Road Conditions-India–Pune-Nagpur Highway as on 24 November 2020
I recently ( onwards 24 Nov 2020 and return 28 Nov 20) and travelled from Pune to Nagpur by car. Started at0430 from Pune. The Road upto Jalna is 4 lane busy traffic . Thereafter took Jalna-Sindhed Raja-Mehkar-Malegaon-Shelu Bazar-Karanja route. The most important difficulty to note for future users is please avoid route beyond Mehkar-Malegaon-Shelu Bazar-Karanja because the road is in extremely bad condition and full of multiple pot holes spread all across carriageway width. Further the road between Malegaon-Dongaon is only single lane while the second lane is dug up. Very long ques n both ways with users violating ques and jumping in and further complicating tight traffic position.
The single lane is also full of laid rubble without surface plained by roller. Protect your car from bumps and undercarriage damage.The stretch between Mehkar- Karanja is only 150 km but due to bad conditions it takes 3-4 hours. We had reached Mehkar at 1100 hrs and were very happy to reach Nagpur say around 1600-1700 hrs. But all dreams collapsed due to this great bad road and we reached Nagpur at 1930 hrs. The road beyond Karanja to Nagpur is very good. For the return trip we took Nagpur- Karanja- Mangrulpir-Washim-Risod route. The road between Karanja to Risod is newly laid 4 lane fully operational concrete route and absolutely free of traffic and trucks. We took Risod-Mehkar route and joined Jalna route. The Risod -Mehkar route is only 35 km and , I recommend to take this route for onwards from Jalna to Nagpur via Risod-Washim-Mangrulpir-Karanja 4 lane wonderful concrete road. Infact we went to Lonar lake from Mehkar-Bibi-Lonar route which is again newlt laid 2 lane tar road. Again Lonar-Dusarbid-SindkhedRaja-Jalna rout is wondurful between Lonar and Dusarbid joining Jalna-Mehkar road at Dusarbid. Sindkhedraja-Dusarbid-Bibi-Sultanpur-Mehkar is again 4 lane busy road. So guys if planning to proceed to Nagpur detour at Mehkar via Risod-Washim-Mangrulpir-Karanja and again join at Karanja onwards to Nagpur.
The Lonar lake has no roads around it for good approach. No hotels and resting places. Be prepared with snacks and dry eatables and plenty of water. No toilets and very difficult for women. The tourism and forest department have compounded the problem without providing adequate facilities to enable viwers from glimpses of this unique meteorite hit originated natural lake. I am a senior citizen and all visitors above 60 are not allowed to enter the visiting areas. Its simply foolish idea. We had to struggle to see the lake from a disused Forest rest house which has its main gate closed and only access point is jumping the broken barbed wire by earlier Users.no information boards, no tourists info. is available anywhere and you are alone to struggle.
