Syndicated from a previously public website – Raju Alluri’s public posts at Sun Microsystems
For this part of India where I was born, Pongal is an important festival. Every year, most of our cousins do a family gathering at our native place (in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh) during this mid-Jan festive season.
This year I wanted to be part of this gathering without fail, but planned for only 3 days because kids had only 1 extra holiday during this weekend. However, their school announced two more holidays in the last minute. So I had to replan my entire trip. Since there are no train tickets available, I had to resort to driving to the place, 450km (approx 280miles) from Hyderabad.
Well, driving for about 600 miles from SF bay area to Las Vegas or Phoenix was quite common for me in the past. However, 280miles of drive in India could be much more painful and time consuming, given the road conditions and especially the kind of traffic we have in India.
I started early hours of Wednesday and reached Vijayawada town within 5 hours. NH9 was mostly okay but with no median/divider for about 150km, it is the most troublesome journey. Traffic heading in opposite direction towards Hyderabad was always in a rush and made me go very slow. When I reached the 4 lane (2+2) part of the NH9, I could average about 80kmph. This part of NH9 reminded me of the best US highways I have driven on. Overall, I averaged about 60kmph on NH9.
Stayed overnight at Hanuman Junction with relatives and started early next AM. The drive on NH5 (part of the planned Golden Quadrilateral) is excellent. I could average about 90kmph. Reached my destination by about 9.00am.
Coming back to Hyderabad on Sunday was quite a fast journey. I covered the entire distance (door to door) in about 8 hours, with 3 breaks for food. Started late about 7.15am due to heavy fog. The fog area cleared up within half an hour and then it is a very nice drive. Except for village/town areas of NH9, there is no much traffic and it made life simple. Overall, I had a very decent driving experience this time.
For the entire trip, I averaged about 16kmpl of fuel on my Santro. Combined with local travel, this is a very good mileage.
Here are the best things I can think of, from the trip:
- Nicely paved roads
- Well marked directions and distances to major destinations
- Fuel availability within reasonable intervals
- Tea hotels (essential part of driving in India) almost everywhere
However, the following issues are still the biggest pain points on these highways:
- In places where there is no median/divider, there are drivers who come on to opposite traffic
- Pedestrians and bicycles going across the highway, paying no attention to oncoming traffic
- Cattle
- Not enough break areas where you can get decent food/facilities for families and kids
Well, from what I knew in the past, things have improved drastically so far on highways. If the trend continues, may be driving would be a better experience moving forward.