Summing up Nano Superdrive

This one image effectively summarizes the Tata Nano and Nano Superdrive

From TataNanoSuperdrive

At each city, we have been holding Nano Carnival, a get together function for Nano owners in the city. We collect feedbacks from them and I spent some time going through the comments and feedbacks. Almost all of them open heartedly praised Nano.

As we're getting ready for the closing ceremony, just recalling all wonderful moments we had during past 26 days...

Chota Nano ka Mota manual

While nano may be a small car, its workshop service manual is small by no means. Running into few hundred pages with detailed sketches and instruction, workshop manual is fairly thick and reminded me of my college reference books...

From TataNanoSuperdrive

Thankfully owner's manual is much simpler version

From TataNanoSuperdrive

5000 kms completed

Green Route has completed 5000 kms on the odo yesterday. I was too busy driving that I couldn't take a snap when it was at exact 5000 kms. We've just about 200kms more to go before we reach Mumbai. Feels great to recall what a remarkable month we had covering entire south India

From TataNanoSuperdrive

Day 11-Day 20 Activity Summary

For the benefit of those who are unable to follow the green route blog on a daily basis, here's a brief summary of our Day 11 to Day 20 activities (for Day 1 to Day 10 summary check this post)

Day 11: Mangaluru to Calicut
We were flagged off from Automatrix, Mangalore by about 10am and were supposed to reach Kochi by night. However, narrow NH17, heavy rains and traffic ensured that we could reach only half way, till Calicut, on Day 11. We halted at Calicut and left for Kochi early morning on day 12

View Day 11 photos and text * Mangalore's stock broker Ramesh's feedback on nano can be viewed here (He drove with us from Mangalore till Kasargod)

Day 12: Calicut to Kochi and Kochi landmark activities
We left early from Calicut (or Kozhikode or Kallikote) and reached Cochin by 11 AM. We visited Chinese Fishing net and two churches in Kochi

Kochi landmark pics * Kochi Media Coverage *

Day 13: Kochi to Coimbatore
The drive was scenic. Road was reasonably good. Rain was occasional and distance was about 200kms. We reached Coimbatore before evening.

Blog posts: Day 13 in pics *

Day 14/June 15th: Coimbatore Landmark activities

Posts: Coimbatore landmark pics * Test drive feedback * Radio winner's feedback * Preeti's feedback * Media Coverage * Puja Time *

Day 15: Coimbatore to Chennai: 500+kms
We started fairly early as we'd to cover 500+ kms and reach Chennai. We drove through the scenic Mettur Dam. Drive through western Ghats was fun and later we hit 6 lane superhighway and from there all nanos cruised at their top speeds...

Day 16: Chennai landmark activities
Big FM Radio winners * Customer meet pics * Nanos at Trident Hotel * Chennai landmark pics * RJ Akhila of Nano *


Day 17: Chennai to Bangalore
About 390 kms distance was covered well ahead of time, thanks to great roads (heavily tolled roads though). Traffic at Electronic city to Madiwala, Bangalore's dreaded traffic jam zones was minimal, may be due to the new elevated flyover.

Blog posts:Flagoff pics

Day 18: Bangalore landmark activities
TV9 Coverage * Blr landmark pics * Nanos in front of Vidhana Soudha *

Day 19: Bangalore to Kolhapur
This was the longest route in our entire trip, but covered in about 12 hours or 9.5 hours excluding break. We drove across the state of Karnataka and re-entered Maharastra at Kolhapur, through which we'd already passed during our Pune-Goa journey, thus completing full circle.
Blr-Kolhapur in pics *

Day 20: Kolhapur landmark activities

We covered two circles and a heritage building in Kolhapur...
Posts: RJ Manish on Nano * RJ Anaya on Nano * Shalini Palace Kolhapur * Nano's at Taramani Chowk *

That's how our day 11 to day 20 went... Standby for more

What my schedule is like, on a Travel day

Those who are not aware of my road trip, often ask me how was my weekend... For past 21 days, there's been no weekday or weekend for me. All my days are classified into either of the two categoris... Travel day and City Events day.

