Kolkata-Jamshedpur-Kolkata Travelouge: Will remember all my life....

[anisghos]

Hello Everybody.
I am pretty new to this community.
We went to Jamshedpur from Kolkata to a friends house in my 5 month old TATA Manza Quadrajet AURA ABS and i tell you Manza's performance was too good in the conditions we drove. I own it and i have started loving this car more. Before going i searched for this trip travelogue a lot but did not find a single travelogue on this route in any of the automobile communities. Hopefully this will be a good resource for anybody who will travel by road on this route. This is one journey i would remember all of my life due to the wrong reasons though . Passing through the jungles where the naxals freely roam about, national highways cannot get more worse than this (no roads at all) for a patch of about 8-10 kms, roads were filled with craters(literally they were no less than craters), torrential rains at night making visibility zero and more . Will provide details and pictures for the trip as i go on.

Itinerary was :

Kolkata-Kolaghat(NH 6) - 86 kms
Kolaghat-Kharagpur(NH 6) - 64 kms
Kharagpur-Lodhasuli(NH 6) - 35 kms (There is reason for mentioning Lodhasuli. Will come back later on this)
Lodhasuli-Baharagora(NH 6) - 35 kms
Baharagora-Ghatsila(NH 33) - 46 kms
Ghatsila-Jamshedpur.(NH 33) - 46 kms

The distance(one way) is around 300 kms but while going to Jamshedpur it took us 8.5 hrs and while coming back it took us around 10.5 hrs including breaks due to the condition of the roads.

Will continue with the post very soon.

 

[350Z]

Welcome aboard anisghos. It must have been an adventurous trip. Looking forward to some pictures and rest of the story.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[Surfer]

anisghos welcome to TAI, please post some nice pics

 

[Thetraveller]

Welcome aboard buddy! Need some pics to go with that write-up
Wishing you a wonderful stay with us.

 

[AppU]

Nice write up dude,

where is the pics, upload it fast

 

[Umang]

hmm..interesting story buddy. please continue and add some pics asap!!

 

[drivetech4]

@anisghos welcome to the family! You just cant keep us waiting! where are the pics and details?

 

[anisghos]

I am back guys. Sorry for delay. Didn't get much time in between.
Lets get back to the trip.

We had planned this trip a week back and anybody and everybody discouraged me to take the car in this route due to the following reasons:

i> In between Kharagpur and Baharagora the road passes through dense forests in the border area of West Bengal and Jharkhand. These forests are the places were the naxals are active and a dacoity prone zone in the highway mostly in Lodhasuli. There have been many such instances of dacoity in this stretch of the road where trees were felled and the cars and trucks were looted, even ambulances. I read these in newspapers in internet. So, passing through this area after 4-5 pm is a strict NO NO.

ii> The roads were pretty unknown and i did not get any first hand knowledge from anybody who passed through this route recently. I had inquired from few professional drivers as well.

iii> We knew that the road between baharagora and jamshedpur was pretty bad and an accident prone zone. I went through some of the newspapers of jharkhand through internet and what i read was that there are fatal accidents in that route each and every day due to rash truck drivers and stupid guys speeding their bikes among those craters and i have got that first hand experience driving among them. This is also a naxal and dacoit prone zone. In fact NH33 is famous for this till upto Ranchi. So, driving through this area after 4-5 pm is a strict NO NO and after night falls all the trucks go in convoy with police cars. In fact for this reason trains do not ply between Jamshedpur and Kharagpur at night till now.

iv> The drive would be long and tiresome as i will be the only person driving. We were going on Saturday and coming back on Sunday.

However, i stuck to my decision and decided i would be going ahead with the drive. Fully tanked up with diesel and checked the tyres and had a preliminary checkup of the car like the oil levels, brakes, suspension, lights etc etc. This is a must before any long drives and should be done at least a week back before you travel.

We planned to start very early, sharp at 4.30. But as we know, we ended up starting at 5.30. It was raining pretty heavily. Picked up my friends from 2 different locations and reached the second hoogly bridge at around 6.10. Once we paid the toll and moved on we were in Kona Expressway(NH117). That was a bumpy ride till we reached NH6. The road has totally broken down due to heavy monsoons. It was around 10 kms. Once we were in NH 6 it was a joy to ride and zoomed to kolaghat for our first break and reached there around 7.20. Noticeable landmarks in between were dhulagarh, uluberia, bagnan. We took a break for about 45 mins for breakfast at the famous Sher-E-Punjab.

Once done we were ready to move on. We started around 8.15 and again zoomed till Kharagpur and reached there at around 9.15. Till Kharagpur it was a 4 lane drive and a joy to drive as the GQ on NG 6 ends there. Do not miss the loop in kharagpur. If you want to go straight on NH 6(Bombay road) take the loop on the 1st left diversion. If you want to continue on GQ at NH 5 go below the 1st loop and then take the 2nd one towards Balasore.

By the way can anyone tell me from where to add captions for the pictures? How can i add pictures within the write up rather the pictures coming at the end after the write up. Any help will be highly appreciated. Other wise the travelogue wont be that interesting.

Below are few pictures of the second hoogly bridge, the sher-e-punjab dhaba at kolaghat and my beauty taking a breather at kolaghat.
I will be back with the rest of the story tomorrow for sure. [:-)].

 

[autosafari]

By the way can anyone tell me from where to add captions for the pictures? How can i add pictures within the write up rather the pictures coming at the end after the write up. Any help will be highly appreciated. Other wise the travelogue wont be that interesting.

Hi Anisghos, welcome to TAI.

