Drive from Lucknow to Kolkata

TRIP 2: Februrary-2025 

This was going to be my second trip on this route. Last time I did Lucknow to Kolkata was about 20 years ago. That time I did that drive in a single stretch without any night halt. I was in my mid 20s, much younger than what I am today. I was quite new to driving that time. 20 years ago, the traffic on Indian highways wasn’t that much as well. And most importantly, I was not the only driver that time. My dad was also there with me on that trip. This time however, it is only going to be me and my mom. 

Since I’m not that young any more, and Indian roads are not what they used to be 20 years ago, we decided to take a night halt in between. Well, road condition might have improved, but the traffic has increased many fold too. So I was almost certain that I won’t be able to make this trip without a night halt. I started looking for a possible night halt location, and there couldn’t be any place better than Bodh Gaya. It was very near to the Lko-Kol highway and it was almost at a mid point where I could split my trip in almost equal halves. Most importantly, in Bodh Gaya there is a good hotel too – Hyatt Place. Varanasi could have been another stop, but that was too near to Lucknow. Dhanbad could have been another one, but that is too far from Lucknow. Bodh Gaya was actually perfectly stationed for a pit stop, so if I have to do this trip again, I would still continue using Bodh Gaya as my stop for the night halt and Since Hyatt is the best hotel there, I would continue to use the same hotel for my stay. 

Having said that, I don’t think I will be using the same route to reach Bodh Gaya. On this trip I took the Purvanchal expressway and then crossed the Ganga river through Buxar. The road after Purvanchal expressway ends, is in a really bad shape. Not because of the road condition, but more so because of the truck traffic. Lokking back to my decision, I guess the better route is to complete the Purvanchal expressway and then go straight down, cross Ganga river at Gazipur, then drive further down to connect the GT road at Durganti. This will avoid all possible mishaps that kept happening on the Buxar road. 

On this trip however, I crossed Ganga at Buxar, went straight to Arrah, reached the outskirts of Patna, and then drove down till Gaya. The road condition was better after Arrah. But before that the traffic was terrible. 

Trip Summary from Lucknow to Bodh Gaya

We started from Lucknow at 6 AM 

Reached Bodh Gaya at 4-15 PM 

Total Driving Time: 10 hours 15 minutes 

Total Driving Distance: 612 km 

Average fuel consumption: 15.1 km/l 

Car: Audi A4 Petrol 

Total Toll: Rs. 955 

DAY 2: Drive from Bodh Gaya to Kolkata 

Started from Bodh Gaya after our morning breakfast at Hyatt Place at around 8 AM 

The traffic on GT road is definitely not what it was 20 years ago. The truck movement makes driving mad in the Bihar region. Once you enter Bengal things improve slightly, but then again before you enter Kolkata, that stretch near Santraganchi is terrible. 

Trip Summary from Bodh Gaya to Kolkata

We started from Bodh Gaya at 8 AM 

Reached Kolkata at 4-30 PM 

Total Driving Time: 8 hours 30 minutes 

Total Driving Distance: 485 km 

Average fuel consumption: 14.1 km/l 

Car: Audi A4 Petrol 

Total Toll: Rs. 630 

If I summarize the entire trip from Lucknow to Kolkata, I can safely say that it is virtually not possible any more to do this trip in a single day, as I did 20 years ago. I feel bad that even though road condition have improved but those 2+2 or sometimes even 3+3 lanes are not sufficient for this country and the population that we have, it is hard to sustain them on these highways. I think after another 10 years, highway driving will only be restricted to trucks. People like me won’t have any space left to enjoy this passion of long distance driving and that is really sad. Brings me to the next question, will I be staying in this country after 10 years or can I do something to get settled somewhere far less chaotic? Maybe I can pursue my hobby of long drives and birding with photography, in a much easier manner than what I face everyday here, and getting worse with every passing day. 

Final Trip Summary from Lucknow to Kolkata

Bird watching in Urban Kolkata 

Once you step foot in the eastern region of the country, things are not what they seem elsewhere. The entire Gangetic delta plain in so fertile, you can see green everywhere, with small ponds and water bodies all across. This makes the place so rich in avian population, that you can spend a couple of hours on the terrace and you will end up getting beautiful shots of birds without much effort. The number of species are more, the number of individuals in all those species is also more, their activity is so high that you can possibly get all the prefect angles in the perfect lighting. And most of all, if you are lucky to have an access to a terrace that is at a third or fourth floor, then you are in for a treat. 

3rd and 4th floor terrace gives you just the perfect height to reach the  top level for most of the trees. You are just at the right level with the tree canopies, giving you mostly eye-level shots of birds, which you won't get if you are standing at ground level or any level higher than 3rd or 4th. 

Incidentally, this time I realized that my relatives' house both in Santoshpur and Barrackpore were 3 floor houses. Gives me an ideal spot from the terrace to click the birds every morning. So, for 20 days this turned out to be my routine every morning. Get up in the morning, have your breakfast and spend 2 hours on the terrace. And would you believe the quality of the photographs that I managed to click? Yes, I agree some of these shots were one-timer lucky, but most of the birds gave me multiple chances to click on multiple occasions. I could literally pick and choose which photos I wanted to keep and which one to discard. 

