Friends,
At
dinner, last evening, George and Amit had warned me of the possible traffic
hold up on the Mahad Ghats. I started early wanting to beat the truck traffic.
Fog slowed me down, but only for a while. I took the Mahad Ghats quite easily
and reached Mahad in slightly over 2.5 hours. It broke the record set by George
by quite some time! The going was so good that I expected to be in Mumbai well
before noon. The traffic and a misunderstanding of the directions given by Jose
Tharakan delayed me a bit. But, it was the hospitality of the Tharakans and the
fabulous lunch that set me back a couple of hours. Jose also stuck a yellow
tape on the right side headlight, telling me of the stipulation of the Gujarat
traffic police who fined Rs. 100 for the violation. He guided me back to the
Dahisar toll booth from where I took off for Gujarat. The roads were superb.
However, I was constrained to pull up for a power nap after the heavy meal.
Superbly
surfaced 4-laned roads greeted me on entry to NAMO(Narendra Modi)land. In fact, the roads were
fabulous all the way from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. The short stretch between
Ankaleswar and Bharuch was a bit of a struggle. Heavy vehicles were seen held
up for kilometers short of the Golden Bridge spanning the Narmada. Evidently,
work was going on for restoration of some part of the bridge built by the British in 1881. Vendors were busy
selling the famous Bharuchi peanuts in packets of varying sizes. I was almost
resigned to the possibility of buying peanuts and resting awhile till the
traffic wound its way past the bridge. Just when I sized up a possible peanut
vendor a truck driver asked me to cut a few lanes and take the outer most lane
reserved for cars. A few other truckers helped negotiate the move and I sped
past the hold up. The road from Vadodara to Ahmedabad, the National Expressway 1,
was a dream. I had been getting reports about the NE1 for many years, but this
was the first time I was driving on it. The super 115 km road could be
negotiated in less than an hour, even in the night. Why cannot we make more
such roads and make travel a pleasure in India? Of course, good roads come at a
cost. Between Cochin and Mangalore I paid only Rs. 10 as toll for a distance of
450 kms. The stretch from Mumbai to Ahmedabad cost me Rs. 590 for a distance of
550 kms. The wonderful fact is that I negotiated the stretch in about 7 hours!
And, no sweat. Saved on fuel and wear and tear, too.
Accommodation
had been arranged in the Railway Officers’ Rest House (ORH) in Ahmedabad. After
parking and arranging with the attendants to keep an eye on the car I took the
luggage up to the appointed room. The heavy lunch banished any thoughts of
dinner. I settled down for the night, comfortable in the thought that I had
less than 500 kms to reach the start point of the Coastal Expedition. I also
decided not to rush with an early morning start.
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