If it is a travel day, it means most of the day will be spent in the car, driving from one city to another. We'll have a flag off from the city dealer in the morning and then the journey starts. Depending on the distance the start time varies. If it is shorter distance (<300kms) then we start by 10am kind or if its long, say 400-500kms, then we start early- 5-6am.

At times we'll have test drive winners and media people accompanying us. Tata Motors officials who join us for the route would also enjoy driving.

With a few stops for fuel, lunch or visiting any Tata Dealers enroute, we would reach the destination city by evening. We keep track of expenses, kms done, fuel economy and so on. There was only one exceptional case where we couldn't reach the destination by evening and had to make an unscheduled halt at Calicut.

Once we reach the destination city, cars will be handed over to respective Tata Motors dealer there, our event Manager Shiva would brief the officials there on the journey so far, plan for next two days and what's expected from their end. Dealers would provide two Nano cars, one each to be displayed at the Mall and the customer meet venue hotel. Other than that they'd provide assistance in terms of routes etc.

Then I'll be dropped off at my hotel... I open the laptop and check how good is the internet connection. My work starts then, uploading photos, blog posts, checking mails, sending high res photos by email to a few people and so on... Usually internet speeds will be just manageable to poor in most of the cities, particularly inside the room. Of late I have started getting out of the room and sitting in the open, hoping for better connectivity.

I scan the menu, order something for dinner and call it a day.

2 More cities for Green Route: Solhapur and Nasik

Sadly we've only 2 more cities to cover under green route...

We'll be heading towards Solhapur today and you can catch the Nanos at Dutta mandir chowk, City park and Saat rasta chowk tomorrow.

Our last city will be Nasik, which we'll cover on 25th of June.

Residents of Nasik can catch us at Panchavati, Dadasaheb phalke memorial and Muktihdam temple.

All 3 routes will divert to Mumbai on 28th where Mr Ratan Tata is expected to flag in the convoys

What's up at the other 2 routes?

We (the 3 bloggers of Green, white and Saffron Route) keep interacting once a while.

As you're following Green Route blog, do check the latest on other two superdrive routes- white and Saffron

White Route cavalry has completed Kolkatta and is currently in Bhuvaneshwar, Orissa.

http://superdrive-whiteroute.blogspot.com/

and Saffron route has finished Agra and has commenced the return journey southwards

http://superdrive-saffronroute.blogspot.com/

Superdrive to be flagged in at Mumbai

The Great Nano Superdrive was supposed to be flagged off from Sanand by Mr Ratan Tata, but unfortunately that couldn't happen due to cyclone Phet.

We're told about a slight change of plans in Superdrive. After Nasik, we will be heading to Mumbai instead of Ahmedabad and Mr Ratan Tata will be flagging in the convoys from all 3 routes that have covered 36 cities and 15000kms in 26 days...

We're just about 10 days from completing the mission and looking forward to flag in by Mr Tata

Follow me on Twitter

Do follow me on twitter for live updates. I've been publishing updates real time updates and occasional pics through twitter. You can also keep an eye on the twitter feed provided in the sidebar of the blog.

Regards
Shrinidhi Hande
Official Blogger for Tata Nano Superdrive, Green Route
http://www.enidhi.net 

How Can I test Drive a Nano?

Many of you have been asking if you can test drive the Nano when Nano Superdrive visits your town.

Right now, the only way you can get a chance to test drive Nano is through winning the contest in FM Radio. Big FM is our partner in most of the cities and if you win the particular contest conducted on Radio, you’ll get to drive the Nano (provided you’ve valid license)

The other way to test drive Nano was to win through online application. A few people are selected in each city to test drive Nano for about 40-50 kms. However, the winners are already selected and no fresh contests are going on. A few such winners whom I met had booked Nano without test driving and wanted to know how good it is (so that they can decide if they should go ahead and take delivery or cancel it) After the drive,all of them said they are now even more enthusiastic about Nano and would eagerly await the delivery.

