BHPian Irwin recently shared this with other enthusiasts: I left Kolhapur yesterday around 9.00 AM and proceeded towards Nipani/Amboli Exit, the roads from Kolhapur to Nipani are a mixed bag, so many diversions and pot hole riddled service roads. One has to be extremely careful when crossing over from NH48 towards Nipani-Amboli Road, the vehicles coming down from an extreme curved incline pose a major hazard/safety risk, though there a speed breaker, but there are some who will overlook/ignore as the markings are almost faded out. The road from that point near GOA VES/Hotel Kaveri till the T Junction of Nipani Gadhinglaj & Nipani Azra Link Road, a distance of about 10 kms is very bad, strewn with pot holes, but still motorable. During my last trip, I drove straight towards Ajra and onwards towards Amboli on the road straight ahead from that T junction The google maps directed me to take a left turn towards Gadhinglaj, I stopped and asked the restaurant guy on the left side, he suggested me to follow the google maps suggestion of taking the left turn, as the roads are in much better shape than the road ahead Ajra link road. He said “thoda lamba padta hai, lekin road Sawantwadi tak bahut accha hai” boy O boy, was he right!!!! From that point till we reached Sawantwadi-NH66, the roads are in pristine conditions, excellent would be an understatement, especially from the point in Gadhinglaj where we join NH548H Sankeshwar-Sawantwadi which has been built as per Bharatmala Project. It was such a joy to drive on that road, the road NH548H takes away all the stress of driving towards GOA. And the bonus is the vada pav/kandha bhajiya and hot tea at the Amboli Ghat/Waterfall area. Not sure about the NH548H stretch from Sankeshwar underpass till Gadhinglaj, since did not drive on it. But when you look at the road condition from Gadhinglaj till Sawantwadi, then we can assume even that stretch would match the same. On my return in a few months, I would try the entire stretch of NH548H till Sankeshwar, as the distance between the two is barely 10 KMs if we take the shortcut from Azra Link Road towards GOA VES, which is easily justifiable where time taken is faster on NH548A than the smaller & bad roads. The distance from Gadhinglaj to Sankeshwar underpass is barely 8 kms on the map, and we can safely assume that even that stretch is complete, since 90+ kms from Gadhinglaj till Sawantwadi which comes under Bharatmala Project is complete/almost complete. The Government of INDIA/MoRTH should give an award of excellence to the contractor(s) who have built this NH548H road, both the white/black tops are so smooth to drive, the noise does not come into the cabin as it does on the concrete roads of NH66, the road passing through the forested areas are black top and the rest are cemented roads till Amboli, the black top roads on Amboli ghats too are smooth. In fact one cant notice the difference between black and white top roads on this stretch. It becomes apparent as soon as you join the NH66 at Sawantwadi near Malgaon, it feels like you are driving on mini/micro rumblers when driving on white top NH66, when I used from ONI till GOA border in 2024. The stretch where PORVORIM in GOA begins and ends is undergoing major construction of flyover/overpass, the road and traffic equally bad, lost 1 hr to cover the 5 km stretch My return journey from GOA would be via Amboli Ghat via Sankeshwar on NH548H, even if it means 10 to 15 km extra on the trip Would request someone to take the NH548H stretch from Gadhinglaj till Sankeshwar underpass near NH48 and update for the benefit of the TeamBHP users. Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
