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Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

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  • Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)



    Kolkata to Moregram : Butter smooth four lane till Burdwan. Once you get to Norja more after squeezing yourself through the city lanes some good two lane roads , along with some partly rough patches start, this continue for quite some time till the road construction work in progress and gets further bad till you connect to the highway post Moregram .

    More Gram to Malda: Roads remain butter smooth for some time and then slowly truckers join in for the party till they choke at Farakka barrage, road work is underway at few places, mainly on the Farakka-Malda Sector which makes it a horrible stretch to ride at night. Not many ameneties too alongside for refreshments. If it starts raining, then its like adding a cherry to the cake.

    Malda-Raiganj: Traffic prone but not as bad as the previous stretch. Road conditions also get better.

    Raiganj-Dalkhola-Siliguri:Siliguri-Kurseong-Pankhabhari-Manebhanjang : You would encounter traffic getting out of Siliguri, once you get into the Military area, the relaxed nature kicks in, roads start getting better and better. Kurseong was jam packed with tourists who are reluctant to give space for the vehicles. Kurseong to Dudhia is a nice not so trafficky route. Dhudia to Manebhanjhang roads are pretty good and starts to get better once the climb starts. But downhill coming jeeps can be distraction as they come with pin drop silence.
    Typical 4X4 route. The initial climb is pretty steep and then the bad roads /no roads start. Do not attempt to do it on a 2W drive vehicles you would turn out to be a hinderance for other road users and the Land rover guys show no mercy as it is difficult for them too, to gain momentum from standstill. It is difficult, no doubts on that, make sure your vehicle is in a good condition as once you start the climb, the land rovers are probably the only help you might get. You are virtually into a no Help zone. The last 3 kms from BikeyBhanjang get progressively steep and bad. It will be quite a tiring stretch no matter which mode of transport you prefer. From Meghma, the road splits into two, one goes on the Indian side and the other from Nepal. The Indian side is much better than the latter. Worst part , you need to pay toll to use the Nepal side.

    Manebhanjang to Darjeeling: Overall good roads. But from Ghoom you might feel claustrophobic w.r.t tourist traffic at Darjeeling.

    Darjeeling-Jorethang (via Pattabong) : Initail few kms are average but pretty steep decline. Post that its bad roads all the way till Jorethang CP
    : Initail few kms are good. But after nayabazaar, road widening is underway, so at some sections the roads are literally ripped open. It will take about a year atleast for it to be fixed, all depending on rains. After Leg ship the roads get better to some extent, but then again, certain sections are bad.

    Pelling-Darap-Rimbi-Khecheopari Lake-Kanchejunga Waterfalls: Roads are overall Good, with some rough patches , but nothing to worry about .

    Pelling-Sardong-Dentam- Singashore Bridge: Roads are overall good, but narrow.

    Pelling-Legship-Ravangla-Sangmo-Tarku-Singtam-Ranipool-Gangtok: Overall roads are Average to Good, Till Ravangla, due to minor landslides, roads can be Average to below Average. Post Singtam, roads are good all the way till Gangtok.
    Gangtok-Nathula-Gnathang valley: average to below average roads till Changu lake. After Changu roads are pretty good, unless there are landslides. Serathang to Kupup, roads are narrow but decent. There are 2 routes to Gnathang valley, one which is steep descent through army areas and the other longer one. The longer route is scenic and gives a better view of the valley, comparatively.
    Gnathang Valley-Zuluk-Phadamchen-Rongli-Rorathang-Rangpo : Apart from landslide zones, roads are pretty good and scenic.

    Rangpo-Melli-Kalimpong: Good roads.

    Kalimpong-Labha-Algarah-Sillery Gaon-Pedong-Reshi : Roads are pretty good from Kalimpong to Algarah. After the diversion for Sillery gaon, all the way till the view point, its bad roads. Algarah to Reshi pretty good roads, apart from 2-3 areas which are landslide prone.

    Reshi-Aritarlake-Rhenack : Bad roads for most part of it.

    Algarah-Lava-Gorubathan-Damdim: Road widening underway at many places, so can expect it to be slushy/Dusty for most parts of it. Once you get down to the planes, roads are good.

    Damdim-Malbazar-Chalsa-Jalpaiguri-Fulbari-Islampur: Good roads overall, but traffic gets exponentially higher from JLP and extends till Ghoshpukur. Once you enter Islampur, the roads get squeezed from four lane to lane with crazy truck traffic.

    Islampur-Purnea-Bhagalpur-Rajoun-Hansdiha: One simple note , AVOID AVOID AVOID. It was a crude mistake from our end, intended to take Bhagalpur-Amarpur-Deoghar route and in Bhagalpur chaotic traffic somehow slipped into rajoun route .Potholes as big as 2 Fortuners(or may be even bigger). The ride/Drive can be very taxing.