You can always explore the Nano by checking it out when it is on display at respective malls in your city.

Else you may have to wait for a few more months, after which nanos are expected to be readily available in showrooms so that you can test drive it and buy one.

Similarly, many of you have been inviting me to come to your home in a Nano when we visit your city. Unfortunately this is not possible as we leave the vehicles in the custody of respective dealers in each city and they won’t be available at our disposal to drive around. Thanks for your hospitality.

Where is my photo?

If I’ve taken your photo or video during the superdrive and you’re searching for the same, this post will help you how to find it.

In order to reduce site loading time, only 5 recent most posts are displayed on the home page. This means that you’ll have to navigate a little to find earlier posts. If you’re searching for your photo, please try any of these options:

Option 1: Directly check the Picasa album.

Option 2: Use the search option on top right corner of the blog to search for your city or name

Option 3: Click directly on the June 2010 Archive here. This will show a larger number of posts

Option 4: For each post, I’ve been including day and city in tags. Search with the city tag where you were clicked and you might find your pic easily. How fast and how many photos I upload depends directly on internet connectivity speed, my tiredness and time available for online activities.

If you still don’t find it, chances are that I might not have uploaded it. I’ve been clicking too many snaps and uploading all good ones. In case you don’t find your photo in the album please drop a comment, I’ll do the needful. (include your name, city n other details so that I can identify the pic)

Can you email me the pics?

Some people ask me to email all photos in high res by email… That is impossible, because the request is impractical due to time, effort and bandwidth required. If you need one or two pics (say one in which you’re present) I can consider, but such requests will be processed as and when time permits, because of time constraints and slow internet connections. Please bear with me for the inconvenience.

Thanks for your support and encouragement.

Regards

Shrinidhi Hande

Official Blogger for Tata Nano Superdrive, Green

Bloggers meet...

Just met the other two official bloggers of Tata Nano Superdrive. Sankara CS from Bangalore and Deb from New Delhi.

I was the first to reach Ahmedabad and Sankara was next. Deb's flight was delayed by a few hours and he joined us by the afternoon.

There's been some change of plans. We're not going to Sanand where the launch is currently happening. Instead, we'll be starting our journeys directly from Ahmedabad. I'll be the first to start this evening and reach Surat by late evening, while Sankara and Deb will be starting tomorrow early morning...

I had a brief discussion with showbiz entertainment, who are the event managers for the road trip. As I understand they've detailed activities lined up in each of the cities that Nano is scheduled to visit.

Looking forward to visit the local Tata dealer this evening, from where our mission would be flagged off... Stay tuned...

Tata Nano Superdrive: Just 1 day to go

Just one more day to go for the flag off. Tomorrow 3.30PM we'll be starting our 26 days mega journey from Sanand, Gujarath. Gujarath Chief Minister Mr Narendra Modi and Tata Motors Chief, Mr. Ratan Tata will flag off the event tomorrow.

2nd June also signifies the fact that Tata's dedicated production facility for Nano at Sanand is now operational and has started rolling out Tata Nanos. What this means to you and me is that the wait for our dream car, the Nano will now be much shorter. The long wait for Nano is going to be history, as more and more cars will be delivered to the showrooms near you.

Well, coming back to the superdrive road trip, covering 10 states, 36 cities and over 15000 kms within a short span of 26 days is going to be exciting. At each of these cities various events are planned, including photo shoots, meeting with Nano customers and so on. So be sure to visit us when we arrive at your city.

As the trip progresses, we'll be bringing you all the updates, almost on a live basis. Do stay tuned to Tata Nano's facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TataNanoPage for regular updates and dedicated route blogs ( Green Route Blog * White Route Blog * Saffron Route Blog) for detailed updates