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 Delhi to Lucknow distance is approximately 500 km 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 Delhi – 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 km. We decided to take the longer and the faster one.
“Delhi Kanpur Lucknow” route can be divided into 4 parts:
a. Delhi to Agra ~ 200Km
b. Agra to Etawah ~ 125Km
c. Etawah to Kanpur ~ 150Km
d. Kanpur to Lucknow ~ 80Km
Delhi to 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 km 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 McDonald’s 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 to 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 km) 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 km. 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 to 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 to 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 hr 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 km 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 to Lucknow route can be done comfortably in 8-10 hr driving at a decent speed with 2 short breaks.
* Places to stop for a break/bite:
o McDonald’s near Mathura
o A1 Plaza in between Mathura and Agra
o A1 Plaza in between Kanpur and Lucknow
Succinct read. you still stop at A1 plazas :). What you wrote in the end was actually the situation few years back, it was next to impossible to imagine driving during day light in UP (I come from Bihar so I am all the more cynical), good to see that things are improving.
The same road goes all the way to Kolkata, via Dhanbad and probably some day I would go to city of joy driving. Thanks for sharing.
If you take Taj/Yamuna expressway it is 600+ kms from Delhi to Lucknow. Delhi to Agra its a very smooth ride with nice stops in between (Restraus/restroms/petrolpump etc). You can drive with your eyes closed. Beautiful road. You can hit any speed here.
Next you leave the expressway before Agra and turn left to Kanpur. Next 60-80 kms is a two lane road (each direction). There are small towns every 5-10 kms. More than 50% of this travel you can hit 80%. When you cross a town speed drops down. Avg comes out to be 50-60 kms/hr.
Thereafter until Kanpur is a smooth 3 lane highway, you can hit 80-150 kms/hr easily. No good eating options on this strech. From Kanpur to Lucknow is a busy 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs journey. Avg you hit is 40-50 kms/hr.
Roads condition for most of the journey is great.
CNG options:
Last CNG station you can get while you leave Greater Noida is 2 kms from Pari Chowk. In 5 mins from there you can ride on to the Yamuna/Taj expressway.
230 kms from there or 30-40 kms after you get down from Yamuna expressway in Agra, you will find another CNG pump. Price: 44/kg
Exactly 200 kms from last CNG pump after you cross Akbarpur flyover you will see a CNG pump on your right side (on your left if coming from Lucknow to Delhi side). You will not have to ride the next flyover and take U-turn under it. Get your CNG and immediately there is another U-turn which will get you on road from Delhi to Lucknow again. Price:54/kg
In short, you can travel all the way to Lucknow on CNG :)
Yes, you caught me. I had bad experiences in Gujrat and Rajasthan but I guess UP A1 Plazas are OK :-)
hi need a help in identifying temple called ‘ smruti mata mandir’ near to selampur, close to temple vashnao dham in rae bareli district, it is not so famous temple, is situated in a mountain which is not so high
I live in mathura and work at agra so everyday i use the mathura agra NH2,within a month i used to visit lucknow by road and due to improvement in road conditions i prefer to go by road rathar then train.
Thanks Prakash for sharing your experience. The intention behind writing this post was that people can appreciate improving road conditions in UP and other thing is that even in UP, 500kms can be covered easily in 8-9 hours.
Happy driving!
Hi there,
I think the review above is excellent and installs a great deal of push for me to drive to Lucknow from NOIDA later this month. However, can you comment about the law and order on this highway around Etawah Kanpur, I have heard some concerns from the taxi drivers who have driven this route.
Will appreciate some advice.
thx
Hi Ravish,
Very glad to hear that you got push from this post to drive to LKO :-). About your question, I think if you choose safe timings for driving there should be no problem. We started early morning and reached LKO around 7(after spending 3 hrs in Kanpur), and did not see any thing unusual. So if you go straight with 2 to 3 short stops for lunch and Tea, You can easily reach Lucknow in 9-10 hrs. Start early and reach before dark.
Let me repeat, Do take care of vehicles coming from opposite side in your lane. Some people avoid U turns and drive in wrong side.
Wish you happy and safe drive! Share your experience after the trip.
Thanks, Aditya.
