This Deepawali, me and my family decided to spend at Bhopal, with my parents. And best part that we had planned to travel to Bhopal (from Gurgaon) by road. Although we had covered this trip in past but after after two years, a bit concerned about the quality of the road.
In 2010, the stretch from Gwalior to Bhopal was really very bad. Witnessed agitations at various places due to bad quality of road and after that most of the NHs were handed over by Centre to MP govt. Having good hopes we started our journey on Sunday 11th November 2012 at 4:30 AM.
Car: Swift Dzire VXI : Make-2011
Distance : Door to Door 750 KMs
Route taken : Gurgaon-Sohna-Palwal-Agra-Gwalior-Shivpuri-Guna-Baora-Bhopal (same to return)
Alternate routes are available (Via Jhansi-Lalitpur-Sagar...) but they are bit lenghty with lot of state highways, and MP is worst in managing state highways, so avoided the alternate.
Road Quality :
Gurgaon-Palwal-Agra (200KMs) : Good quality. Between Palwal and Agra, there are two toll posts each charge Rs. 80/- (i.e. total Rs. 160/-) however that road isn;t worth to pay. It is very difficult to touch even 100 KMPH speed due to 1. Highly overcrowded - People and animals can come out of any corner/pits etc etc. 2. A lot of tractors and other vehicles ply from opposite side in your lane... hence you have to be very careful.
Take Bye-pass road at Agra. If you miss this bye-pass there is another one which crosses thru Industrial Area, do not take that as its even inappropriate to call it a "road". I do not know, how such areas are still existing without proper roads.
Agra-Gwalior 115 KMs (Agra-Bombay Road):
Excellent stretch, not much crowded. You can easily cruze at a good speed. After Dholpur, just on the Chambal river, there is a Crocodile and Dolphin Santuary (National Chambal Santuary). This santruary is a joint effort of MP/Raj and UP. While returning on 18th, we had a boad trip and viewed a lot of migratory birds, turtles, crocodiles and Ghariyals. Its a worth visiting place with kids as they can view these water animals live in their natural habitat. Chambal is one of the non-polluted river however so called Hindu Bhakta’s are dumping the Puja-samagri along with polythenes .. this could another Ganga/Yamuna in making...
Crossing Gwalior using AB-raod is a big challenge as the old basti (Laxmiganj, other colonies) holds the traffic movement for hours. I usually de-tour ABroad at gwalior Via Gola-Ka-Mandir/Bus-Stand/University-road/Jhansi-Road/AB-road, covering extra 16 KMs but worth as it hardly takes 20-25 mins to cover this stretch.
Gwalior-Shivpuri (AB-Road) Approx 110 KMs:
This is one of the best stretch on this route, as it crosses through Madhav National Park. The road is single lane without divider however you will be able to cover this stretch at an avg speed of 70-80kmph (max 2 hours). After dark, you might be lucky to find some wild animals on road... One can stay at Shivpuri and enjoy the flora and fauna of Madhav National park.
Shivpuri - Guna ( 100 KMs) :
Again a nice stretch, with dry landscape all around. The traffic on this stretch is normal except at enroute towns/villages where the entire populations seems to be living on the road... During day time crossing those villages take some time otherwise its really fun to drive.
At Guna (while returning) we took a stopover and spend one night. Visited a newly constructed Hanuman Mandir (Hanuman Tekri) on top of the hill. While coming down from tekri (around 6 PM), I had to stop my car suddenly as the huge motu python was crossing the road. My entire family came out of the car and seen such lovely beauty under cars headlight and that too within a meter away, my kids were at highest level of ecstasy ...
Guna-Bhopal (230 KMs) Via Biaora/Narsingarh. :
Overall Nice road with covered potholes, can be covered in 3+ hours. The only bad part was 15 KMs stretch after narsingarh (50KMs from Bhopal) that road doesn’t exist. Its a big surprise as this stretch was close to Bhopal and in such shape.
Thats all folks...