A Millions Miles Away

05 Oct 2013

Here are some highway landscapes shot during our drive back from Bangalore to Kaup. The roads are well paved from Nelamangala to Ballupet and the beautiful curvy, snaky roads tempted me to grab some pictures. These pictures were taken while driving and don't expect depth of field. Due to movement, to have steady shot, 1/200s or higher was required and hence DOF restricted to f/8.0. Unfortunately, the new highway numbering has been done only in re-constructed stretches. The 2 lane stretch from Hassan to Bantwal still carries the old name NH-48. There is plan to four lane this stretch even! There is proposal to linearize Shiraadi ghat road on similar lines as Mumbai-Pune highway by carving out tunnels along western ghats. Although, the stretch from Hassan to Bantwal seems to be tough ask for four laning, some construction companies have come forward to take up the work. The work may not commence in near future though ;-).

KUNIGAL BYPASS

YEDIYUR

My main attraction was to capture some footages from brand new Channarayapattana bypass. Surprisingly, the bypass road is only 2-laned. My initial guess was that land acquisition would have hit roadblock for constructing 4-laned bypass. However, the guard rails are already erected and restricted to two lane boundary. Also there was no sign of furthermore work progressing along the bypass road. Eventually its 2 laned highway and not 4 laned which may not be scalable for future. Since the interior road which passes through Channarayapattana town is 4 laned, NHAI would have restricted bypass road to 2 lane, just to facilitate truck traffic (or cost?). Nevertheless, the highway is evenly laid and can have smooth journey all along. Barring few stretches, the section is upgraded as per NHAI standards. The work is on in remaining sections (even at night) to finish the patch works so that tolls could be collected sooner!

THE NEW STRETCH STARTS!

HIRISAAVE TOLL GATE! AS OF NOW FREE ;-)

SNAKY NATIONAL HIGHWAY-75

A MILLION MILES BEHIND

BRAND NEW CR PATNA BYPASS BUT ONLY 2 LANE

WELL PAVED NH-75

VIEW TO THE FUTURE!

ALMOST HASSAN!

A BILLION MILES BEHIND :-)

The stretch from Nelamangala junction to Hassan is very good for driving ;-) except for toll booths! Everything comes at price ;-). Get ready to cough up 90 bucks if you wish to drive along the highway ;-). Also brand new toll gates are erected near Hirisaave & Hassan junctions and survey is on to fix up toll rates ;-). So the total bucks may ascend all the way upto 180 :D. Despite the toll rates, it is really worth driving along the stretch. Since my father was driving, I could grab many pictures and videos :D. Almost 10GB of data ;-). Will share small video if possible with good music :-). As of now, enjoy the short video of driving along brand new Channarayapattana bypass!

Back to caption :D. When looking at the horizon along the highway, it is difficult to judge distance beyond it. So as per calculus, road at the horizon is tending to infinity ;-). Instead of infinity, I say it as 'Million miles away' ;-). Speaking of million miles away, I remember the beautiful travel music by German musician Ulrich Schnauss "A Million Miles Away". My all time favorite travel music from past many years ;-). The music was featured in GT4 for PS2 gaming consoles and hence I am sharing same link. Hear, enjoy the ambiance and chill of music and experience brilliance of Ulrich Schnauss

Ulrich Schnauss 'A Million Miles Away' : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojUt-bnStB8