Was wondering whether to take the Agra-Kanpur route or Bareilly one for our trip later this month. I have decided on the former after reading your article but would still like to know about the feasibility of Bareilly route as I would like to cover that area as well since its our first visit to Lucknow.
Any inputs?
Pat
Thanks Patrick for your comments. I drove upto Moradabad on NH-24(Delhi-Moradabad- Bareilly- Lucknow) last weekend while going to Corbett National Park and found that lot of construction work in going on this road. Stretch between ‘Hapur’ and ‘Moradabad bypass’ is painful because of that. I heard about the road beyond Moradabad also that work is in progress for widening the road so I guess it will be similar stretch with some completed smooth stretches and some rough & unfinished.
Do share your review about the road and the place once you come back.
Wish you happy and safe journey!!
Hi Aditya,
Thanks for your comments. I will surely write about my experience of driving down Delhi Kanpur lucknow route.
Ravish
You seem to be addicted to driving, Aditya (so am I but I have some constraints like little kids). Been to Corbett Park last March and enjoyed it thorougly staying at Dhikala. Fantastic place! Had to take some friends along so chartered a bus but it was real fun!!
Thanks for compliment, Pat ;-). We could not get Dhikala Guest house bookings done this time so stayed in ‘Bijrani’ another guest house in forest. Amazing place, very different kind of experience. I heard that Dhikala region is the most beautiful part of the Park, Will cover that in my next trip. This was the short one, just one day stay there.
Why don’t you share your experience of Corbett here in a separate post, I will get some tips for the next time :-)
Hi Aditya,
It was really nice and interesting reading your post. I am from Lucknow and would be driving down from Noida to Lucknow on 21st morning for Holi. This would be my first such long drive and hence would appreciate if you could share your number with me so that I can have certain queries clarified regarding the route.
Once again I must say that your post has lessened my anxiety to an extent and kudos to you for the same!!! Hoping to get a reply soon
Its for Aditya to answer but if it would have been me, I would have preferred to get queries over web then giving my phone no :)
Please dont take it otherwise, its not very common to share personal nos unless you develop a comfort-factor which surely can happen in this case but not certain whether its now or a few queries later.
Just my personal 2 cents.
Gaurav, Thanks for your comments. I think we should have all interaction through this website only and and not on phone as this would also help in creating useful reading for rest of the people. You can ask you detailed queries on ‘Ask Ghumakkar’ section of this website and I will try to answer that to the best of my knowledge.
interesting read indeed…i am from bareilly and working in mumbai…i would be reaching delhi on the 20-21 night around 1200 hrs….there is no train after that time till 9 in the morning…and buses just before holi are very difficult to get into…so Gaurav just in case if you are in need of driver..driver who would pay you…drop me a line at sameeragarwal7@rediffmail.com
thanks
Hi
I would be driving from delhi to lucknow soon.
After reading all the articles related I am confused which road to take as it is mentioned that road between agra and Etawah is not very good.
Please advise
Yes, Agra-Etawah stretch is not very good but work was in progress. I experienced that road in starting of Jan 2008. I think road condition will be much better by now. Also there were number of stretches in between which were about to complete.
Even if you take alternate route i.e. Delhi-Moradabad-Bareilly-Sitapur-Lucknow, you will face disturbance because of construction work there also.
There are few people who have written comments in this post and were planning to visit Lucknow in march end. probably they can comment better after their visit.
Ravish, Patrick , Please put your comments after your road trip.
hey aditya!!!!
Read a lots of comments from u,iI think u must be complimented with TRAVEL GURU,
Hey Adi..
Read a lot bt ur comments, i think u must be commented as TRAVEL GURU , just kidding dear, well i want to know that i have to leave to lucknow on 8th march 09,want to clear things. 1st one is that i drove last year in jan i.e 08 from muradabad-bariely route ,as i have also faced probs. of construction work near muradabad nd more ,want to clear weather that work in that stretch would have been finished or still the same, 2nd one is agra itawa kanpur route,read ur last year comments ,now want to know by till date all the construction work in this route is still there or still goin on ,plz reply
Thanks & Regards
Sachin…..
Sorry Aditya, our trip to Lucknow has been postponed to mid-April due to school programmes.