    Hansdiha-Dumka-Masnjor-Suri : Roads are much better than Bhagalur-Hansdiha route but more dangerous. Because of better roads we tend to do better speeds to make up for the time, at such critical point, killer potholes exist. It can make the rider and the bike do a somersault, if lack of attention.

    Suri-Shantinikentan-Burdwan : Overall good two laned roads.

    Burdwan-Kolkata: Good Four lane roads.
    Stories of the open road...........

  • #2
    Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

    Thread Approved
    Biking is not about what you have between your legs, its all about how well you use it!!!!!!!

    Give your details here if you want to help your fellow xBhpian stranded in your city

    Touring Blog: Cycling in Mongolia!

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

      Thanks Phanikar for starting this thread. My contribution below, not entirely northeast, but getting there from the north as well.

      Route: Delhi-Agra-Kanpur-Lucknow-Faizabad-Basti-Gorakhpur-Kushinagar-Gopalganj-Muzaffarpur-Darbhanga-Forbesganj-Araria-Purnea-Dalkhola-Kishanganj-Islampur-Siliguri-Mirik-Ghoom-Darjeeling-Ghoom-Tista Bazar-Sevoke-Nagrakata-Bongaigaon-Guwahati-Jorabat-Umiam Lake-Shillong-Dawki Lake-Shillong-Umiam Lake-Shillong-Sohra(Cherapunjee)-Shillong-Jorabat-Nellie-Nagaon-Kaziranga-Nagaon-Nellie-Guwahati

      Delhi - Lucknow: Yamuna Expressway to Agra so fantastic if not boring tarmac. Agra to Kanpur is smooth four lane highways, with construction on in a few places. Firozabad is a bottleneck. Kanpur to Lucknow, 4 lane highway, but with lots of traffic.

      Lucknow - Muzaffarpur: Once you cross the terrible traffic of Lucknow (thankfully you don't enter the city proper), smooth empty highways till Gorakhpur. After which you cross the UP-Bihar border just after Kushinagar. The first 10 km in Bihar are in terrible shape, 4-lane work in progress. After that it is fantastic 4-lane highways till Muzaffarpur.

      Muzaffarpur - Siliguri: Lovely 4-lane tarmac as long as you are in Bihar. Terrible roads as soon as you enter Bengal. Feels even worse, since the rider has been spoilt with butter smooth tarmac all the way from Delhi to the Bengal border! Bad roads mostly till Siliguri. There is an alternate route apparently, from a small town called Araria in Bihar, you turn off the main highway and take the inside roads to Siliguri. The tarmac is good, though it is a two-lane highway.

      Siliguri - Darjeeling: Narrow 2-lane hill roads. The Mirik route has much less traffic as compared to the main route, though it is longer. Tarmac is reasonably smooth, with a few bad patches. Near Darjeeling, one must be careful of the train tracks which keep criss-crossing the road and a rear wheel slide inducer for motorcycles!

      Darjeeling - Guwahati: Descending from Darjeeling to Sevoke (Coronation Bridge) is again on narrow 2-lane hill roads, but with less traffic. Once you cross the bridge, the roads improve substantially. I don't remember exact road conditions, because we were trying to cover a lot of distance, but if my memory serves me correctly, the reason we could cover that distance was because the road was very good all the way till Guwahati. If there were any bad stretches, then those were few and far between. At some point, the 2-lane road also becomes a 4-lane, which was very useful!

      Guwahati - Umiam Lake: Fantastic road from Guwahati to Shillong. 4-lane ghat roads. As you turn off the main road for Umiam Lake, 2-lane narrow village road starts.

      Umiam Lake - Dawki Lake: Fantastic tarmac till Shillong. After which the road narrows a bit, but tarmac quality remains wonderful. The last few kilometres to Dawki are a bit of a mess, though not too much of a problem.

      Umiam Lake - Sohra: Amazing roads throughout. Hill tarmac, but super smooth.

      Sohra - Kaziranga: Again butter smooth roads till Guwahati and then great roads for the most part. 4-lane till the turn off for Tezpur, after which it becomes a 2-lane road with quite a few potholes. And then you enter the Forest Reserve and roads once again improve. The last 40 odd km to Kaziranga are 2-lane.

      Kaziranga - Guwahati: Same as above!
      Biking is not about what you have between your legs, its all about how well you use it!!!!!!!

      Give your details here if you want to help your fellow xBhpian stranded in your city

      Touring Blog: Cycling in Mongolia!

