There are sections on this route which absolutely needs a 4X4 (or a strong AWD setup like Duster). The weather is unpredictable, rain or snow can badly affect traction.
BHPian sadnabrina recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Sandakphu / Sandakpur, I hear the name and 2 images flash in front of my eyes.
The Sleeping Buddha (aka Mount Kanchenjunga / Khangchendzonga and so many other names)
and boxy vehicles climbing narrow rocky terrain at weird angles
Team-BHP veterans like BlackPearl, Samba and others have, in the past, written so many TLs about their driving experience to Sandakphu, then why another TL about another drive to Sandakphu?
Because, last week TBHP-ian MileBreaker reminded me that he has not seen a single TL on Jimny to Sankadphu.
Most of the previous ones were via the India route from Manebhanjan and there are none on the Jimny, while we took the Nepal route and we had 4 other Jimnys for company. So here you go, another TL to Sandakpur, this time via Nepal on a Jimny.
Back in November 2024 the images of the Sleeping Buddha started surfacing in various social media platforms. November is the time when the sky clears up and the ever eluding Kanchenjunga starts showing up almost daily from all well known and not so well known viewpoints across West Bengal, Sikkim and Nepal. One Saturday morning I received a call from Samba, "Babul-da is planning a Sandakhphu drive on his Jimny in January, interested to join? Then let me add you to the WA group. But just so you are aware, I have a travel plan and hotels are already booked at the same date so I won't be able to join."
Once into the group, we discussed and agreed on detailed schedule and finalized the team. There will be 6 Jimnys and a total of 14 members. I will have my wife Paromita accompany me on our Sizzling Red Jimny Alpha MT, while our son will miss all the action this time as his Masters final year session is in progress.
Unfortunately, Babul-da had to drop due to a family emergency and the final count came down to 5 cars and 11 members.
The other cars / members -
Debashis (+ Manish and Sankar) - Bluish Black Alpha MT
Sandip (+ Chandan) - Bluish Black Alpha MT
Sunjay (+ Sudeep) - Kinetic Yellow Alpha MT and
Saptarshi (+ Rajat) - Kinetic Yellow Alpha MT
Itinerary
Each of us had our own work/holiday schedule and finding a common starting time was proving to be difficult. So we decided to break the trip down to 3 separate legs -
Kolkata - Mirik
This would be done as per our individual convenience and schedule.
The target was to be available at the Pashupati Gate of Nepal on 23rd Jan by 8 AM ready for the Customs formalities to enter Nepal
Pashupati - Sandakphu and back to Siliguri/Bagdogra - 23rd -25th Jan
This leg would consist of a convoy drive to Sandakphu, followed by 2 night stay and convoy drive back to the plains.
Bagdogra - Kolkata 26th Jan
The return to base leg will again be as per our convenience.
Note: Age is catching up and I no longer feel comfortable if there is too much distraction during a drive. So I barely clicked any photo during the drive. But my dash cam was always on, also I had a nearly decade old action camera fixed on the inside of the windshield.
So I would try to share screen grab images and short video clips to help future travelers understand the road and identify the various turns and check points better. I hope you will find this informative and helpful for your future Sandakphu drive.
Statutory warning: There are sections on this route which absolutely needs a 4X4 (or a strong AWD setup like Duster). The weather is unpredictable, rain or snow can badly affect traction. So, do not try this route on a FWD or even a RWD vehicle. Someone may have done it on a FWD or a RWD vehicle, but they would never say how many times they were towed out of a situation or the condition of their clutch plate after the drive.
A proper 4X4 SUV will do this route comfortably without any harm to the vehicle or any significant risk to the passengers.
Day 1 - Kolkata to Mirik
Over the last few years, the ever so important North Bengal-South Bengal connection via NH 12 (old NH34) and NH 27 (old NH 31) - has been improving at a slow but steady pace. No longer one needs to take the Bengal to Bengal route to bypass Dalkhola traffic jams, nor does one need to take SH7 Kuli-Moregram or for that matter the STKK route. One can either follow the NH 12 right from Barasat or take Kalyani Expressway from Birati and then connect to NH12 from Barajaguli.
What used to be a 14 to 16 hours drive back in 2012/13, has come down to around 10 hours now. There are a few sections still under construction and we are hopeful that this 530+kms would come down to sub 9 hours or even 8 hours for fast drivers, by next year.
For this trip I wanted to an additional day in the hills to spend some leisurely time around the Mirik Lake and Simana area. So we started in the morning of 21st Jan, while most of the team except Saptarshi, planned to start in 21st night. Saptarshi was also planning to stay a day at a higher altitude to acclimatize and decided to start on 21st morning a few hours after me, more about that later.
The drive to Mirik was uneventful, but still for the record let me share a brief summary and share important feedback on the road condition.
To avoid local traffic during the day, I prefer to start my drive very early in the morning. So as usual, we started from our Newtown home at 3:17 am on the 21st of Jan.
