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Road Review : Delhi-Kanpur-Lucknow |
I am basically from Lucknow and live in Noida. Normally I board a night train to visit Lucknow. We were visiting my parents in Lucknow on new year’s weekend and this time decided to drive down because of two reasons. One, we had to pick up some stuff from my parent’s house for which we needed a vehicle. Second and more important was that, having completed the big road drive (Delhi – Jaisalmer- Jodhpur – Delhi in 4 days) on previous weekend, we were high on driving!
The distance from Delhi to Lucknow is approximately 500 kms by road. The standard route is Delhi – Hapur – Moradabad – Rampur- Bareilly – Shahjahanpur- Sitapur – Lucknow. I had been hearing about the bad road conditions on some stretch on this route. Another new route that is becoming popular is the Dellhi – Kanpur – Lucknow route. Some of my friends tried this route few months back and said that it is fast as it’s a 4 lane road but longer than the standard route by about 50 kms. We decided to take the longer and the faster one.
Delhi-Kanpur-Lucknow route can be divided into 4 parts:
a. Delhi – Agra ~ 200Kms
b. Agra – Etawah ~ 125Kms
c. Etawah – Kanpur ~ 150Kms
d. Kanpur – Lucknow ~ 80 Kms
Delhi – Agra: Started early (around 5:45 am) from Noida and reached NH-2 via Kalindi Kunj. Road was clear in the morning so we covered the first 150 kms quickly. Delhi-Mathura-Agra road is an important road (because of Agra) so generally one doesn’t experience bad roads here. But this time, I guess maintenance was due and we met some rough stretches. Arrived Mathura (160 km) around 8:30 and stopped at McDonals to get fresh, but couldn’t resist the smell of fresh burgers and ended up having burger and french fries for breakfast. You can not miss this McD while driving as its huge in size and is a good place to stop for breakfast if you start early in the morning.
We continued on NH-2 and reached Agra which was around 50 km from our first stop. On this route, I was going beyond Agra for the first time, but knew that there is a flyover from where the road turning towards right leads to Agra city and the flyover continues straight for Kanpur. I did confirm with some pedestrians and continued towards Etawah-Kanpur. This straight road is supposed to be the bypass and one expects a smooth drive. Seems that this one has lost the ‘bypass’ status as people were avoiding the service road and drove across the main bypass. This was the main bottleneck on this stretch and we took some time to cross Agra.
Agra – Etawah - From Agra, we headed towards Etawah and based on our research about this road, we were on the ‘WORK IN PROGRESS’ stretch. From Agra to Tundla (some 20 odd kms) the road was quite good and I was smoothly sailing the car but after crossing Tundla, we started feeling traces of new construction. Diversions, unfinished roads, vehicles coming on wrong sides all started together. Once, near Etawah bypass, we got confused and took a newly constructed but unfinished road that was closed in between and then had to come all the way back to take the old road and ended up driving few extra kms. One must take care of this specially near Etawah.
We reached Etawah around 12 pm. Bypass was still not functional so we crossed the city and continued on road towards Kanpur. The road directions inside the city are surprisingly clear and simple.
Etawah – Kanpur: After Etawah, the road condition was awesome. We felt as if we were on Delhi-Jaipur Road. The road has 4 lanes with wide divider in between. You should take care of vehicles coming towards you in the wrong direction. Yes, people avoid taking U-turns and use wrong side and it becomes very dangerous when you are driving at 100-120 kmph on a smooth road. But since the road condition is very good, one can drive on a comfortable speed to cover this stretch.
We took a small tea break, had some snacks we were carrying from Delhi and continued towards Kanpur. We reached near Kanpur around 2 pm and then took a cut that lead to Kanpur city. I visited my college HBTI after a long time. The roads inside Kanpur are just as they were 6 years back! They are in such a bad shape that by looking at the road, one can not say whether it was ever built or not!
Kanpur – Lucknow: It was really nostalgic being in Kanpur and visiting college after so many years. Finally we had evening snacks and tea in Kanpur and headed towards Lucknow. We spent around 3 hrs in college and then hit back the road to reach Lucknow by late evening. In college days I used to drive my ‘Hero Puch’ on Kanpur-Lucknow high way and at that time it was 2-lane single road. Now it is 4-lane double road. The road quality is poor near Kanpur but it improved as we approached Lucknow. We covered this stretch of 80 kms in around 90 minutes. Entered Lucknow around 6:30 pm and reached home at 7:30 pm.