I am getting desperate to hit the road :-(
Pat
The Delhi-Aligarh-Tundla- Kanpur is shorter than the Delhi-Agra-Kanpur. Can someone suggest how is the road from Delhi to Aligarh. ANd whether it is better to take the Delhi-Aligarh route or Delhi-Agra?-S Sarkar
Thanks Mr. Sarkar for your comment. I guess Delhi-Aligarh-kanpur will be shorter(by around 40 kms) if you follow NH-91(GT Road) beyond Aligarh i.e. Etah-Mainpuri-Kannauj-Kanpur. If you go to Tundla-Etawah-Kanpur from Aligarh that will be around 15 kms longer. I checked these distances from mapmyindia.com so you can also cross check these.
I have some information from my sources that road till Aligarh is good but beyond that I am not having any latest information. But I guess this road is still 2 lane without divider.
I do not think time wise there will be any gain even if you choose NH-91 over NH-2 because of road condition.
Do let us know if you go by Delhi-Aligarh route and post your valuable feedback here.
Thanks.
Dear All,
Don’t try delhi – hapur – moradabad track its worst road strech I can’t explain in words.
Go from Delhi-agra-kanpur-lucknow track its awesome.
Thank you:-)
Thanks for your comment Vineet.
Did you try delhi – hapur – moradabad- lucknow recently ? What’s the road condition beyond Moradabad?
I have to go to lucknow from delhi, whcih route i prefer for bike any one can suggest me? and how long i will take to reach there.
and is it possible to reach there within 10-12 hrs.
Lucknow is around 500 Kms from delhi and if you can drive continuously(with less and small breaks) you can reach there in 10-12 hrs.
I believe bike riding is much more tiring than car driving because you are directly exposed to Air and dust. I have never experienced it on such a long stretch, so please check with some body else who has actually done it.
I will recommend you Delhi-Agra-Etawah-Kanpur-Lucknow route because of separate lanes and will be safer to drive at comfortable speed.
GHAZIABAD-DELHI-KANPUR-LUCKNOW
We just completed a road trip from ghaziabad to lucknow via kanpur yesterday i.e. 7th June 2008. I thought it would be useful to update all visitors about this road stretch. For your information the group was a family of four with two children and was traveling in a Santro. This may help others in calibrating their travel and stop times.
Sources of Information
The internet was the only source of information that I had. An extremely busy work schedule made it impossible to scout around for more information. A few colleagues who hailed from the cities enroute provided some information which was largely unreliable and sketchy. Adityas information remains till date the best information available. In addition I took along maps (Road Maps) from Wikimapia and the road map on NH2 from mapsofindia.com. They are quite accurate
The Journey
We started off at 0530 from Indirapuram Ghaziabad. Though we had planned to start at 0500 Hrs we got delayed because of the kids. I feel there is a limit to how early one can start particularly when children are involved. From Indirapuram , Ghaziabad we went via sector 62 NOIDA and then on to Badarpur via Kalindi Kunj. We had expected to make the trip in 30 min but it took us close to an hour. The main reason is the metro construction near NOIDA Golf Course. The road was pretty much congested even in these early hours. Crossing Badarpur into Faridabad seemed to be a breeze compared to the NOIDA stretch!
The stretch in Haryana is good. There is a bottle neck at Srinagar Toll booth. This is mainly due to slow processing by the authorities there. One enters into Uttar Pradesh from Kosi Kalan and as usual the trucks parked for entry block one entire lane. Traffic crawls for around 1 Km before crossing into UP after which it is smooth. There is a flyover under construction at Kosi Kalan 42 Km short of Mathura which slows down the speed as one has to take a diversion on which traffic is bi-directional.
The McDonalds at Mathura is exactly as has been described by Aditya. We lost some additional time as the kids wanted to take a ride on the toy cars kept there!!!. The flush in the ladies toilet does not work so be warned.
From Mathura to Agra road is good and traffic moves smoothly except at Sikandara 9 Km short of Agra. There is the sabzi mandi (Vegetable Market) which really slows down the traffic.
Once outside Agra, at Etmadpur there is a 750 m of stretch under construction. Onwards to Ettawah there is a flyover under construction after Shikohabad around 52 Km short of Ettawah. The road is very good and attaining speeds over 80 Kmph seems no issue. However some stretches of NH2 are closed on one side for repair/maintenance so you have traffic coming from the opposite. Just need to be careful on this count.