We crossed the NSCBI Airport and after checking the traffic condition on Google maps, decided to continue straight via NH 12 towards Ranaghat via Barasat, Amdanga. The 16-17 odd km stretch from Barasat Santoshpur crossing to Rajberia is still 2 laned and with several broken patched and poor surface. Fortunately for us, despite being in the middle of the winter, there was barely any fog and the visibility was excellent. It took us about 25 minutes to negotiate this section and reach the 4 laned section of NH12 just after Rajberia. From there on the surfacing is excellent.
Between Barajaguli and Berhampore there are still a few 2 laned sections and some congested crossings like - Bethuadahari, Debagram, Palashi (Plassey), Rejinagar, Beldanga and Bhabta Railway Crossing. However, the time of the day was to our advantage, and we could cross these sections without a hitch. In the last few months there has been complains about the poor surface condition of the Berhampore bypass and we were happy to see traffic diversion and resurfacing work ongoing on this section.
Our progress was really good, and we crossed the Berhampore bypass northern end by 6:15 and took our first bio-cum-refuelling break at BP Moregram at 6:48 am (~230 KMs from home). Paromita reminded me that a decade back, it used to take 5 to 6 hours to reach to Moregram - three and a half hours to Moregram is a personal best and that too on a Jimny this was excellent. That speaks volumes about the road condition and the advantages of starting early in the morning. Another thing I must highlight here - being so early, the infamous Barricades of Bengal were absent. This helped us maintain a high average speed. Once local people are up and about, our highly efficient traffic managers start putting up barricades at every possible or impossible crossing. That slows down progress considerably during day time drives.
We were carrying a flask full of Darjeeling tea, some cans of cold brew, buns, bagels, sugar coated donuts and some subs picked up from the local subway the night before. Basically, we were well sorted on the food and beverage department and the only breaks we would need are bio-cum-refuel breaks. So, we continued the drive after a cup of tea and a couple of buns.
In the recent past, the section between Moregram and Farakka had a lot of patchworks and uneven surfacing. Again, we were happy to see fresh layer of tarmac on this section. A long stretch near Ahiron / Feeder Canal bridge was under repair with traffic diversion into a single flank. We got stuck behind a superlong trailer which slowed us down a bit, but overall progress was still good.
The work on the new bridge at Farakka is progressing at full swing. From what we could see from the Farakka Barrage, all the pillars are in place for both the up and down flanks of the new bridge, there were only 2 or 3 piers remaining to be connected on the up section, while the down section was lagging behind a bit. My guess is at least one lane of the new bridge could get operational within mid 2025 and the full bridge by end of 2025.
We crossed Farakka Barrage at 8:05 and stopped for a quick tea break. 
Again, we did not face any congestion at Kaliachak and continued to maintain the pace. The road surface between Farakka and Dalkhola is in very good shape and with the Raigunj bypass operational from last year, the drive till Dalkhola was uneventful.
Once we merged into NH 27 at Dalkhola Purnea Crossing, all hell broke loose. The road surface simply vanished. In many places the top layer has been completely scraped off – hopefully that is a sign indicating forthcoming relaying project. In other sections there were craters that could swallow a small hatchback. From Kishanganj the surface improved a bit, but still not enough to maintain the previous pace.
We took a bio-cum-refuelling stop in an IOC Swagat pump on the opposite flank, right after Islampur bypass. It was around noon and we were hungry. So out came the subs and coffee for a quick lunch break at the pump. We resumed our drive at around 12:20.
The section between Islampur and Bagdogra is also not in the best shape, but it seemed NHAI has started repair work already.
At Bardogra, from the Bihar More we took left (Siliguri would have been to out right) and again right from the base of the Flyover, onto Bagdogra-Panighata road via Dudhiya. At Dudhiya we took a left turn towards Mirik on the Siliguri-Dudhiya-Mirik road.
We reached our hotel, The Mount Queens Hill Resort at 3:05 pm covering a total of around 600 kms in just short of 12 hours.
Welcome to Mirik - Sumendu Lake from the balcony of our hotel room.
On a foggy winter afternoon
After sunset
All through the day, Saptarshi (and Rajat) were a few hours behind us. They finally reached the hotel at around 5:40 PM. We had a brief meet and greet later at the dinner table and planned for the next few days.
Saptarshi and Rajat were to go to Chitrey next morning and stay the night of 22nd there.
We will go out a bit early and do some local sight seeing. Finally we will meet up at Simana or Manebhanjan and accompany them to Chitrey. They will stay back, while we will return to Mirik.
The rest of the team would reach the same hotel at Mirik on 22nd afternoon / evening.
On the morning on 23rd 4 Jimnys will start from Mirik towards Pashupati Phatak, while Saptarshi will start early from Chitrey, drive down to Pashupati Phatak to join the convoy.
Continue reading on BHPian sadnabrina's road trip for BHPian comments, insights and more information.