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

        Anybody interested for a bike ride in Sikkim and Bhutan for 15 days in October/start of November. Please reply fast. Need a riding partner

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        • #5
          Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

          Guys have opened a youtube channel.. its a motovlog goes with the name "Gtknoob" (gtk is gangtok and you know what noob is) with my rc390, will be posting good videos every week about almost everything and will try to make it intresting.. please do watch the video and give it a like if you like it, and comment for any suggestions. Thanks in advance guys 😆😆.. https://youtu.be/QsNhRvTGxfo

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

            Originally posted by sheru5 View Post
            Guys have opened a youtube channel.. its a motovlog goes with the name "Gtknoob" (gtk is gangtok and you know what noob is) with my rc390, will be posting good videos every week about almost everything and will try to make it intresting.. please do watch the video and give it a like if you like it, and comment for any suggestions. Thanks in advance guys 😆😆.. https://youtu.be/QsNhRvTGxfo
            Its nice contributing to the Indian Youtube Moto Vlogging section.

            I had a question regarding Sikkim rides. I am planning to ride from Kolkata to Gangtok this November (19th-27th). I am planning to enter Sikkim via Padamchen and then take the route via Zuluk, Baba mandir, Tsomgo lake to Gangtok.

            Can you please let me know if the road conditions here are suitable for motorcycling? (I own a P200NS) And, whether I would have to take any specific permissions from Gangtok before I go on this Zuluk-Nathu La-Baba mandir-Tsomgo route?

            Next , I plan to ride from Gangtok-Gurudongmar-Zero Point,Yumsamdong-Pelling-Okhrey.

            Also, how are the mobile network coverages on these routes?
            MotoVlogging | Youtube Channel - http://Youtube.com/OneLivingLife | Do Subscribe :)
            Blogging | Travelogues - http://OneLivingLife.in

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            • #7
              Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

              Originally posted by chandrajit1988 View Post
              Its nice contributing to the Indian Youtube Moto Vlogging section.

              I had a question regarding Sikkim rides. I am planning to ride from Kolkata to Gangtok this November (19th-27th). I am planning to enter Sikkim via Padamchen and then take the route via Zuluk, Baba mandir, Tsomgo lake to Gangtok.

              Can you please let me know if the road conditions here are suitable for motorcycling? (I own a P200NS) And, whether I would have to take any specific permissions from Gangtok before I go on this Zuluk-Nathu La-Baba mandir-Tsomgo route?

              Next , I plan to ride from Gangtok-Gurudongmar-Zero Point,Yumsamdong-Pelling-Okhrey.

              Also, how are the mobile network coverages on these routes?
              Thank you, just starting to post, trying to make it better.
              That is a great route, the road is good except for few places, and yes you will have to take permission from gangtok to go Zuluk - Nathu La Baba mandir - Tsongo route, but mind you it will be very very cold and the road might be very slippery around Zuluk side. So be very careful. There might be snowfall too. Keep every option open for it, you will enjoy gangtok, and the same thing goes with gurudongmar, you will have to take permission as well from the "Home Department" which is located in development area, which is also near "Sardar police station", keep your documents up to date, 😝 and in advance "welcome to sikkim", and the network coverage might be fair, i have very less idea about it, but there will be spots where you will find network 😅

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

                Thanks Sheru.
                But, being an Indian, do I still need to get permission from Gangtok? As a domestic citizen, is that still necessary?

                I read here that Domestic Citizens do not need any specific permits except at Police Checkposts - http://www.sikkimtourism.gov.in/Webf...al/pdf/RAP.pdf

                Can anyone confirm that?
                MotoVlogging | Youtube Channel - http://Youtube.com/OneLivingLife | Do Subscribe :)
                Blogging | Travelogues - http://OneLivingLife.in

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

                  Originally posted by chandrajit1988 View Post
                  Thanks Sheru.
                  But, being an Indian, do I still need to get permission from Gangtok? As a domestic citizen, is that still necessary?

                  I read here that Domestic Citizens do not need any specific permits except at Police Checkposts - http://www.sikkimtourism.gov.in/Webf...al/pdf/RAP.pdf

                  Can anyone confirm that?
                  Welcome bro, yes this is applicable for everyone, even the local people here are to take out permit and than only we are allowed to go, this is for the safety, as it is near by the border..😝 Haha Sikkim is a state of india lol..haha all indians are free to come and go and stay as long as they would love to. Everyone is welcome here.. ☺☺😝😝 but the border side areas are highly sensitive and full of security, so the permit is a must for everyone, even i am an INDIAN, but i need to take out permit.
                  And the document says the same as well, it says will have to take out permission from the tourism department or the police checkpost, and this permit is supplied from the home department outhere, so thats where you will have to go, if you want the permit, haha..lol.😝
                  Last edited by sheru5; 10-27-2016, 07:59 PM.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

