Lucknow – Kanpur – Etawah-Mainpuri – Road Review

You Ghumakkars are just great. Two weeks ago yours truly had to urgently go on a field trip to Mainpuri. I normally go to Etawah by the Gomti Express and catch a bus to Mainpuri. However on such short notice, IRCTC gave me a wait list a mile long. And since I loath availing UPSRTCs famous comfortable bus system especially during the peak summer, I decided to drive down instead. Who did i turn to for help ? You guessed it – Ghumakkar.com. There was an entire blog on the route. It clarified a lot especially the Kanpur stretch and how to piggy back on to the fly over. some updates –

1) On the Lucknow – Kanpur stretch, at Unnao, a road branches off into the town. Take the straight road inspite of it being in bad condition – Note : both roads lead to Kanpur. The straight road leads to Ramadevi Chauraha and on to the flyover saving you two hours of traffic jams.
2) Both Etawah fly overs are complete. For those who need to go on to Mainpuri, cross the second flyover over Etawah town, make a u turn under the bridge and turn right to Mainpuri.
3) The stretch from Kanpur to Unnao is slightly bad with lot of trucks, so be careful
4) And yes the threat of vehicles wrong siding is real and is very dangerous especially at night. It seems they have right of way because it is ordained by God that traveling on the wrong side of the highway is right or something to that effect.

The road to Mainpuri from Etawah via Safai is another Dream. You never knew roads in the hinterland of UP were so good. Well it turns out this is the constituency of ‘you know who’ (president of a prominent party). The road is filled with infrastructure the likes of which u don’t see even in Lucknow. The Saifai bus stand is world class. There is a modern stadium built to world class standards (It never got completed as this party lost the assembly elections). There are colleges, hostels, shops all having the most modern Architecture and housing projects again the likes of which one sees in big towns. Unfortunately due to a law and order problem people rarely venture out there. The place is like Texas – Ammunition shops just round the corner and rifle toting a fashion. However I must say this – I have traveled to Mainpuri very often in the last 3 years and have never come across a law and order problem although I have noticed every second individual carries a firearm visible or invisible.

I did 600 odd kms that day. The return journey took longer cos I was a bit tired and did it slowly with more tea breaks. In the morning the 300 kms from Lucknow to Mainpuri was covered in 4 hours while return journey took 5i/2 hrs in the night. I managed to take a few snaps of the stadium but thought it would look strange if not suspicious if I started taking photos of college buildings.

Anyways thanks a lot fellow ghumakkars for all your help.