As you approach Ettawah, there is this very confusing stretch, which cost us a good 45 min. At the entry to Ettawah , there is a flyover on NH2. Do not go up the flyover even though there are no signages or roadblocks. If you go over you will reach a dead end. The only way out is to take the lane on the left of the flyover, go under it and enter Ettawah city. Then keep going till you hit another flyover cross it and then take a right turn to go under this flyover and keep going straight till you again meet NH2. If you do not take the right on getting down from this second flyover then you will be heading towards Gwalior. Just be careful and ask for directions very frequently.
The stretch from Ettawah to Auraiya is very good, only that you will not find good places to eat. For eating I suggest that you either have your meals before Agra or else wait till you are on the Kanpur Lucknow stretch. At the end of Auraiya , when Kanpur Dehat (Rural Kanpur) starts there is a dhaba which seems quite frequented but offers the most insipid food I have ever tasted. I think it is called Surya Dhabha a highly avoidable one.
Once in rural kanpur you will come to Mungishpur (spelt Mugishapur in wikimapia) then akabarpur and finally Barah thereafter there is a flyover which takes you over the city. The signage is very poor. Just keep going right till you get down the flyover , ignore the signs which tell you that the U turn to Luknow and Rama Devi is just ahead. They are not there and you will waste a good 45 min to go around and return. Once you get down from the flyover (near Chakeri Industrial Area) Take a U turn and go along the same flyover without going up on it. Keep going for around 4 Km till you hit a round about. The road on your right goes to Luknow 80 Kms.
After traveling on NH2 you will find the Kanpur Lucknow stretch quite pathetic. At least till you cross Unnao. The road quality is bad with potholes right in the middle. The only consolation is that it is divided. Once you cross Unnao then it should be smooth sailing till you reach Lucknow. We did it in 11 hours, with two breaks of 30 min each and one good hour lost due to improper signages at Ettawah and Kanpur. If you take that out it is possible to do it in 9 hours. There are four toll gates enroute and they charge from Rs. 55 to Rs 35 for a single journey by car.
Cheers.
What a detailed note Ratnadeep. Very helpful.
I just drove the stretch today morning (June 14, 2008) and here’s some details.
1. Started at 5.30 odd from Indirapuram.
2. Was able to get past Agra by 8, mostly because I could avoid rush at Badarpur because of early hours, was lucky to find no traffic at Kosi trade tax check-point and somehow Agra-ites slept a little late today :)
3. Crossed Kanpur by 12:30. (going towards Allahabad)
Execept the Etawah flyover confusion, the complete stretch is very well laid and is highly recommended. It would take you about 8 hours to do this (I took 7 but that seems like a special case for today so dont take that as standard please).
Tips – There are no good eating joints post Agra so McD at Mathura is still the best bet though a stoppage there would cost you some extra time in Agra so take your pick.
Etawah flyover should be done in couple of months, I guess. I actually didn’t take the right under the flyover and drove about 2 odd KMs more and then went down. Anyway, better to not take flyover and ask every 250 meters.
Kanpur- Allahabad is also very good, though there are lots of small stretches which are yet to be completed. I would try to write about Kanpur – Allahabad – Varanasi in a separate post.
Thanks Nandan and Ratandeep for sharing your experiences, information and tips.
I am glad to see more and more latest information coming on this post.
NH2 or NH24 which one do you recommend for Delhi – Lucknow.
Thanks in advance!
Hi
Can someone tell me how long does it take from Lucknow to Bareilly by road? How is the road condition? Any other watch-outs?
Thanks and regards
Road is very good. Its a single road all through-out, may be some small patches are double. There is lot of widening work is going on between Sitapur-Lucknow stretch. There are some small towns on the way so watch out for petty traffic there, but overall its a lovely drive.
Depending on the time of the day, it can take you from 3.5 to 4 hours. If you start early morning, it should not take more then 3.5 hours.
Ahmed – My recommendation would be to take NH2.