Some Tips:
* I’m sure that like me, a lot of people must be scared of driving in UP specially because of the bad roads that existed until sometime back. The new routes are well maintained and clean and a 500 km drive is very much possible.
* Delhi-Lucknow can be done comfortably in 8-10 hrs driving at a decent speed with 2 short breaks.
* Places to stop for a break/bite:
o McDonalds near Mathura
o A1 Plaza in between Mathura and Agra
o A1 Plaza in between Kanpur and Lucknow
hi 2 all folks here who have input such a useful info. i hv done delhi to shahjahanpur quite a few times in the past but they were used 2 b my bsnss trips n i nvr cared abt timings, road conditions, etc. on couple of occassions hv done night driving also n thanx to almighty, my night journeys were quite safe too. my recent trip on this route was a few months back from dellhi to etan back which agn i did at night while going n returned during day.
dis time am going vid family n a kid upto lko n ur inputs hv been very eye opening. v wud b lvg delhi by scorpio on nov.15 mrng for a wedding n wud rtn on nov.20. i was planning 2 take moradabad-barreilly-sitapur route for obvious reasons (less mileage n familiar route till shahjahanpur). but after reading recent post by dr. amitav n also d old ones by rest, hv decided to take agra-etawah-kanpur route instead for want of bttr road condition.
i shall, god-willing, update u guys upon rtn n also write a detailed seperate post with latest updates covering small details. dont forget to add me 2 ur favs n do check it out by nov-end. cherio!
Hi,
Thanks all for the valued feedbcks given. I have travelled to LKO frm Indirapuram on 17th Oct after taking cmplt info from the ghumakkar. We (my wife and 1 yr son) started our journey at 4 am and have reached Mathura Mac D at 6 am for getting fresh and breakfast and to change diaper of son. then we started at around 6.45 and by 11.30 we were in Kanpur but it took 3 hrs to reach LKO as we have crossed entire fly over and turned back to Ramadevi Chowk. The road from here to Unnao is horrible and I was not able to get the speed of 30- 40 km/h in this particular patch. We have safely reached LKO Aashiyana Sec K by 3 pm.
Brielfy – we drove by the via Moradabad – Bareilly NH24 route from South Delhi to Lucknow on a Sunday, and took about 10 hours to get there. On the way back, it was a Wednesday, and we took 14 hours. It doesn’t really matter which car you use, we were in an Optra petrol 1.6, because you can drive fast for only about 1/5th of the distance, the rest is moderate to terrible. Rampur is still a disaster zone, with railway crossings on both sides, and going through the town is also bad. Bareilly is a mess, too, and so are the other towns enroute.In our case, our destination was BKT (on the Lucknow-Sitapur Road) so we didn’t want to use the via Kanpur option, but next trip I am taking the train.
There are irritating 5/- toll collection points all along the way for small bridges, which cause big traffic jams, also. And this is tractor-trailer with sugarcane and hay season, so beware, we had one headlamp yanked out – and you can do nothing about it since it is their territory.
Dear Aditya,
I drove last month between Shikohabad & Lucknow on the same route, it was a heavy rainy day but even though i managed to drive at 90-110 km/hr. The stretch i covered on NH-2 was great except a little after crossing Etawah, due to an under construction over-bridge.
And yes, while crossing Kanpur you will find a length of nearly 35-40 kms, where you have to restrict you speed because of traffic. But once crossing Ganga Bridge theres only hurdle before Unnao (ie Rail way crossing).
Dear frinends
I am tried to cover this 500Kms delhi to lucknow on my bike FZ-16. Thanks for your feedback.
I traveled from Noida to/fro Lko on 1-Jan-2010/3-Jan-2010, first time, by NH-2. I found the information given by Aditya (and others as well) very useful.
I started my journey at ~1200 hrs from Noida (on Maruti Swift). I reached Agra by 5pm (I prefer driving a bit slow). When I moved ahead, I was surprised by the road quality — it is much better than the Delhi-Agra stretch; it’s again 4-lane highway, smoother roads with a lot of sign-boards directing travelers for various destinations, and less traffic (than Del-Agra stretch) — most of the traffic (due to tourism at Mathura/Agra) from Delhi on NH-2 do not go beyond Agra. Consequently, driving experience became better after crossing Agra (up to Kanpur). One thing was noticeable — I could see a very few dhabas/hotels between Agra-Kanpur.
