The feeder highways have no proper signboards showing directions and distances to the entry point of the Samruddhi super expressway and those new need to do their homework first.
BHPian anjaan_c2007 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
We from the Cent Ind Vintage Automotive Association (CIVAA) went for a drive on our vintage cars today, during forenoon on this much talked about 8 lane super expressway. The entry point is through feeder highways starting from NH 44 followed by another feeder state highway stretching for about 18-20 kms distance in all from Nagpur city (zero milestone). The first two pictures are from our halt on NH 44.
The feeder highways have no proper signboards showing directions and distances to the entry point of the Samruddhi SE way and those new need to do their homework first, before reaching the entry point.
Once on the Samruddhi SE way, one just drives on and on. The expressway allows max speed of 120 kmph and there are intermittent signboards showing the max speed and the green rounded topped with white base replicas of the age old milestones, showing distances to the next interchange (village/town/city names). The overhead signboards showing distances to towns and cities ahead are aplenty.
We did steady speeds of upto 60-70 kmph (40-50 MPH on my car’s speedo) and crossed two of the 19 interchanges during our drive. Traffic is very sparse and the new generation cars were zooming past on both directions. We also saw very few trucks but no buses moving during our drive. Perhaps if the road is opened up till Mumbai and the proposed interchanges for Aurangabad and Pune, maybe we will see more “tyre/wheel falls” (like the term footfalls we use for humans).
There is a troop of Grey langurs ( genus Semnopithecus) just near the first interchange (near Hingna village) that are bound to be killjoys for speeding cars. On the inaugural day, one was trampled and newspapers had featured the simian’s corpse lying on the middle of the road. This needs to be taken care of else there are bound to be more simian casualties. They just joyfully dance on or off the road.
We found one brand new Bharat Petroleum fuel outlet towards the Mumbai – Nagpur part of the SE way just near the toll points. The BP outlet is just about a week old and not at all crowded. Hence, attendants are still well behaved. They were inquisitive about our old cars. One was asking whether the VW Beetle was an EV as it had no front grille. I had my fill of ten litres for fuel adequacy during our drive.
And a last word, for some who say this SE way is class above all and almost like or even better than the Autobahns. My answer is NO. Those who have driven on Autobahns will vouch that they are much more superbly built. I couldn’t find anything different on this SE way that perches it above our other expressways and would never think of comparing it with the Autobahns.
Cars if driven here must be hassle free and one must have adequate snacks, food and drinking water to last through the to be covered distance. Any car breakdown would be a nightmare.
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