Dear frnd i need some more details, after 10 days i am planning to move kanpur from mohan nagar (ghazibad) by my new bike hond unicorn, is it safe to travel on bike on such highway? second plz recommend me shortest distance. my taxi driver recommended me this route mohan nagar-lal kuon-dadri-secundrabad-nehar budh chauraha-khirja-aligardh-mainpuri-kannuaj-kanpur, i need to kanpur remote area its in between kanpur n kannauj (bilhore). plz suggest me. and at last i must say -thank u mr. aditya for this information.
Dear frnd some one suggested mapofindia.com better go through google earth that will give best result on roads n direction
Dilip, I’ve biked a 2-3 times from Noida to Aligarh via lal kuan, Dadri, Sikandrabad, Bulandshahr and Khurja. The familiarity with the route has made my rides quite enjoyable. On security front, as the roads are narrow and doesn’t has a divider (from Dadri to Aligarh) so it becomes a bit challenging to ride a bike on this route. You’ll find people, shops, villages, farms etc all along the route so riding will not be boring. You can easily cruise at 60 kmph.
Dilip – If you want to go to Bilhaur then it would make sense to go by GT Road (Bulandshahar – Aligarh – Kannauj), that should be much shorter then NH2.
When you do the trip, please come back and update us on what you find. There is no road review post on Delhi-Kanpur via Aligarh :) on ghumakkar as yet so your could be the first one.
thanx ankur and nandan,
Dear nandan plz let me know more gt road, i am very new to all this, i remember last time had gone through ac bus at night from anandvihar to bilhaur, due to night i couldnt get much information about places u crossing through, but they take turn right through daubour chowk n followed high road, i request u to provide safe route and short rout to reach aligarh
Dear ankur plz let me know how long it took u to cover this distance?
Dilip,
I have not been on this road so really can not say for authority but I did talk to some people who have recently driven on this road and its fairly ok. I am inserting a MAP for easy reference. From ‘Mohan Nagar’ you can directly catch ‘G T Road’, just ask for the road which goes to ‘Bulandshahar’, you should be crossing NH24 underneath. After that just keep asking for places as shown in the Map.
Leave early in the morning so that you get most of day light and keep your spirits high.
View Larger Map
Thanks Aditya for this review, I have to travel with family from Lucknow to Delhi, (Reverse of what is being described so far). Can you suggest better road i.e. via Kanpur-Agra or via Sitapur-Bareilly. Approx distance & time taken.
HI,
I went to LKO vai faridabad-agra-Etawah-kanpur-lucknow on 5th July. As stated by some people raod conditions are awesone b/w delhi-agra & Etawah-Kanpur. Now Etawah flyover is also operational, so it saves another 45 mins as now we are not at all going inside. I left delhi at 5 PM & reached LKO at 3:30 PM with almost 2 hrs break. Only thing is that there are no good places to eat & sit b/w agra & kanpur. Only troublesome passages were:
1. Shikohabad flyover(This is still under construction) and road was bad because of rain.
2. Some patch(5 KMS) b/w Agra & Etawah.
3. Patch from kanpur to Unnao.
Also after reaching to Kanpur, one has to be careful to take the cut to enter to LKO road, else straight will go to Agra. There is one small cut on the flyover to enter into the city.
Rest journey was awsome.
While coming back from luknow, one need to be careful with raffic in firozabad & agra as one will be in these cities somewhere around 1-2 PM.
rest all is good in this route.
Once can enjoy long ride w/o much tiring.
Good, that someone has come up with the details of the trouble spots, Thanks Vishal.
It is really impressive that you could do the distance in about 10:30 hrs including 2hrs break making it 8:30hrs which means an average speed of about 65KMPH.
It is a good knews that the Etawah bypass is operational now.
I was planning to leave on the same date you left, but somehow schedules and weather conditions then prevented me.
One more thing that recently started creeping my mind that one needs cars with bigger and wider tyres for highways and not to forget long wheelbase and wide tread, and this thought also puts me off the idea of taking my vehicle with skinny wheels and economical dimensions.
Btw, in the Kanpur trap, probably you mean Allahabad (And ‘am’ elsewhere as well:-)). However, I have read in Ratandeep’s comment above that that there is a cut after the descent at Allahabad end of the flyover from where one can take a u-turn and come back beside the flyover to turn right below the flower towards the Ramadevi Chowk.