After reaching Kanpur, it was a bit difficult to know directions for Lko. I approached this way: just before the NH-2 enters Kanpur city (and it becomes a fly-over towards Allahabad), a road towards Rama Devi Crossing comes off the NH-2 — this road (at ground level) runs in parallel with NH-2 (and NH-2 is an elevated road, like a flyover). To disappoint me, there was no sign boards for Lko on this by-lane — i had to take help from passers-by.
Once you reach Rama Devi cross, you’ll get NH-25 (that from Knp to Lko) — initial segment (~5-8 kms) of this road is very bad. After this, journey towards Lko is again very good.
While returning from Lko to Noida, I got some tips for passing thru Knp quickly: right at Rama Devi cross, take left (towards Chakeri airport) — you’ll find the NH-2 flyover is running in parallel to Rama Devi — Chakeri-road: after 5kms from Rama Devi (towards Chakeri), you’ll find a cut/U-turn to reach NH-2. Once you are on NH-2, you’ll be on NH-2 flyover (that bypasses Kanpur) — flyover’slength is ~20 kms; and these 20 odd kms are so good that you would like to forget all the mess that has been faced while entering the NH-2.
I would request Abhishek Tripathi (he use to visit places by his Ford Fusion) to provide more feedbacks here. Before starting my joruney, I was worried about Kanpur-Agra road. Abhishek removed my worries by providing correct state of roads; and also about density/locations of dhabas.
I am just sharing the entry and exit points in details.. ROAD is awesome end to end from Gurgaon to Lucknow via NH-2.
Gurgaon – Palwal – NH-2 ==> 46 Kms from Sohna Road. Road good but with some patches. Sohna Road – Badshahpur – Sohna City (16 Kms), From Sohna big roundabout take left (30 Kms straight till road ends). Take right move some 300 mtrs, it connects to NH-2, take right and you are on NH-2. 45 mins drive normally but it was bit dark/foggy when we started took a bit long
5:10 AM – 6:35 AM.
Palwal – Mathura- Agra 75+40 -> 115 Kms — 90 – 100 Minutes drive in the morning 6:40- AM – 8:15 AM
Agra – Etawah – 8:30 – 10:30 AM
Etawah – Auriaya– Kanpur 10:30 –
Kanpur – Lucknow 12:10 – 2:00 PM :-
DONT LEAVE NH-2 even if arrow points to Lucknow. There will be a disection of road one will show (on the left hand side) to Lucknow when U enter Kanpur. Move along elevated road 27 Kms(other one) and take a U-turn when the elevated road ends. Get to Ramadevi Chauraha , take right and move straight to Lucknow.
2:15 – HOME AT LKO..
Driving time : 9;00 Hrs with two small toilet breaks/ one stoppage for Fuel and 565 kms from GGN Home(Sect 28) to Lucknow (KGMC- Old Lucknow Chowk).
hi buddy
i just want know about the toll tax between delhi to kanpur way.
i mean how many times we have-to pay the toll tax?????
plzzzzzzzzz reply as soon as possible
thanxs
Hi Pulkit,
There are around 6 toll plazas between Delhi and Kanpur. Total toll should be around Rs. 170-190
Thanks everybody to post their experience of travelling from Delhi to Lucknow. It helps me a lot to plan my trip in just a hour.
I have started from Dwarka on 22/07/2010 at 1 PM. Because of Massive city jams it tooks 1 Hour & 45 minutes to reach NH-2 (Faridabad) from khanpur tughalkabad (Pahari route) route. Below is the details:
To reach NH-2 (Faridabad Point) from Dwarka 50 KM
From To Distance Start Time End Time
Dwarka Delhi NH-2 (Faridabad) 50 1:00 PM 1:45 PM
Faridabad Agra 200 5:50 PM Took Pankchi Petha and took 15 Minutes Break
Agra Kanpur 260 6.00 PM 10.45 PM In between took 45 min dinner break
Kanpur Lucknow Cantt 90 2.15 AM
600
One thing I would specially like to mention be carefull while taking on elevated road of approx 20 KM todards kanpur, If you take left before taking elevated road, it will be shorter by 6-7 Kms. On Elevated Road You will not be finding any signboards etc on the road about the Lucknow direction and there is no cut for the left. You go straight on elevated road till you find Mile stone mentioning Kanpur 1 KM. Remenber you have to take U turn and then to take the service lane (must ensure). After travelling 2-3 KM you will find Rama Devi chouraha take right. You will find the bumpy till Ganga Par Unao. After that the road is oaky.
But certainly would like to mention distance is from Delhi border to Lucknow is 550KM. Must prepare for that. Entire journet took around 13 Hours.