:18 PM.

May 16th, 2006, 03:08 PM	#11
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	Day 2 (contd.) : park on the banks of the Krishna river (if i remember correctly).. the river itself - the first big river we had to cross on the trip - not a patch on some of the other rivers we encountered later in the trip, but big enough to impress us at the time.. crumbly potholed bridge across the river.. the water was pretty fast-flowing.. some old fort on a hilltop next to the river.. soon after the river, we came to some of the best 2-lane highways i've seen anywhere in India.. this was a pretty long, hard drive with quite a bit less scenic beauty than day 1, but this stretch of road just made my day.. onto the 4-laned approach to HYD city.. entering the city now!! massive road-expansion work was in progress when we were there - from what i could make out it's the road to the new airport - is this part of the ORR? it looked very wide.. into the old city now.. i didn't like this part of town, and so i lowered my expectations from the rest of the city - turns out that was a stupid thing to do - HYD is fantastic - i totally loved it!! we just happened to see its worst side first.. the city kept getting better from that point.. into the heart of town now.. the huge Hussain Sagar and one last shot to wind up the Day 2 pics.. that night we checked into the hotel and relaxed and watched Schumi qualify pole for the San Marino grand prix.. it was a good way to end the day.. __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; April 4th, 2007 at 03:13 PM.

May 17th, 2006, 07:33 AM	#12
sudipta_rch Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Kolkata Posts: 281	wonderful pics ferrari ! just waiting for those spaces to get filled up soon !

May 17th, 2006, 01:07 PM	#13
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	Day 3 : in Hyderabad thanks Sudipta.. now, onto Day 3 : we had a whole day to spend in HYD - i say a whole day because our time was stretched so tight that some cities didn't even get that long.. we were up at 6 am, and drove down to tank bund road where we walked around and saw HYD waking up.. well maintained, grassy traffic islands and clean roads.. buildings by the Hussain-Sagar lake. tank bund road, with morning walkers and early traffic yoga lessons on the roadside park more walkers - seems a real popular early morning place! also, beautiful landscaping, and most importantly, it was all very clean and tidy.. the Banjara Hills skyline with the buddha statue in the lake, and iMax on the banks on the left of the pic... tank-bund road again dunno the name of the flyover or the building, but they made for a nice picture.. now, onto Necklace road - what i felt was HYD's most beautiful road.. Lumbini park's fancy entrance arch.. awesome road, great greenery, and the flowers on the road just add that extra touch Necklace road MMTS station __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; September 2nd, 2007 at 03:44 PM.

May 17th, 2006, 02:48 PM	#14
ferrari_fan Forza! Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,174	Day 3 ( contd. ) : after breakfast, we set out to see the city of Hyderabad, including the usual old touristy areas but mainly newer, more developed parts of the city... Babukhan Estate - HYD's tallest? i seem to remember reading that on one of the HYD threads.. Big, wide roads, but increasingly dirty and dusty as we neared the older parts of the city the area around the Charminar is a super-mess for a monument of its importance, but apparently the chudi-bazar makes for great shopping... no offence, but i hated it - it was the only part of HYD i didn't enjoy.. what is a trip to HYD without a visit to it's icon, the Charminar.. back to some real roads, as we head for Banjara Hills! sorry about the terrible picture, but what i hope you can see is the Hyderabad Central Mall.. __________________ Racecar backwards is Racecar Check out my threads : Driving Trip Across India - 8000 kms, 25 days, one great experience! Chennai Picture Thread - My city in pictures... Last edited by ferrari_fan; October 15th, 2006 at 01:14 PM.

May 18th, 2006, 05:30 AM	#17
magestom Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 3,010	Great pics. Can anyone identify this flyover? __________________ Hi. こんにちは. bonjour. hallo. hola. 여보세요. ciao. здравствулте! 你好 My Collections [SIZE=2]India 2006(Bangalore), [SIZE=2][http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...t=390408]India 2006(NCR)[/URL], [SIZE=2][http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...t=375155]India 2006(Hyderabad)[/URL], Special Pics by Relatives, My Threads Gurgaon and Noida, India (Next Singapore), The Future Buildings of Mumbai, IT Boom! Office Buildings!! India!!, Financial Capital! Mumbai, Mumbai Night Collection 我是印度人，而且也是美国人，我16岁。わたしはインドじんです。わたしはアメリカじんです。

May 18th, 2006, 05:45 AM	#19
*IndiansUnite* Playbhai Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Patton Nagar Posts: 6,274	Even though i havent travelled to hyd,i found this link with a similar picture of the flyovers and it indicates its at Bashirbagh. Ill post the news on the link in the the flyover thread. http://www.projectsmonitor.com/detai...sp?newsid=4814

May 18th, 2006, 06:22 AM	#20
harsh1802 MAVerick Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Hyderabad/Baton Rouge Posts: 5,867	The above fly over connects the secretariet and the tank bund road. I think it is also called telugu thalli flyover!

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