This bird is indeed so beautiful with such a melodious song, and it gave me so many opportunities to click it up-close. I was glad to be staying in a house with such close proximity to a tree where this bird used to spend so much of time everyday. Even after so many years of birding, I haven't yet got a chance to get a great picture of the Indian Golden Oriole, but atleast I got a shot of Black-hooded this time. The picture came out so good that I don't have to worry about beating this pic ever again. 

Black-hooded Oriole

This was a lucky sighting, it just came and perched very near to me, hardly 10 metre maybe. And I was lucky to get this shot in a matter of a couple of seconds that it gave me. 

Purple Sunbird male

So, was the female too. They both came at the same time and I was lucky to get the shot of both the birds on the same tree. 

Purple Sunbird female

Indian Pond Heron

Maybe the most common bird out there, found in all possible elevations in India, but it is indeed beautiful if you give it time and click it properly in good light. Not to mention, the red vent has to be visible to add to its beauty. One of my 3 year old niece, saw this click and mentioned that it looks like it is wearing a red underwear. It was so hilarious, to know the perspective of a 3 year old. It was so true for all these bulbuls, some of them have a red underwear and some of them have a yellow one too. And they all look pretty. 

Red-vented Bulbul

This guy always sits at the top of tree and will keep calling from there. Incidentally I was also at an eye level this time, managed to get a good shot before it got aware about my presence there. 

Coppersmith Barbet

Another very common urban bird, but look at those eyes, it feels like it is wearing some designer contact lens. 

Common Myna

Some of the most vocal birds out there, were the Rufous Treepie and the White-throated Kingfisher. 

Rufous Treepie

White-throated Kingfisher

This is such a lovely bird to click, I enjoy it every time I see it. The black and white body with that unique orangish beak makes it so attractive. 

Asian Pied Starling

Asian Pied Starling

Taiga flycatcher female

Black Kite

Lesser Goldenback female

This guy was particularly very shy. I spent countless hours trying to get it in the open, but he was too aware of my presence. Finally managed to get a shot which was decent enough. 

Asian Koel male

Black Kite

Shikra male

Spotted Dove

Never imagined that I could spot the Alexandrine in the urban landscape, but here it is. 

Alexandrine Parakeet female

House Sparrow female

House Sparrow male

Black Drongo

House Crow

Birds of Urban Barrackpore: 

Finally here are the pics that I managed to get in a single morning session of 2 hours on a terrace of Barrackpore. Didn't see the whiskered one in Santoshpur, but here in Barrackpore, whiskered was more in population than the red-vented one. 

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Jungle Babbler

For the first time, I managed to click the female and the male on the same tree in the same frame. 

Asian Koel female and male

Common Tailorbird

Yellow-footed Green Pigeon

Finally the parting shot from that balcony was this guy. It came for a second and just gave me only a fraction of a second to click. But got a good shot nevertheless. 

Purple Sunbird male

TRIP 1: February-2008  

Total: 1000 KM 

When I finally got a job in Kolkata, it was time to bring my car from Lucknow. I missed my car for all these months and probably in the toughest phase of my life. And hence, I was about to get back the possession of my beauty. So I decided to go to lucknow and decided to drive my car from lucknow to Kolkata at one stretch, without any halt. Well… that was daring, people would think twice to do that but as per my calculations, if I left early morning from lucknow I should reach Kolkata by late evening, provided there is no major disturbance in between. 
Anyway, we started off very early, around 5-30 AM. I had the confidence that dad was with me so we were 2 drivers to share the stretch. Mom was however relaxing at the back seat. Till Varanasi, roads are only 2 lane, without a divider, so obviously you can't speed too much, however condition of road was good, without any significant potholes. 

From Varanasi to Kolkata, it was the stretch of golden quadrilateral, and as my earlier experience says, the roads will be too good to slow down. Last time we traveled on this road when I was coming from cuttack to lucknow, via ranchi, this time however we will not leave NH2 and will continue till Kolkata without any break.

Except a stretch in bihar, near Son River, the GQ work is still not complete so you will have to take the old grand trunk road built by sher shah suri. And believe me it seems nobody repaired the road after him. Well, we crossed that part and soon entered border of Bengal and again the roads were good enough. The best thing about this NH2 is that most of the road is built in concrete instead of bitumen. Most other stretches in india wherever I went are built with bitumen, only NH2 is built with concrete with some small stretches of bitumen in between somewhere.

Now the question arises, which is better to drive, Bitumen vs Concrete. When you drive on bitumen, the sound of the tyres in high-speed is comparatively much lesser than it is on concrete. But when you drive on concrete the wear and tear of the tyre will be much less than that of bitumen. It sounds a bit strange, but that's the fact. Bitumen is not as smooth as concrete, still tyre sound is much lesser in bitumen. Concrete is built in sections, however bitumen sections are hardly visible or noticeable. Concrete sections are clearly visible.

Anyway, my personal experience says, driving on bitumen is more fun than driving on concrete.

We reached Kolkata at 9 PM and the first comment or compliment I received was from my grand-father. He said lucknow to Kolkata in 15 hours, well that’s great driving and kudos to the driver. Dad did help me out in between during the journey but I was very happy that we completed the journey as we planned it to be.

Awesome car – The Ford Fiesta.