Continued: Fifteen dangerous roads in India

Munnar road

The Munnar road is a part of the NH 49 & is a 130 km stretch joining Munnar & Kochi. The road is a sharp winding one with steep ascents & is also narrow. The road has very beautiful views but that’s something the driver will not be able to experience due to the nature of the road. It is bordered by the mountain on one side & many hundred meter drop on the other side. The road is also only one car wide at certain places & a lot of care must be taken due to the heavy truck & bus traffic.

Khardung La Pass

The Khardung La Pass is one of the highest motorable passes of the world. At 5359 m above sea level, the pass is located in the Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir. The road was opened to motor vehicles in 1988. The road is not paved & can have a frozen mixture of ice & dirt due to the low temperatures. This makes the road very slippery, not something you would like to experience when you have a narrow road with deep valleys on your side. Due to the high altitude, suffering from AMS is very common. Since the road is a single laned one, expect a lot of traffic & delays. The road in some parts is well maintained, however some parts have you passing through a river. The gradient is a steep 5% & since the road is not well paved, expect a lot of rocks & snow lumps on the way which could make the journey more scary. Another issue is the heavy misty conditions that could result in dangerously low visibility, not something you would want when one wrong move could make you go tumbling down the hill.

Zig Zag road Sikkim

This road is located in the state of Sikkim, in the North Eastern part of the country. Though the road is a very scenic one, it is also one of the most dizzying roads in  the world. Why? Well in a short distance of 30 kms, you have to deal with 100 hairpin bends. The special thing about this road is that there are many vantage points that allow you to gawk at excellent views that the mountains have to offer. Because of the sharp hairpins, the road is a scary one as it could lead to dizziness & the sheer drops don’t help either.

Keylong-Kishtwar road

This road spreads over 234 kms & is located in the Kishtwar district of Jammu. Like all mountain roads, this one too is very windy & narrow & lacks the guard rails on the side to protect you. The road is a part of the NH 26 & the scariest part of this road is the disorientation felt when one looks over the edge of the road, or sees a valley thousands of feet below. The road surface has gravel, stones & sand & has been carved out of the side of the mountain. The road has dreadful conditions & needs strong nerves to negotiate it.

Rajmachi Road

The road is located in the Sahyadri mountains in Maharashtra. It is a steep gravel track that climbs up the Shrivardhan & Manaranjan Fort. The surface has gravel through out & sharp hairpins. If you are visiting during the rainy season, you may encounter streams excessive amounts of slush and river crossings on the road.

Image source: 7 ,8,10

Continued below: Fifteen dangerous roads in India