                    Adding my two cents..-GUWAHATI-NAGALAND(DIMAPUR):

                    Two routes are there-
                    1. You can go as follows-
                    (281KM according to G-Maps)
                    (https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Di...5169!5i2?hl=en

                    This route is bad. I've gone there in Nov. Its a single lane road with one side being fully bad so you have to travel either on the wrong side to avoid pot holes or wait for the oncoming vehicles to pass & then go. Beside this it's passing through crowded areas so expect free roaming cattle, humans on the road. Otherwise there are very little traffic as truckers find these roads problematic because it is passing through Karbi Anglong which is notorious for extortion(avoid night riding). But the silver lining is this road is less in km. But the last 50/60 kms is hell. There were no road at all. It took me nearly 2 hours to cross that patch. Scenic beauty is there though.

                    2. You can also follow this route-
                    (365KM according to G-Maps)


                    This road is very good compared to the previous route. You will get proper cemented 4 lane NH up to Nagaon. After that single lane road(expansion will start) which will continue through several tea estate, Kaziranga national park. You have to take a right turn to Numaligarh, cross refinery(you have to travel another 4kms if you want to have a glimpse), cross numaligarh township to bokajan. Here also the approaching 100kms to Dimapur is not that good. Though this route is a bit long but the scenic beauty will compensate.

                    I haven't been to Kohima yet. Once it done I will update the Dimapur-Kohima route also.
                    Happy riding....

                    Regards,

                    Ritabroto
                    IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO RISK IT ALL, THEN YOU DON'T WANT IT BAD ENOUGH

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

                      Update from past 10 days. (10-20th Dec)
                      Guwahati - Tawang - Guwahati

                      Guwahati - Tezpur : Super Awesome roads for over 100kms
                      Tezpur - Bomdila : 60% good roads, 40% bad or no roads
                      Bomdila - Tawang : Good roads at Bomdila - Dirang. Very bad patches with no roads later. Couple of patches with Black Ice at Bomdila-Jang & some around Sela Pass top near Jaswantgarh War Memorial.
                      Tawang - BumLa : Hardly any or No roads


                      Blog : Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai : 21 Days, 6500kms. Journey to Heaven..June'09
                      GreatIndianRide - West India on a 110cc for over a month
                      Mumbai-Leh-Mumbai - A Sequel : July'11 (Blog coming soon)

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

                        Originally posted by rachitkohli View Post
                        Update from past 10 days. (10-20th Dec)
                        Guwahati - Tawang - Guwahati

                        Guwahati - Tezpur : Super Awesome roads for over 100kms
                        Tezpur - Bomdila : 60% good roads, 40% bad or no roads
                        Bomdila - Tawang : Good roads at Bomdila - Dirang. Very bad patches with no roads later. Couple of patches with Black Ice at Bomdila-Jang & some around Sela Pass top near Jaswantgarh War Memorial.
                        Tawang - BumLa : Hardly any or No roads
                        When did you visit this route?
                        IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO RISK IT ALL, THEN YOU DON'T WANT IT BAD ENOUGH

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

                          Originally posted by Ritabroto View Post
                          When did you visit this route?
                          As mentioned in that post.. It was from 10 to 20 Dec 2016


                          Blog : Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai : 21 Days, 6500kms. Journey to Heaven..June'09
                          GreatIndianRide - West India on a 110cc for over a month
                          Mumbai-Leh-Mumbai - A Sequel : July'11 (Blog coming soon)

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

                            Originally posted by rachitkohli View Post
                            As mentioned in that post.. It was from 10 to 20 Dec 2016
                            Right!!! Sorry...Its really a problem when you shuffle between work window & XBHP window..
                            IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO RISK IT ALL, THEN YOU DON'T WANT IT BAD ENOUGH

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Updates On Road Conditions in North east India(Including Bhutan)

                              We had thought of touring Bhutan on Bikes, but unfortunately the day prior to our arrival the rules changed saying Bikers coming via Phuentsholing border are banned from carrying their vehicles to Paro / Thimphu. So we had to leave our bikes at an acquaintance's place and then proceed towards Paro by a local taxi. No bike permit is being issued as of now. And if someone wants to ride bikes in Bhutan, they can hire it from Thimphu.
                              A word of caution regarding changes make note of changes in rules and confirm beforehand because there are lots of rules being changed and the most major one may be Indian Tourists entering Bhutan will require a guide in the foreseeable future. Also the entry gate for vehicles entering Bhutan has changed.
                              We were lucky as we had an acquaintance but most of the bikers who arrived that day for permit, returned to India.

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