Btw, I think it would be too much of a coincidence if you were to be an IET Lko Alumnus.
Thanks
Rajeev
Thanks CP for your comment.
I suggest you Lucknow-Kanpur-Etawah-Agra-Delhi. The reason is better road condition and when you have better roads, you can some how control travel time.
Start early and you can easily reach Delhi before dark.
happy journey! Do share your experience also.
Hi Rajeev,
You correctly remember. I am from IET Lko. I guess we met also at meets organized in delhi by Tushima & shashi Kant sir.
Thanks to everyone for posting all these details. i plan to travel from gorakhpur to delhi very soon and orginally planned to take Lucknow-Bareilly-Delhi route (NH24)..now with this information i would definately take the Lucknow-Kanpur-Agra-Delhi route (NH2).
Although a bit sceptical as how would the NH2 be post monsoon..any recent ghumakkars ?
I drove from Gorakhpur to Delhi via Bareilly and I think it was not a good idea. Take LKO – Kanpur – Delhi only. In the comments I read a comment by Vikas on July 5th, thats not too far back.
I personally drove in 2nd week of June and the road looked good enough to sustain Monsoon. Last weekend one of my friend drove till Agra (he was going to Gwalior) and he tells me that its all fine.
Urmindra, Do come back to update on your observations after you take the journey.
Urmindra,
The NH2 is still in good shape, thanks to NHAI. I returned just yesterday from LKO and except for the already mentioned patches, it is still holding good so go ahead and enjoy.
Aditya,
Yeah, I made the trip finally and it was excellent. This is the just kind of road I would like to drive on. Monsoon gave us good company along the route falling as downpour, rain and drizzle intermittently and it was fun driving thru it. I especially love the Agra Kanpur section, except for the bicycles/2-wheelers who love to ride on the wrong side. You might find cattle and even people lazing on the road.
Badarpur look normal with pot-holes and traffic jam. Sikandra is bad as usual, some flooding at Agra, Etawa flyover is good so no problems there. Follow Ratnadeeps instructions to get on to the road to LKO from Kanpur flyover and go slow till Unnao. Rest everything about this route is awesome.
So things has changed much after your post. Thanks again.
Thanks for all reviews
I drove from Gurgaon to Kanpur via Agra last weekend.
The reviews really helped and as mentioned above the NH2 is in good shape so that you can maintain speed of 120 for most of the stretch.
But still need to be bit attentive for unexpected potholes and the cuts in between.
As mentioned by Patrick, bicycles/2-wheelers love to ride on the wrong side. You might find cattle and even people lazing on the road.
This is really irritating and dangerous too, so just take extra care and be ready for anyone crossing road anytime.
Thanks kuldeep, how much time you took to reach kanpur from gurgaon? Also, advise me on the time of day, when i can avoid problems like cattle, wrongside 2wheelers on the road.
hi
i went to lko from noida, sec 19 via nh2 on pulsar 220.
i started at 4:25am and reached Hazratganj (Lko) at 11:50am.
it was raining almost all the time may be thats why the traffic was less (mainly bi-cycles and two-wheelers)
the road is fantastic except only a few kms
i would say, don’t leave nh2 just before kanpur (as the sign board shows) but continue on it till you cross kanpur and then take the u turn, reach ramadevi chauraha and take the road to lko. this route will be about 10km extra but it will save you from traffic and numerous speed breakers…i followed the sign, got off the nh2 and wasted almost half an hour
while returning i took a left turn instead of the usual right to reach the u turn about 5 km and took the nh2, and it was totally worth it.
Hi,
This is really good timing with a start to end average speed of approx 70Kph.
The early start is always a time saver, but a cause of drowsiness after you reach the destinationand in my case the time saved goes into sleeping, with some interest. But it is alwasy better to sleep a couple of hourse extra aftereards than starting late and then driving/riding through the morning madness of citities.
Abhishek, you could have avoided the Kanpur clamour during onward journey also, had you read the Ratnadeep’s comment and the discussion afterwards on Kanpur.
Good to know that monsoon has not had a bad impact on the road conditions. Sigh….I am raring to take this road and tired of taking vicarious trips. God willing, sometime near Deepawali…
Just now I got a servicing reminder from Rohan NOIDA…