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2023 started with a long weekend, especially for people in India. Thanks to Republic Day falling on the 26th of January which was a Thursday, a lot of people (including me) took Friday as an off day and got 4 days of the extended weekend. And you might have already guessed, that I went on a road trip. This time around I went on a Road trip from Hyderabad to Bijapur (now Vijayapura). A town in Karnataka that I had been to as a part of an educational trip from my boarding school in 2007.
In this blog post, I’ll share details about the route and everything related to it. This will help you plan your Hyderabad to Bijapur road trip.
Hyderabad to Bijapur Road Trip
The town of Bijapur is known for the various cultural heritage sites like Gol Gumbaz, and Ibrahim Rouza to name a few. It is a bordering town to the state of Maharashha& I was surprised to see a strong Marathi influence.
The reason I decided to go on a Hyderabad to Bijapur road trip was that I wanted a decently long road trip. And Bijapur being close to 400 km looked like a good destination to drive to.
I left Hyderabad at about 5 AM in the morning and reached Bijapur at 1 PM in the noon. So it took about 8 hours for the 400-odd km journey with multiple short stops on the way.
Route
As mentioned earlier, Bijapur is very close to the Maharashtra border so there are multiple routes.
The one that I took (Google Maps suggested) was from Hyderabad -> Patancheru -> Sangareddy -> Zaheerabad -> Humnabad -> Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) -> Ganagapura -> Jeratagi -> Sindagi -> Shivanagi – > Vijayapura.
The above route was a mix of highway and state highway. The road from Hyderabad to Humnabad is the same that you’d day to go from Hyderabad to Pune. From Humnabad it’s a two-lane state highway.
In my case, Google took me through internal roads from Gulbarga to Sindagi. It was a single-lane road and that probably took most of my time. The single-lane road passes from many villages, the famous Gangapura temple, and also crosses river Bhima. Apart from that, there’s a lot of cattle and tractor traffic which slows you down a bit.
Instead, there are two other routes that I suggest you can take:
- Drive from Hyderabad to Solapur and take NH 52, a 4-lane highway throughout. Obviously, it’s much longer than the shortest one suggested by Google, but the road condition is pretty good.
- Another option is to cross Gulbarga and continue on NH 50 until Jevargi and then continue till Bijapur.
Both the above routes are what you should choose when you plan your Hyderabad to Bijapur route.
Road Conditions
The road condition is fairly good from Hyderabad to Gulbarga. First, there’s this 4 lane highway until Humnabad which then becomes a two-lane state highway until Gulbarga. The roads are pretty good. The entire stretch is a toll road so the road condition is pretty good. Also, the landscape for a short time after Humnabad is pretty good. I’m sure it would be amazing during the rain.
The route does have small towns in the middle so be ready to face some traffic. Even when you enter Gulbarga, the ring road has quite some traffic. In my case, Google suggested I take the route from Gulbarga to Chowdapur which is not in good shape. A lot of potholes, and rough patches. Also, you’ll see a lot of city traffic which slows down things further.
From then on, I drove via Ganagapur. There’s a temple here that’s pretty famous and visited by a lot of people. Upon some online research and talking to folks near the temple, I learned that the temple is of Lord Dattatreya who is said to have attained realization on the banks of river Bhima.
Crossing the temple, I came across the river Bhima, stopped there to take a few photos of the bridge, and drove further. At this point, I was looking for petrol pumps and the nearest one was at least 50 km away. It wasn’t a scare but I realized that this route doesn’t have many petrol pumps. The complete double-lane road isn’t very good and is marred with vehicular traffic including tractors, trailers, and the like.
After dreading this, I finally got this sight of NH-50 on my maps as well as in front and I wouldn’t be much happier. Once I got on the highway, it was a fairly straight road to Bijapur. Lots of fuel pumps on the route. You’ll also spot a lot of windmills, many of them right off the road as well.
It took about a couple of hours before I reached the intersection of NH-50 and NH-52 (the one that comes from Solapur). From the intersection, I drove straight and got the first sight of the mighty Gol Gumbaz. My excitement had no bounds as I entered the town with the historic structure in sight. The roads are dug in large parts of the city and hence a lot of jams and traffic snarls.
Pro Tip: Petrol in Karnataka is about 7-8 Rs cheaper than in Telangana, so you can plan your refuel stops.
Overall A Mixed Hyderabad To Bijapur Road Trip
My aim for the road trip was to drive some distance and enjoy the same. It’s about 400 km from Hyderabad and quite a reasonable distance to cover in a single day. The roads are fairly good for most parts of the route except the village stretch I got in the middle. Apart from that, the journey was good. In terms of food also, there aren’t many decent places where you can stop. I had munchies with me that I munched as I drove.
Since I reached Bijapur by lunchtime, I didn’t find the need to have lunch on the way. Overall, it was a mixed Hyderabad to Bijapur road trip. I didn’t return using the same route, so will talk about it in the upcoming blog posts. Until then, share your thoughts on this post in the comments below, tweet to me at @Atulmaharaj, DM on Instagram, or Get In Touch to know more.
