Driving Trip across India

[ferrari_fan]

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]

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]

nice .... bring`em more

[klein]

Maybe you could write an online book about it ..

[ferrari_fan]

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]

The Eicher Atlases are great.

[ferrari_fan]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[ferrari_fan]

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]

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..

[Luckystreak]

Great updates!

Good pics of the most over-hyped city of India

Originally Posted by ferrari_fan

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

Secretariat flyover

[magestom]

Great pics.
Can anyone identify this flyover?

[IndiansUnite]

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]

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

[Suncity]

Cool pics!

[cncity]

Very nice pics...love hyd's roads..so clean ...