For your querry, I would suggest the following method for caption and placing pics in between write up. (Found this own my own during posting. Request Mods to correct if its not a proper way)

First, upload all the pictures using the upload tool.
Close the upload tool and come back to the message window.
Type the write up and click on the attach icon, you will have the option to attach a single pic (from the stock you have already uploaded) or all the pics. Choose the option and attach the pics.
If there are more pictures say 6 out of total 10 to be attached below one paragraph, then also opt for attach all and then delete the unwanted pics.

Repeat the process for other pics by placing the curser in the desired location

Now to give captions,

Submit the message and then go for editing (you will have 15 minutes for editing after the initial post). Place the curser just above the picture where caption is required and type. (only thing is before uploading itself you should arrange the pics in order in your computer folder so that captions can be put for the right picture. After upload, pics show the original file name in our computer but after attaching with the message, TAI server gives a running serial number.)

Hope you should be picking up the clue from this long reply

Or did I confuse you further

 

[anisghos]

@autosafari : Thanks mate. I will try this out. Hopefully i will be able to complete this travelogue today.

 

[drivetech4]

Thanks autosafari for the useful tips!

 

[THE XOVER]

Finally The Xover comes back to a thread that discusses his beautiful state of Jharkhand, which is sadly marred by our 'red comrade brothers'
Any way loved the write up and am already a huge fan of Manza. keep going mate.

 

[mukeshus]

@anisghos: Yes Autosafari has mentioned it neatly.

I have uploaded the pic of symbol.
Once you have uploaded all the pics, just click the symbol below and highlight the photo numbers and cut & paste in the text box where you have typed the details of visit.

Visit this thread to learn on posting the pics here:http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/announcements/18-how-adding-pictures-videos-posts.html

 

[anisghos]

Thank you guys for your help. I highly appreciate your support.

Coming back to the trip. The last 2 pictures of my previous post are the road from Kolaghat to Kharagpur. Once the rpm crossed 1500-1700 you would really feel the torque and you would find the lady flying. Best way to deal with is to push up the gears and once you are in top gear you play around with the torque. This also keeps the machine healthy. You would not feel that you have a diesel machine under your bonnet. Manza rocks.. .

Now, once we crossed the loop in kharagpur, found a circle, one going inside kharagpur city, one towards mednipur and one on NH 6 towards Baharagora. Need be very careful here otherwise you have to return from the next exit.
We took the NH 6, i.e the 2nd exit and from here we were into the undivided 2 lanes which are much narrower. We took a break after taking the NH6 exit for 15 mins to cool down. We didn't waste much time as we knew we have to face some bad stretches afterwards and that would take up some time.

KGP-Lodhasuli




The roads were not that bad in that area till we crossed Lodhasuli. We heard a lot about that stretch and all were eager to pass through this area. At around 9.40 we started approaching the jungles and at around 10.10 we were crossing Lodhasuli. It was in our knowledge that in the day time there was not much threat but we were excited.

Approaching :




Through the stretch:









You can see how dense the jungles are:



We crossed this area with ease looking at the beautiful scenery around us.
In the last picture you would find the roads are not straight and the land is undulated. While you are going uphill you wont be able to see the other side and we were zooming on the fine tarmac and suddenly on top found a big pothole and instantly full brakes on and wwwoooooo... ABS was at work... from 80 kmps to 10 kmps within seconds and the lady slowed down without a jerk... Loved it.... And from there on the agony started.....

Continued in the next post...

 

[anisghos]

One more lesson. Never try to overtake and slow down in blind turns and while going uphill.

We were approaching the Bengal Jharkhand border and what a pity to think that you are travelling through a National Highway. Don't know if ever there were any road there. Have a close look







It looks like plain muddy surface but it was not. It was in ripples. If you look at the wheels of the truck you would understand. It was very difficult and one thing was going through my mind was the safety of the lady we were riding. It got couple of thuds in its chassis and my heart was pounding each and every time it got hit. I could not go any slower as i was travelling at 5 kms/ hr and as careful as i could be.This carried on for 10 + kms.
More pictures of this area coming up in the return journey.

At last we reached Baharagora at around 11.15. I needed a break after this and took it. The lady also needed to be cooled down after the struggle. At Baharagora there is once again circle. The left exit continued at NH 6 towards Mumbai and we took the right exit to NH 33 towards Jamshedpur and Ranchi. After moving into NH 33 we took the break for 15 mins. Everybody cooled down and we were running again. Another 95 kms to go.

Till Kokpara the roads were okay but after that again detoriated and we were going over some big craters and there were no place to maneuver and had to go over them.Found at least 5 big trailers which fell apart in an accident recently. The weather had cooled down and we started seeing the dalma range outside. It was pretty scenic.







Myself



Taking pictures had reduced considerably during that time as everybody started to tire a bit travelling over those craters. Left right right left ... thud etc etc. and we were now waiting for dimna chowk to arrive... We took another 10 mins break at Ghatsila. It was past 1 at that time. After couple of fags we started off again towards our destination, 45 ms more. Every body was silent and somewhat dozing off . I kept my concentration and patience going. This is the time which is most dangerous when to know you are about to reach and you loose your focus and concentration.

Approaching dimna chowk:




Certain areas were very bad and certain areas were good. Suddenly it started raining heavily for 15 mins and again slowed down. At last we reached dimna chowk at around 2.30. We took the left exit towards Jamshedpur city and one can see the factory towers. Going straight on NH 33 you would reach Ranchi via Chandil.

After taking the exit you will cross over the Subarnarekha river and you would find a signboard saying Welcome to Jamshedpur.




At last we were in Jamshedpur.

Continue with the return journey in the next post.