Road/Traffic Conditions in Uttarakhand

capt_mahajan

Isn't ks_bluechip in that area, on a VOF trek? I believe he said returning to Mumbai on the 26th.

Hope he is ok.

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Sadanand Kamath

He was to commence journey today morning from Srinagar for Haridwar. I hope, he is not cought in the road blocks.

Sadanand

solo_trekker

actually, though the rains are the best time to be in the valley of flowers, they do add to the problems too... landslides are very common on this road and in addition, there are always the road repairing operations where they keep blowing up the rocky mountain surface which results in further man-made landslides...
it is really amazing that the nh-58 keeps going, despite everything...! cheers...!

Sadanand Kamath

Kudos to Border Road Organisation who has been maintaining the Rishikesh-Badrinath Road despite all odds.

Sadanand

jyotipg

One bad stretch where I lost many hours several times is Pipalkoti.

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2001-till date: Tapovan, Khatling,Mayali Pass(Unsuccessful), Rudranath, Chandrashila peak, Pin Parvati Pass, Kalindi Pass, Mt. Yunum(Aborted), Roopkund, Junargali pass, Ronti Saddle.

spicetrekker

Lambagarh is one of the worse spots in the Joshimath to Badrinath stretch

ks_bluechip

Hi All:

Yes, I am back in Mumbai now! arrived 26th July 3:00AM by GoAir from Delhi.

Yes, I was delayed by 4 hours at that landslide yesterday (i.e. 25th July between 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM) ... I had started early from Srinagar at 5:30AM, exactly 26Kms after Devprayag (towards Rishikesh ... but before Biasi) there was this landslide. The buses were stopped some 4kms before that .... but I walked down to the spot. The road had disappeared down for a stretch 10-20 Metres. It seems this particular spot has frequent problems as ..... the rocks overhanging the road, are pretty loose. It could very well slide again in a few days time!

I think the BRO was fast and cleared the road with a Bulldozer and some 20 men. Really efficient! I watched their operation .... I have some pictures of that. There were comments, by stranded pax in buses, of possible 3-4 day delays! ... but it was only 3-4 hours!

- KS

PS: In line with BRO's speed in clearing of the road blocks in mountains .... I am amazed by the speed of IM news postings of such happenings! ...I was thinking maybe I would be the first to post this happening landslide in IM ...but surprised to see 10 posts already here on subject! Great!!

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kumaran

Hi , Great to know about the amazing work of BRO . They are suppossed to be one of the best in the world in laying and maintaining roads in some of the toughest terrains in the world .

nyraghu

In the last week of July, 2005, on a trip to the Valley of Flowers, my family and I were stuck in Srinagar for two days, because of a landslide just beyond there. On the third day, we managed to get a 4WD to Chamoli, and thence another to Joshimath.

Raghu.

Sadanand Kamath

Thanks to solo trekker for the news. Happy to know from you that the roadblock has been cleared .

Sadanand

solo_trekker

thanx sadanand... for the thanx, that is...!
glad to know that the newsbyte (or rather news bit) has had more than a few readers...!
also, good to know about the landslide operations directly from the horse's mouth...! (ks_bluechip)

right now though, there is a situation which is much worse than the landslides on nh-58 - the 'kanwaria' brigade...! 'kanwarias' are shiva-bhakts who carry the holy ganges water back from haridwar to their native villages and towns, most usually bare-foot... first, the journey to haridwar (mainly from delhi) and then back - this is on the very same nh-58...! hats off to them and their 'bhakti'; but honestly, they do cause chaos on the road... they are a force unto themselves - traffic is restricted when they move and this results in jams on a regular basis...

avoid the road... if u are on your way to rishikesh / haridwar, take the train... this annual 'tamasha' carries on for another 3 weeks or so...! no offence really, but there needs to be some kinda control... your comments...?

Sadanand Kamath

For this subject, you may have to start a separate thread. There are so many processions - political, social, religious - the road traffic is the first casuality.

I was caught twice in Haridwar on somavati amavasya day( new moon day falling on Monday). It was like Kumbha Mela crowd. Buses were overcrowded, no space to walk on roads, no space to sit in restaurants, dabhas, tea shops. It was miserable . Since then, I always make a point to avoid such days in planning my himalayan trips through Haridwar.

Sadanand

capt_mahajan

Even without religious processions, Delhi/Rishikesh/Haridwar isn't fun anymore.

Not so long ago, the drive was mostly green, the highway snaked through fields and small townships.
Today it is an extended suburban kind of drive over 250 km, with 'development' (trees have disappeared and plots being sold promising greenery... damnit, the area was green before you came here!)

The problem is if you want to drive into the hills, as I do, then driving yourself from Delhi is the only real option. If there was a reasonable self drive option from the Kathgodam/Rishikesh types, I would always take the train.

Dilliwala

Capt,
Shudn't this thread be here or here? Even though this part of the 58 is in the mountains, this is after all a road being talked about.
Actually for a while I've been thinking there needs to be a sub-forum somewhere about roads/highways, their conditions - short-term (live updates like this thread) and long-term, distances, what else to look out for, etc. Then, for example someone wants to know the distance Delhi to Rishikesh or Rudraprayag to Badrinath, they cud check this sub-forum, rather than post ad-hoc as is the case now.
I also have some ideas about another thread or 2 related to 'Driving in the Hills' (I don't believe myself to qualify as a specialist, but if I had a speciality, it wud be this one) - not sure how to do it becos at present the site's format doesn't really allow what I'm thinking about except with a sticky, and even that is not completely adequate. I'll bounce them off u by PM some day, espesh since you're the Driving Mod.

machadinha

I've moved it to Uttarakhand forum now since that's what it seems to be about.

There are logistical issues with the number of sub-forums you want to maintain, in terms of accessibility and maintainability, overlap across several forums, server load and so on. Simplicity is key here, to maintain a clear and logical layout. But the forum structure is always under review so I'm sure this suggestion will be taken along. (But for instance, driving routes would overlap with automobiles with itineraries with individual states and their cities with starting points or destinations, not to mention the mountains if going by there, with snacks to have on the way & penguins to see ... Know what I mean? If you want to do a good driving post, please do, but just post it under automobiles for the time being I'd say. If it catches the mods' attention for being particularly good, chances are it will be stuck.)

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